Credit Union Movement Spreads
Even before they had fully consolidated in Germany, credit unions began spreading across Europe.
In 1864 Léon d’Andrimont formed the first of many ‘people’s banks’ in Belgium, in Liège.
In 1865 Luigi Luzzatti, the ‘Schulze-Delitzsch’ of Italy, founded the first credit union there: the People’s Bank of Milan.
In 1872 the Co-operative Wholesale Society in England formed a retail deposit and loan department, which eventually transformed into The Co-operative Bank familiar there today.
In 1878 a network of ‘people’s banks’ formed the Groupe Banque Populaire, and four years later the first credit union in the system now known as Crédit Mutuel was formed in Wantzenau, near Strasbourg.
In 1883 Leone Wollemborg, the ‘Raiffeisen’ of Italy, formed the first casse rurali in Loreggia.
Credit unions also spread to Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, the Netherlands and the Balkans by the 1890s.
By 1889 the movement had spread to Gujarat state in India, where the Anyonya Co-operative Bank Limited was formed in the city of Baroda.
Read more about this topic: History Of Credit Unions
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