User:Timpo/Caja Rural Group

The Asociación Española de Cajas Rurales, also known as Grupo Caja Rural or simply Caja Rural is an combination of 29 credit cooperatives (similar to a British Building Society) and various associated service enterprises providing additional specialist extensions such as insurance, investments,  technology and quality management to its extensive network of several thousand local branches and users of its Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs).

Caja Rural is part of the Visa Inc. international card scheme, the Spanish es:Bizum interbank network for instant money transfer as well as a banking mobile app and a direct bank option.

The group represents more than 54% by volume of the total of such cooperatives in Spain. Founded in 1989 it is now the largest such entity in Spain with 1.5 million associates and 6.5 million clients. In 2018 its assets were 385 millions of Euros

The logo which is used by its various entities was designed in 1979 by Croatian designer Ante Kvessitch based on the logo of the Caja Rural de Albacete and is the registered trademark of the group and its members.

History
In 1984 the Banco de Crédito Agrícola (BCA), was formed by 51 such Cajas Rurales

In 1986 Seguros RGA, was formed to provide insurance and assurance services together with certain infornatin technoligy facilities to group members.

En 1989 I Banco de Crédito Agrícola,reformed as the Asociación Española de Cooperativas de Crédito.

In 1990 the group widened to include 74 spanish cooperatives plus on German Raffiesen bank establishin various specialzed units including Rural Inmobiliario, Gescooperativo,

Rural Servicios Informáticos, Espiga Capital Gestión y BCE Formación.

In 2018 an investment arm was formed to provide long-term savings facilities.

2019 the Mecanismo Institucional de Protección (MIP) was instituted as a quality assurance measure in compliance with European banking regulations