A Systematic Review of Group Lending

Group lending is a type of loan and deposit process management employed by financial institutions when interacting with groups of customers. This mechanism was first introduced by the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh in 1976 under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus. Subsequently, banks worldwide have adopted and modified this approach. This study employed a meta-synthesis of secondary studies in the conventional literature to identify 764 documents from various databases. After a rigorous screening process, 40 articles related to group lending were selected. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, identifying five main categories: group versus individual lending, liability, group formation characteristics, financial factors, and global experiences of group lending. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for more indigenous research on group lending, particularly research grounded in local implementation data. JEL Classification: G21