Professor Yunus could not understand how anybody could miss such a big story —here were women, ready to borrow and repay money. Between delays by floods, and other co-variant risks, in the end it did always come back. Defining such conventional views on banking in a dynamic manner, Grameen Bank went on to lend $3.5 billion, and recover most of it ($3.2 billion) without any collateral. The mantra: a group of women, who would decide who had the ability to borrow.

At any given point, Grameen Bank has 20 per cent of the loan outstanding as deposits in its banks. Borne out equally by self-help groups in India —here, the figure is as high as 50 per cent.

What do we make of this PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University who decided to quit his teaching job and start lending in Chittagong? Sent by my economics department in Bath, I meet him almost 10 years ago in London. I was struck by his determined vision. How, for instance, he set up 2,000 branches across Bangladesh, fighting the government and the unions, at a time when heavily subsidised state-run institutions were the order of the day.

So, while we can debate about two important realities of financial analysis — repayment records and how you read them, subsidies and how you account for them — the reality of creating peace perhaps lies in financial systems for the poor. Micro-credit, the Nobel Committee notes, is one such way. And Yunus one such innovator.