Crédito Agrícola is one of the few private Portuguese financial institutions which can lay claim to having exclusively national capital.

Also bathing the group in a positive light with the Portugese public is its contribution to the economic and social development of many regions of the country, generating benefits to the communities where its branch offices are located and to its associate members and clients.

Created in 1911 by the Law-Decree that regulated the foundation and activity of agricultural savings banks, Crédito Agrícola is an institution that has become deeply rooted in Portuguese society; today it has a network of approximately 700 branch offices, 5,000 employees, more than 400,000 associate members and 1,2 million clients.

Agricultural Savings Banks, which are cooperatives, form the basis of the Crédito Agrícola Group. They boost local economies in the regions where they are located and guarantee a close relationship between client and customer. Locally raised resources are, as a rule, invested in projects which give back socio-economic benefits to that region.

This story is an IYC Yearbook feature: https://ica.coop/en/iycbook