Sarungan’s Cash Cow

Begun as a cooperative stall it grew into a savings and loans institution that rescued traders from moneylenders. Now its assets amount to billions of rupiah.

June 5, 2007

ALTHOUGH he had dressed in a pajama shirt and a dark-colored sarong, Saifullah wasn’t intending to go to the mosque. This resident of Karangsono, Pasuruan, East Java, made his way to the office of Baitul Maal wat Tamwil-Masalahah Mursalah lil Ummah (BMT-MMU), an Islamic savings and loans institution in the main street of Wonorejo, the place he usually “depends on.” On Monday last week he had to borrow Rp300,000. “In order to repay a debt,

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