Northeastern solidarity credit cooperatives: a look at the movement between the economic and the social in the perspective of its social actors
solidarity credit cooperativism; financial inclusion; ASCOOB system; CRESOL Nordeste; solidarity
Credit cooperatives are societies of people whose objective is the financial inclusion of their members. In terms of the solidarity aspect of credit unions, its genesis stems from the mobilization and protagonism of various social actors linked to rural movements that demand public policies for the rural environment, mainly linked to access to credit. Therefore, they prioritize local and community development, which denotes that the political acts of these cooperatives tend to precede the economic acts. Faced with the double challenge of the solidarity credit cooperativism, which is, on one hand, meeting the regulations of the National Monetary Council (CMN) and the supervision from the Central Bank and, on the other hand, the commitment to meet the financial demands of its members and of the community through social inclusion, this research aims to understand how the movement between the economic and the social is presented from the reality of the actors involved in the northeastern solidarity credit cooperativism. The methodological basis was based on a qualitative approach, materialized in three phases: the first included an exploratory study with key people from the cooperatives; the second was driven by the case study method at the CRESOL Nordeste center, with the application of the research instruments; and, finally, data analysis, using the content analysis technique of the thematic kind. As a result, it was observed that the creators and members of the former ASCOOB System were unable to meet the demands of their regulatory bodies and management became conducted by the CRESOL Confederation. This one, in turn, applied the governance model, according to Resolution No. 4,434/2015, which reverberated in a reduction of support policies for small family farmers, unfit, from a financial point of view, to receive credit. On the other hand, dissatisfied with the conduct of this process, former members and other social actors linked to the solidarity credit cooperatives in Bahia created an alternative, a Community Development Bank (BDC) for the target audiences not served by CRESOL Nordeste: the Community Bank Fund for the Promotion of Solidarity Development (BANCOSOL). Therefore, this association aims to work together with CRESOL Nordeste and COGEFUR, forming a financial solidarity triad in Bahia.