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Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives. In the early stages of development of a nation's financial system, unserved and underserved populations must rely on risky and expensive informal financial services from sources like money lenders, ROSCAs and saving at home. Credit unions proved they could meet demand for financial services that banks could not: from professional, middle class and poorer people. Those that served poorer urban and rural communities became an important source of microfinance. The first working credit union models sprang up in Germany in the 1850s and 1860s, and by the end of the 19th Century had taken root in much of Europe. They drew inspiration from cooperative successes in other sectors, such as retail and agricultural marketing (see history of the cooperative movement). Similar institutions were independently developed somewhat earlier in Japan, in the early 19th century, by agrarian reformer and economist Ninomiya Sontoku. In this village unions, known as each person of the village union could borrow fund interest free for 100 days, while the entire membership shared the cost in case of default. These did not have any influence on developments in Europe, as at the time Japan was isolated from the world under the policy of sakoku. The language related to credit unions can be confusing. In spite of the word ‘credit’ in their name, even the earliest credit unions usually offered both savings and credit services, and often payment and insurance services as well. And they were known by (and are still known by) a wide range of names, for example: 'people's banks', 'cooperative banks' and 'credit associations'. Credit unions are best identified by their adherence to cooperative principles, especially related to membership and control. For example after World War II many organizations were started by and/or controlled by governments in the developing world, and were described as ‘credit unions’ or ‘cooperatives’ by their promoters. However, government control, whether in a capitalist or communist political context, represents a fundamental repudiation of cooperative principles. ==Origins== (詳細はcooperative pioneer Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch. These credit unions would be recognizable today, since they adhered to the basic aspects of the co-operative identity: that is, they were “based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.”〔International Co-operative Alliance. ''Statement on the Co-operative Identity''. Definition〕 Shulze is credited with developing the bond of association which still forms the legal basis for credit unions today. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Schulze-Delitzsch recognized that the functions of retail lending and purchasing business inputs were best kept separate in the interests of sound cooperative management. In 1852 Schulze-Delitzsch consolidated the learning from two pilot projects, one in Eilenburg and the other in Delitzsch into what are generally recognized as the first credit unions in the world.〔J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. ''The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980.'' Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 1984, p. 4〕 Schulze-Delitzsch was an excellent organizer and advocate for the credit union idea. “Wherever he went, new people’s banks sprang up … by 1859 there were 183 with 18,000 members in Posen and Saxony.”〔Moody & Fite, p. 5〕 Schulze focused much of his attention on developing federations or trade associations to help protect the brand of these small organizations, ensure their stability and link them to the global banking system.〔Ian MacPherson. ''Hands Around the Globe: A History of the International Credit Union Movement and the Role and Development of World Council of Credit Unions, Inc.'' Horsdal & Schubart Publishers & WOCCU, Victoria, Canada 1999, p. 5.〕 As a member of the Prussian House of Representatives and the German Reichstag he secured passage of a national credit union law in 1871. By 1912 the people’s banks he founded had 641,000 members.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「history of credit unions」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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