Picture taken by: FOGACOOP
Law No. 454 of 1998 defined a new institutional framework for the cooperative sector in Colombia and authorized the National Government to establish the terms and conditions for financial, savings and credit, multi-asset and comprehensive cooperatives (that have a savings and credit division) to access a Deposit Insurer.
Thus, savers and depositors could meet their needs in the financial cooperative sector by depending on a technical entity through which the State was able to not only guarantee the stability of financial cooperative entities but also ensure that small-scale savers of the sector may retrieve their resources.
Consequently, Law Decree 2206 was passed on October 29, 1998 and the Guarantee Fund for Cooperative Entities - FOGACOOP (Fondo de Garantías de Entidades Cooperativas) was created. Its role is to protect the depositors and savers’ trust in cooperatives registered. The Fund exists as a legal entity, of a unique nature, subject to a special legal regime; it is organized as a financial entity under the Ministry of Treasury and Public Credit and subject to inspection, vigilance and control by the Superintendence of Finance of Colombia. The Decree establishes that financial cooperatives and their registered clients and savers have exclusive access to the Fund’s services.