In 1998, residents from the impoverished Palmeira neighborhood of Fortaleza, Brazil, decided to take their economic future into their own hands. The strategy they took would soon spread to other communities around Brazil: creating a community development bank, governed and managed by local residents, for local needs. Banco Palmas’ founding mission was to help revitalize the local economy, create badly needed jobs, and increase the collective self-reliance of the Palmeira district. The bank’s activities are guided by the principles of solidarity economics.

One of Banco Palmas’ key innovations has been to issue a neighborhood-scale alternative currency called the “Palma”. Like other local currencies, the Palma was designed to support local commerce by restricting its circulation to the Palmeira neighborhood, preventing money from leaking out of the community.

The result has been impressive. To date, hundreds of local businesses have signed up to accept Palmas, while the currency has helped strengthen or create thousands of local livelihoods. Moreover, the neighborhood’s spending patterns have seen a dramatic shift since the bank’s founding and the release of the currency. According to one estimate, “In 1997, 80% of [Palmeira] inhabitants’ purchases were made outside the community; by 2011, 93% were made in the district” (from People Money, The Promise of Regional Currencies).

Another key purpose of Banco Palmas has been to extend basic financial services and access to credit to people excluded from – or exploited by – the conventional banking system. The bank provides micro-credit loans for local production and consumption in either Palmas or the national currency (the Brazilian real). Importantly, loans issued in Palmas are interest free, while others are offered at very low interest rates, providing a much-needed alternative to the kind of predatory lenders that exploit people and businesses in other money-poor communities around the world.

What’s more, rather than awarding loans based on credit history, proof of income, or collateral – something many people in Palmeira lack – many are issued using a neighbor guarantee system. Banco Palmas has been so successful that it has inspired the creation of over 60 similar initiatives throughout Brazil, and spurred the development of the Brazilian Network of Community Banks.

To learn more, visit Banco Palmas’ website (in Portuguese), or Wikipedia entry or P2P Wiki.