A BANK IN A BOAT IN THE JUNGLE

Cute item from from The Wall Street Journal:

Most bank managers fret about bad loans or a run on deposits. Luzia Moraes has to worry about a leak in the hull, bandits and rainstorms that keep clients away for weeks.

Ms. Moraes, a 43-year-old former housewife, is at the helm of a swashbuckling new venture in Brazil—as manager of the first floating bank branch on the Amazon river system. From a riverboat, she peddles banking services in a frontier where people don't have much money—let alone experience with ATMs, savings accounts or personal loans.

Besides supporting a bank branch and carrying passengers, the 125-foot, triple-decker Voyager III stocks 500 tons of beans, chicken, bleach and other goods that it sells over a 1,000-mile course and a dozen ports of call.

Every two weeks, along with some 200 other passengers, Ms. Moraes boards the diesel-powered riverboat for a nine-day voyage from the central Brazilian Amazon into muddy tributaries bordering Colombia and Peru.

A Banker Wades Into New Markets by Floating Loans From a Boat (Via Brazil Portal)

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