Cajamar Cooperative Group

The Cajamar Cooperative Group (Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar) is the largest grouping of agricultural cooperative banks (cajas rurales) in Spain, with origins in the establishment in 1966 of Caja Rural de Almería, rebranded in 2000 as Cajamar Caja Rural.

Whereas Cajamar Caja Rural remains the group's most significant component, its national entity is Banco de Crédito Social Cooperativo, SA (BCC), a Madrid-headquartered bank established in 2014 by Cajamar Caja Rural and 31 other local agricultural cooperative banks. BCC has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

Overview
Cajamar Caja Rural was formed by the aggregation of a number of agricultural cooperative banks, its original core being the Caja Rural de Almería (est. 1966). In 2000, the latter merged with its peer in Málaga and adopted the name Cajamar. In 2002, it left the Grupo Caja Rural cooperative group to form its own independent grouping including a national representative association, the Business Association of Credit Cooperative Entities (Asociación Empresarial de Entidades Cooperativas de Crédito, ASEMECC). Cajamar gathered other local banks (Caixa Rural de Casinos, Caixa Albalat, Caixa Petrer, Caixa Turis, Caja Rural Castellón, Caja Rural de Canarias), several of which it subsequently merged with, to form the Cajamar Cooperative Group.

Cajamar further aggregated the member banks of the Grupo Cooperativo Rurales del Mediterráneo (Ruralcaja, Caixa Rural Torrent, Crèdit València Caja Rural, Caixaltea, Caja Rural de Burriana, Caixa Callosa, Caixa Rural Nules, Caixa Alqueries, Caja Rural de Cheste, Caixa Rural d'Alginet, Caja Rural de Villar, Caixa Rural Vilavella, Caixa Rural Almenara, Caixa Rural Xilxes, Caja Rural Sant Vicent y Xaixa Rural Vilafamés) to form the Grupo Cajas Rurales Unidas (CRU).

As of 2019, these had been combined into a single Cajamar Cooperative Group composed of 18 entities: Cajamar Caja Rural, Caixa Rural Torrent, Caixa Rural de Vila-real, Caixaltea, Caixa Rural Burriana, Caixa Rural Nules, Caixacallosa, Caixapetrer, Caixaalqueries, Caixa Rural San Vicent Ferrer de Vall d'Uixó, Caja Rural de Cheste, Caixa Rural d'Alginet, Caja Rural de Villar, Caixaturís, Caixa Rural Vilavella, Caixa Rural de Almenara, Caixa Rural Vilafamés, and Caixa Rural Xilxes. As of December 2022, these entities together with BCC had 1.6 million cooperative members and served 3.7 million clients in total. Cajamar Caja Rural is by far the largest of the member banks, accounting for 86.5 percent of their combined business as of 2020.

The 32 agricultural banks that created the BCC and became its initial shareholders in 2014 were the 18 banks of the Cajamar Group as well as Caixa Albalat, Caja Rural de Almendralejo, Caja Rural de Utrera, Caja Rural de Baena, Caja Rural de Cañete de las Torres, Caja Rural de Nueva Carteya, Caja Rural de Adamuz, Caja Rural de Castilla-La Mancha, Caixa Guissona, Caixa Almassora, Caixa Rural La Vall, Caixa Benicarló, Caixa Rural Les Coves, and Caixa Vinaròs. Of these, Caixa Albalat merged into Cajamar Caja Rural in 2018.

Overall, Cajamar Caja Rural results from the merger of agricultural cooperative banks from Murcia (Campo de Cartagena, 1989), Andalusia (Almería and Málaga, 2000), Madrid (Grumeco, 2000), Castile and León (Caja Rural del Duero, 2007), the Balearic Islands (Caixa Rural de Balears, 2010), the Valencian Community (CajaCampo, 2011; Caja Rural Castellón, Ruralcaja "Caixes Rurals del Mediterrani", 2012; Crèdit València and Caja Rural Casinos, 2013; Caixa Albalat, 2018), and the Canary Islands (Caja Rural de Canarias, 2013).

BCC acts as a central entity serving the financial needs of the local cooperative banks which together form the Cajamar Group. The Cajamar Cooperative Group was designated by the Bank of Spain as an institutional protection scheme, with the BCC as head entity. Under that arrangement, the individual local banks are exempt from solvency and liquidity requirements as these are supervised on a consolidated basis. In effect, the group's 18 local banks operate like branches, with no managerial independence.