Bank for Cooperation

About Bank for Cooperation

Credit unions and cooperative banks emerged in the 19th century as alternatives to commercial banks. Friedrich Raiffeisen founded the first credit union in Germany in 1864 to serve rural farmers. The cooperative banking model spread across Europe and the Americas. Cooperative banks are owned by their members rather than shareholders. The Rabobank group in the Netherlands, Credit Agricole in France, and the Desjardins Group in Canada are major cooperative banking institutions. Credit unions in the US serve over 130 million members. Cooperative banks generally weather crises better than commercial banks because their ownership structure discourages excessive risk taking. The cooperative model has influenced microfinance and community development banking.