Microlending bank Grameen America, which met with credit unions earlier this month, will visit North Carolina again today to move forward with plans to open a branch there.

Grameen America delivers micro loans to low-income entrepreneurs and is a subsidiary of Grameen Bank, a microlending organization founded in 1983 that has disbursed more than $6.5 billion to seven million borrowers worldwide.

Bank officials are scheduled to meet this evening with the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce and the Fayetteville State University Center for Entrepreneurship to discuss financial and organizational support.

On Feb. 6, Grameen Bank founder and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and other bank officials met with State Employees' CU, Self-Help Federal CU, the North Carolina Bankers Association, and both the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks and the North Carolina Administrator of Credit Unions to discuss setting up an affiliate there.

"With its great universities, the Research Triangle Park, the commercial banking leadership, and leadership from the State Employees Credit Union and Self Help, North Carolina can be a national and world leader in enabling lower income people to use small microfinance loans to become entrepreneurs and improve their lives," said Vidar Jorgensen, president of Grameen America.