According to a report presented this week by the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (ENIF), co-operatives currently account for 46% of the total savings of Paraguay's financial system.
The study, which uses data from the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) and the National Institute of Cooperativism (Incoop), indicates that within the whole savings collection system, co-operatives currently have some 1,539,067 active accounts.
Add to this figure the accounts in banks, totalling 1,653,841 (50%), and those of financial companies, which account for 144,243 (4%), one reaches the figure of 3,337,151 active savings accounts.
The statistics department of Incoop sent the updated data on the financial situation of the 32 main savings and credit co-operatives in the country at the end of the first semester.
This report indicates that associates’ savings make up 87.6% of the total liabilities of these entities.
The co-operative members have deposits of G. 9.27 billion, which at the current exchange rate would be USD $1.658bn.
In June 2017, the volume of savings showed a growth of 13.7%, compared to the end of last December.
Co-operatives have 41% of their deposits concentrated in one-year accounts and these amount to about G. 3.82tn.
Those savings that are for more than one year later represent 31% of the total portfolio of the co-operative sector, adding up to G. 2.82tn.
Finally, in term of regular deposits – those that must be available for withdrawal at any time – they represent 28% of total deposits, which is equivalent to G. 2.4bn.
At country level, there are 38 type A credit and savings co-operatives. However, the Incoop report has been able to collect data on only 32 of these.
Due to the fact that they were updating software, some co-ops indicated that they could not submit the data on time to Incoop.
The data gathered by ENFI indicates that three out of ten people in Paraguay have a savings account in a bank, financial body or co-operative.
For every 10,000 adults, there are 3,462 savings accounts in the banks, 3,222 in co-operatives and 302 in financial organisations, according to Incoop and the Central Bank of Paraguay.
Photo: INCOOP premises (c) última Hora
