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Celebrating 60 years of ICA-AP ICA-APs work with credit & banking cooperatives

 

 

In 2020, we mark 60 years of ICA in the Asia-Pacific region, working hand-in-hand with our members to grow and enhance the cooperative movement. Over the years, ICA-AP has worked across many sectors and focused on key development areas such as gender equality, youth inclusion, entrepreneurship, and capacity building. This month, we highlight the work undertaken by ICA-AP through the Credit and Banking Committee and bring insights from Mr. Bhima Subrahmanyam, Chair of the International Cooperative Banking Association (ICBA).

 

Cooperative credit and banking institutions play an important role in enabling financial inclusion, access to financial services and meeting credit and savings needs in rural and urban areas.  The range of institutions include: rural savings and credit institutions (to meet short and long-term agriculture and other needs), urban cooperative banks, consumer credit societies, cooperative banks, mutuals and credit unions. Cooperative institutions in the financial sector are crucial in supporting economic development and important players in implementing SDG8: Decent work and economic growth, and SDG10: Reduced Inequalities. In the 2019 World Cooperative Monitor Exploring the Cooperative Economy, 21 credit and banking cooperatives were in the top 300 cooperatives (based on turnover) and 33 financial services cooperatives in the top 300 (based on turnover over GDP per capita). From the Asia-Pacific region, the National Agriculture Cooperative Federation (NACF), Korea and The Norinchukin Bank, Japan are among the top 10 financial services cooperatives in the world (based on turnover).

 

ICA-AP Committee on Credit and Banking

 

The ICA-AP Committee on Credit and Banking (earlier called Regional Cooperative Banking Association (RCBA)) was constituted around 1998. The aim of the Committee is to promote the development of cooperative credit and banking in the region and to recommend activities in the field of credit, banking and finance. The objectives of the Committee are:

 

  • To periodically review the progress made in the field of cooperative credit, banking and finance, and initiate necessary action;
  • To recommend policies and common lines of action in the field of cooperative credit and to initiate implementation;
  • To facilitate business linkages among cooperative banks and other cooperative financial sectors such as credit cooperatives and credit unions;
  • To identify systematic gaps within the banking structures, and facilitate processes for organisational efficiency;
  • To identify areas for training, research and technical assistance, and initiate action in collaboration with other ICA-AP sectoral and thematic committees;  
  • To identify areas of technical assistance required for national and regional projects, and to facilitate such programmes;
  • To promote the systematic dissemination of information and the exchange of experiences among the cooperative credit movements both within the region and internationally;
  • To liaise and collaborate with the International Cooperative Banking Association (ICBA), and other regional and international organisations concerned with cooperative credit and banking.

 

The Credit and Banking Committee emphasizes the role of women and youth in credit and banking cooperatives, encouraging cooperatives to send women and youth representatives to meetings and trainings. The Committee has organised seminars and published reports to improve the understanding of credit and banking cooperatives in the region. In 1976, the Regional Seminar on Cooperative Insurance and Promotion of Savings was held in Tokyo, Japan and the Open Asian Conference on Cooperative Credit and Financial Management was held in Chennai, India. In 1981, ICA-AP published Thrift and Credit Cooperatives in a Changing World. In 2008, during the 10th RCBA meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, members focused on cooperation among cooperative banks at the local, national, regional and global levels, addressing the importance of ‘Global Networking of Cooperative Banks’. During the 2014 Regional Assembly in Bali, Indonesia, the Committee organised a seminar on Capitalisation: Challenges for cooperative banks. The seminar focused on the challenges of matching capital funds with capital adequacy norms prescribed by regulators. In 2015, the Committee, organized a round table dialogue (RTD) discussion on the role of cooperative banks and social finance institutions in promoting and financing social initiatives and social and solidarity enterprises. The RTD was organized under the aegis of the National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAFSCOB), Eco Foundation for Sustainable Alternatives, the Mont-Blanc Meeting- International Forum of the Social and Solidarity Economy Entrepreneurs, the International Co-operative Banks Association and the International Association of Investors in the Social Economy.

 

As of August 2019, the Committee has 18 credit and banking cooperative members from 13 countries. The image below indicates RCBA’s members from the region.