A Bangladeshi economist who won the Nobel Peace Prize for championing microcredit loans to the poor, wants urgent re-invention of global finance to end poverty.

The threat of entrepreneurs in poor countries taking on too much loan debt is a growing reality, and a real threat to the rapidly expanding microfinance sector, says fair finance body Oikocredit.

A church-backed microfinance institution has increased its field investments by one third, reaching out to poor people often excluded by the commercial banking sector in spite of the global economic downturn.

Oikocredit, the worldwide co-operative which challenges churches and others to share their resources through socially responsible investments, has become a 'body in association' with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.