Lending Model: Village Banking Village banks are community-based credit and savings associations. They typically consist of 25 to 50 low-income individuals who are seeking to improve their lives through self-employment activities. Initial loan capital for the village bank may come from an external source, but the members themselves run the bank: they choose their members, elect their own officers, establish their own by-laws, distribute loans to individuals, collect payments and savings. Their loans are backed, not by goods or property, but by moral collateral: the promise that the group stands behind each individual loan. The Village Banking model is closely related to the Community Banking and Group models. This model is widely adopted and implemented by FINCA. See their Village Banking Homepage