The Italian Cooperative Credit System

The movement of cooperative banks spread throughout most of continental Europe since the second half of the nineteenth century, in a historical period in which banks activities were limited to urban areas serving only the wealthiest classes, while the emerging class of workers, composed of merchants and farmers with little or no collateral, had limited access to credit. “Charitable sources and public funds remained insufficient, credit obtained from money lenders was often available only at exorbitant interest rates: by and large, the birth of credit coopera- tives in Europe was a response to the challenge of providing affordable loans to this emerging class.