Editing Cooperative (section)

=== Consumers' cooperative ===
{{Main|Consumers' cooperative}}

A consumers' cooperative is a business owned by its customers. Members vote on major decisions and elect the board of directors from among their own number. The first of these was set up in 1844 in the North-West of England by 28 weavers who wanted to sell food at a lower price than the local shops.

==== Retail cooperative ====
Retail cooperatives are retailers, such as grocery stores, owned by their customers. They should not be confused with retailers' cooperatives, whose members are retailers rather than consumers. In Singapore, Italy, and Finland the company with the largest market share in the grocery store sector is a consumer owned cooperative.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pty.fi/front-page/finnish-grocery-trade/|title=Päivittäistavarakauppa ry – Finnish grocery trade|website=www.pty.fi|access-date=29 November 2018|archive-date=13 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113031301/http://www.pty.fi/front-page/finnish-grocery-trade|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.msn.com/en-sg/money/topstories/ntuc-fairprice-dominated-singapores-retailers-scene-in-2018-report/ar-AAFaW9Z|title=NTUC Fairprice dominated Singapore's retailers scene in 2018: report|access-date=25 October 2019|archive-date=25 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025224119/https://www.msn.com/en-sg/money/topstories/ntuc-fairprice-dominated-singapores-retailers-scene-in-2018-report/ar-AAFaW9Z|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.retail-index.com/Countries/ToprankingretailersinItaly.aspx|title=Top ranking retailers in Italy|access-date=25 October 2019|archive-date=25 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025224123/https://www.retail-index.com/Countries/ToprankingretailersinItaly.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> In Switzerland both the largest and the second largest retailer are consumer owned cooperatives.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9065262/migros-and-coop-among-the-world-s-top-50-retailers/|title=Migros and Coop among the world's top 50 retailers|date=24 January 2019 |access-date=25 October 2019|archive-date=25 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025224123/https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9065262/migros-and-coop-among-the-world-s-top-50-retailers/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Housing cooperative ====
{{Main|Housing cooperative|Building cooperative}}

A [[housing cooperative]] is a legal mechanism for ownership of housing where residents either own [[Share (finance)|shares]] (share capital co-op) reflecting their equity in the cooperative's real estate or have membership and occupancy rights in a [[not-for-profit]] cooperative (non-share capital co-op), and they underwrite their housing through paying subscriptions or rent.

Housing cooperatives come in three basic equity structures
* In '''market-rate housing cooperatives''', members may sell their shares in the cooperative whenever they like for whatever price the market will bear, much like any other residential property. Market-rate co-ops are very common in New York City.
* '''Limited equity housing cooperatives''', which are often used by [[affordable housing]] developers, allow members to own some equity in their home, but limit the sale price of their membership share to that which they paid.
* '''Group equity''' or '''zero-equity housing cooperatives''' do not allow members to own equity in their residences and often have rental agreements well below market rates.

Members of a building cooperative (in Britain known as a self-build housing cooperative) pool resources to build housing, normally using a high proportion of their own labor. When the building is finished, each member is the sole owner of a homestead, and the cooperative may be dissolved.

This collective effort was at the origin of many of Britain's [[building societies]], which however, developed into "permanent" [[Mutual organization|mutual]] [[savings and loan]] organisations, a term which persisted in some of their names (such as the former ''Leeds Permanent''). Nowadays such self-building may be financed using a step-by-step [[mortgage loan|mortgage]] which is released in stages as the building is completed. The term may also refer to worker cooperatives in the building trade.

==== Utility cooperative ====
{{Main|Utility cooperative}}

A utility cooperative is a type of [[consumers' cooperative]] that is tasked with the delivery of a [[public utility]] such as electricity, water or telecommunications services to its members. [[Profit (accounting)|Profits]] are either reinvested into infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are essentially [[dividend]]s paid on a member's investment into the cooperative. In the United States, many cooperatives were formed to provide rural electrical and telephone service as part of the [[New Deal]]. ''See [[Rural Utilities Service]]''.

In the case of electricity, cooperatives are generally either generation and transmission (G&T) co-ops that create and send power via the transmission grid or local distribution co-ops that gather electricity from a variety of sources and send it along to homes and businesses.

