Caixa de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo

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Caixa de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo

logo
legal form Cooperative bank
founding 1911
Seat Lisbon, PortugalPortugalPortugal 
management Licínio Pina (Presidente do Conselho Administração Executivo da Caixa Central)
Number of employees 3,875 (2010)
Branch Bank, insurance
Website www.creditoagricola.pt

The Caixa de Crédito Agrícola Mutuo (CA port. For: Agricultural Loans Fund Mutual), headquartered in Lisbon is the largest cooperative bank in Portugal with 85 individual cooperative banks (local Caixas de Credito Agricola Mutuo), comparable to the cooperative cooperative banks in Germany. It has around 700 branches across Portugal and the Azores . In Madeira there is no affiliated credit unions, but a branch of the Central Bank of the CA. It has a further branch in Cape Verde and representative offices in France, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland.

In 2011 the Caixa de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Company key figures

The balance sheet total in 2013 was 12.96 billion euros (2010: 13.2)

At the end of 2013, CA had 83 affiliated CA cooperative banks with a total of 683 branches in Portugal and 1.2 million customers. In 2010, the CA employed 3875 people (55% men, 45% women).

Together with the Montepio group, which is also a cooperative, the CA is the most important non-governmental financier of social institutions in Portugal and is also increasingly promoting regional projects in culture, sport and social projects from its net profit (2010: € 36 million).

Corporate development

precursor

The origins go back to the ecclesiastical welfare institutions of the "Santa casa da misericordia" (founded in 1498 by Queen Leonor and the cleric Frei Miguel Contreiras) and the "Celeiros" (granaries) founded by King Sebastian in 1576 .

In 1778 the "Misericordia" of Lisbon issued loans to farmers for the first time. The Misericordias followed suit in more and more places across Portugal. A dynamic developed which, in 1866/1867, prompted the Minister of Public Buildings, Andrade Corvo, to legally consolidate the growing credit activities of the municipalities and misericordias into agricultural-industrial credit institutions, the "Bancos Agricolas" or "Misericordias-Bancos". In addition, the public granaries, whether founded by municipalities, privately or by the king, have been increasingly active as lenders for farmers since the 16th century, in times of poor harvests or in the form of advance payments for seeds and other things, against interest. which could mostly also be paid in kind.

Comparable institutions did not appear in Europe until 1649 in Scotland and 1765 in Germany.

Due to steadily rising interest rates, the importance of the public granaries (celeiros) decreased again, and in 1862, with a reform, the interest payments were completely switched from natural to money and a purely monetary credit operation was introduced.

founding

After the Portuguese monarchy was overthrown and the First Republic proclaimed in 1910 , the real history of Credito Agricola began. In the last few years of the monarchy there were still efforts to establish such an agricultural bank, jointly by republicans and monarchists. A few months after the proclamation of the republic, the Credito Agricola was founded on March 1, 1911 by decree of Finance Minister Brito Camacho. Legislative Decree No. 215 of 1914, and most recently Decree No. 5219 of 1919, then precisely defined the activities of the Caixas de Credito Agricola Mutuo (Mutual Agricultural Loans).

Thanks to increased agricultural activities, the CA grew considerably, but the Great Depression of the 1930s led to the incorporation of the CA under the umbrella of the state Caixa Geral de Depósitos . In 1926 a military government seized power and appointed the economics professor at the University of Coimbra , António de Oliveira Salazar , as finance minister, whose Estado Novo dictatorship, proclaimed in 1932, lasted until the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974. The profound change after the Carnation Revolution led the CA to orientate itself towards more autonomy for the individual CA, to the democratization and further development of the economy and to the expansion of its activities, with the cooperative banks in other European countries as a model.

reorganization

In 1978 the FENACAM was founded ( Federacao Nacional das Caixas de Credito Agricola Mutuo - the national umbrella organization of the CA), whose purpose is the central support of all member funds and their representation at home and abroad. One of its main tasks was to enforce a revision of the CA's legal situation, which is now over 60 years old. In 1982, with Decree No. 231/82, the CA was removed from the custody of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos , with the proviso that the CA should found its own central bank. The 1980s then saw significant growth for the CA.

In 1984 the central bank of the CA was founded and with the decree No. 182/87 a deposit protection fund was introduced in 1987 (FGCAM - Fundo de Garantia do Credito Agricola Mutuo ), to which all CAs belong. After Portugal joined the EU in 1986, the CA also adapted to the EU directives and received a new legal form with Decree No. 24/91 of January 11, 1987. The new form of organization (SICAM - Sistema Integrado do Credito Agricola Mutuo ) is an organizational association of the central bank of the CA and all connected CAs, with the central bank as the leading body (corporate strategy, organization, controlling, representation at home and abroad). The principle of co-responsibility is to ensure control, solvency and liquidity of all CAs.

In 1994, CA Gest (management of investment and real estate funds) and Rural Seguros as health and composite insurers (now CA Seguros) were founded within CA. In 1999, CA's own life insurance , CA Vida, was added, and a little later CA Consult (financial / management consultancy). Rural Informatica was founded as early as 1993 (today CA Informatica, the joint EDP of CA), then CA Servicos (services for the connected CA) and finally AGROCAPITAL ( risk capital investment) in 2005 .

In 2006 the CA updated its central appearance. The historical identity as a rural-agricultural institute was renewed and expanded to include a significantly more urban appearance. The medium-term modernization program attempted to combine tradition and modernity, and in its public relations work should primarily represent CA as a partner - for customers, members, employees and management alike. Based on the old symbol, the new company logo is a stylized green tree leaf that symbolizes growth and solidity , with a single orange leaf as a sign of change and further development.

In 2009, the CA prepared for the 100th anniversary with the “Juntos somos mais” (Together we are more) initiative , which aims to highlight the CA's values that set it apart from the market, namely reciprocity and solidarity , the central idea of ​​the cooperative . One of the goals is to increase the number of cooperative members.

In 2011, the year of its 100th anniversary, the Caixa de Credito Agricola Mutuo now has over 400,000 cooperative members.

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