FINCA, a seasoned overseas microenterprise development organization, is adapting and bringing its "village banking" peer group lending model to the United States. FINCA will serve low income markets in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area and rural Minnesota (based in Fairbault, Minnesota). FINCA"s market is comprised of low-income people who are interested in self employment. FINCA will help low-income people become business owners by teaching them business skills and providing support through peer group interaction. The peer lending model provides encouragement, market discipline, and access to loans for working capital for businesses that could not otherwise obtain financing.- In 1994, FINCA began its United States operations.