In Tanzania, it has been proven that the cooperative method is helpful in water distribution. When the people are involved with their own water, they care more because the quality of their work has a direct effect on the quality of their water.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

==== Credit unions, cooperative banking and cooperative insurance ====
{{Main|Cooperative banking|Credit union}}

[[File:Co-operative Bank head office 20051019.jpg|thumb|right|[[The Co-operative Bank]]'s head office in [[Manchester]]. The statue in front is of [[Robert Owen]], a pioneer in the cooperative movement.]]
[[Credit union]]s are cooperative [[financial institution]]s owned and controlled by their members. Credit unions provide to its members the same services as banks but are considered [[not-for-profit]] organizations and adhere to [[Rochdale Principles|cooperative principles]].

Credit unions originated in mid-19th-century Germany through the efforts of pioneers [[Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch|Franz Herman Schulze'Delitzsch]] and [[Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen]]. The concept of financial cooperatives crossed the Atlantic at the turn of the 20th century, when the ''caisse populaire'' movement was started by [[Alphonse Desjardins (co-operator)|Alphonse Desjardins]] in Quebec, Canada. In 1900, from his home in [[Lévis, Quebec|Lévis]], he opened North America's first credit union, marking the beginning of the [[Mouvement Desjardins]]. Eight years later, Desjardins provided guidance for the first credit union in the [[Credit unions in the United States|United States]], where there are now about 7,950 active status federally insured credit unions, with almost 90&nbsp;million members and more than $679&nbsp;billion on deposit.

Financial cooperatives hold a significant market share in Europe and Latin America, as well as a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also have a strong presence in Asia, Australia, and the United States. According to the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), there were 68,882 financial cooperatives in 109 countries in 2016, serving more than 235&nbsp;million members, with total assets exceeding 1.7&nbsp;trillion dollars. The WOCCU's data do not include some major financial cooperative networks in Europe, such as Germany, Finland, France, Denmark, and Italy. In many high-income economies, financial cooperatives hold significant market shares of the banking sector.<ref name="taylorfrancis.com">Amr Khafagy (2019). [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429342196/economics-financial-cooperatives-amr-khafagy The Economics of Financial Cooperatives: Income Distribution, Political Economy and Regulation]. Routledge. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728202355/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429342196|date=28 July 2020}}.</ref>

According to the European Association of Cooperative Banks, the market share of cooperative banks in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) credit market by the end of 2016 was 37% in Finland, 45% in France, 33% in Germany, 43% in the Netherlands, and 22% in Canada. In Germany, Volksbanken-Raiffeisen banks have a market share of approximately 21% of domestic credit and domestic deposits. In the Netherlands, Rabobank holds 34% of deposits, and in France cooperative banks (Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel and BPCE Group) possess more than 59% of domestic credit and 61% of domestic deposits. In Finland, OP financial group holds 35% and 38% of domestic credit and deposits, respectively, and in Canada, Desjardins holds around 42% of domestic deposits and 22% of domestic credit.<ref name="taylorfrancis.com" />

There are many types of cooperative financial institutions with different names across the world, including financial cooperatives ('cooperativa financiera' is the Spanish term used in Latin America), cooperative banks, credit unions, and savings and credit cooperatives ('cooperativa de ahorro y crédito' in Spanish or '{{Lang|fr|coopérative d'épargne et de credit}}' in French-speaking countries).<ref name="taylorfrancis.com" />

Cooperative banking networks, which were nationalized in Eastern Europe, continued as cooperative institutions. In Poland, the SKOK (''Spółdzielcze Kasy Oszczędnościowo-Kredytowe'') network grew to serve over 1&nbsp;million members via 13,000 branches,{{when|date=February 2024}} and was{{when|date=February 2024}} larger than the country's largest conventional bank.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

In the [[Scandinavia]], there is a clear distinction between [[mutual savings bank]]s (Sparbank) and true [[credit unions]] (Andelsbank).{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The oldest cooperative banks in Europe, based on the ideas of Friedrich Raiffeisen, are joined{{clarify|date=February 2024}} in the 'Urgenossen'.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

====Community co-operative====
A community cooperative is owned and governed by members of a local geographical community. It is established to meet the community's needs by providing goods or services that are not available or affordable through traditional market channels. This is distinct from meeting individuals' needs as individuals.

The aim of a community cooperative is often to create a more equitable and sustainable economy that serves the needs of local residents, rather than generating profits for external shareholders. By working together and pooling resources, members can often achieve economies of scale, negotiate better prices, and develop services that better meet the needs of their community. Community cooperatives can also help to build social capital and foster a sense of community ownership and pride. They have been successful vehicles for rural development in the [[Gaeltacht]] in Ireland and the [[Community co-operatives in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland|Highlands and Islands]] of Scotland.