Inspired by the enormous success of the Grameen Bank in providing financial assistance to the poorest of the poor, four individuals - a central banker, an appropriate-technology NGO organizer, a professor of international relations and a top-level communist official - each sought to replicate and adapt the model elsewhere in Asia. By giving an unvarnished account of the problems encountered in the crucial first years of establishing a credit programme, the book alerts potential microcredit practitioners to the pitfalls and obstacles likely to be encountered in setting up a programme. The book provides the opportunity to analyse the process of creating a successful credit programme and draws from the experience of these four projects some lessons in best practice.