Caja Laboral Popular Cooperativa de Crédito or Caja Laboral (Workers' Credit Union) was a Spanish
credit union
A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including deposit accounts, provisi ...
established in 1959 as part of the
Mondragon Corporation and headquartered in
Mondragón
Mondragón ( eu, Arrasate or ''Mondragoe''), officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933.
Economic and historical significance
The town is be ...
, in the
Basque Country of
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. The major financial provider behind the Basque cooperative movement, Caja Laboral covers the financial segment of Mondragon and provides banking and financial services to its customers through a network of over 370 branch offices in the Basque Country and beyond. With over 1800 employees – who are actually the partners-owners of the bank following the cooperative philosophy of shared ownership and stewardship - Caja Laboral generates annual revenue in excess of €330 million.
Together with its sister social assurance company Lagun Aro, Caja Laboral spearheaded the Financial Group of the
Mondragon Corporation, which according to company sources 'operates autonomously within the framework of a sole joint strategy'. It was the first Spanish financial institution to open its branches in the late afternoons/early evenings.
Caja Laboral was mostly unaffected by the
2008 financial crisis, though they did have €162 million in bonds from
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...
. Effective with the 2009–10
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
season, Caja Laboral became the new sponsors of
Liga ACB and
Euroleague club
Saski Baskonia. In 2013, Adicae claimed that there were 35,000 affected, although the affected association claimed to have around 1,000 members of which 316 have formalized their complaint at the Basque Government's Basque Institute of Consumer Affairs (Kontsumobide), which is the one that intervenes ex officio as mediator between the different parties involved.
References
External links
Caja Laboral websiteMondragon Cooperative Corporation website
Further reading
* Freunlich, Fred
An introduction to MCC and the evolving role of Caja Laboral.
Credit unions of Spain
Banks established in 1959
Mondragon Corporation
Cooperative banking in Europe
Gipuzkoa
1959 establishments in the Basque Country (autonomous community)
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