The Polish Credit Co-operative System: Historical and Contemporary Experiences

This paper describes the long, over 150 years old tradition on saving and credit co-operation on the Polish territory during the time of political dependence, the middle world’s war time in the II Republic of Poland and period of real socialism. Against the repressive policy, saving and credit co-operatives survived, changing organizational shape and functions, serving not only particular for members, also for society and common interests. The new epoch for co-operative banking arrived with the time of political transformation in 1989. Co-operative banks survived the time of agricultural crisis at the beginning of 1990 in good economic conditions with the governmental support, saving property of their members and clients. Today they are important factor supporting local enterprising in agriculture and processing and local small industry. New political forces jointed with Solidarity movement established, or rather revive the old form of co-operative saving and credit chases named of Franciszek Stefczyk, well known co-operative leaders at nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This new movement SKOK win a great success during transformation, 1599 chases are acting in countrywide net with 2.1 million members (and with their families—it would be about six to seven million people) among the employees earning small salary. It creates important part of social economy enterprises and try to support the different forms of co-ops.