Credit Unions in Estonia

Abstract

The aim of credit unions and co-operative banks is collocating member deposits to allocate them as loans, so that capital could circulate among members. Market share of credit unions in Estonia is marginal at the moment (ca. 0.2 \% of overall banking market). There exist 22 credit unions in Estonia, which have 6770 members altogether (31.07.2015). Before WWII the situation was very different. There existed 189 credit unions and two co-operative banks (central credit unions) in 1939. They had 79,100 members altogether. Market share of credit unions in overall banking market in Estonia was 52 \% on that period. The article will give overview about the situation of nowadays credit union sector in Estonia, including statistical data and description development problems.