Grupo Caja Rural

The origin of rural cooperative banking in Spain go back to the emulation of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen's endeavors in Germany, as happened elsewhere in Europe. The first Spanish was created in Amusco in 1901. More followed in subsequent years, and by the early 1920s there were around five thousand. Many of these entities were short-lived, but there were still over a thousand such local cooperative banks by 1936. Francoist Spain took several initiatives to organize the rural cooperative banking sector. In 1946, the government shored up the ailing Servicio Nacional de Crédito Agrícola (SNCA), a public financial institution originally created in 1925. In 1959, it established the Caja Rural Nacional (CRUNA), then the Central de Cajas Rurales (CECAR), and also in 1962 renamed the SNCA as the (BCA). In 1969, the (UNACC) was established as a national organization of cooperative banks. In 1980, the rural cooperative banks started sponsoring a UCI ProSeries cycling team, known as Caja Rural–Seguros RGA since 2013 after the group's insurance company joined as a co-sponsor. Spain's cooperative banking sector, however, soon entered a phase of financial distress. Its share of total Spanish banking assets declined from a peak of 3.7 percent in late 1983 to 2.8 percent in late 1989; in 1984, the government implemented a plan along the lines of France's Crédit Agricole, This revamped BCA acted as a central financial entity serving 57 , known as . The resulting group referred to as or simply . In March 1986, Seguros RGA (for ) was established as the group's insurance affiliate, owned by the individual rural cooperative banks. In 1988, Seguros RCA opened its capital to Germany's for a 45 percent stake, which was subsequently reduced to 30 percent. In 1987-1988, the BCA-CRA construct started to unravel as individual cajas rurales started to withdraw from it. ==Creation and development==

On , 23 cajas rurales seceded from the BCA-CRA group by establishing the (AECC). A few weeks later, they started the process to establish the BCE, In 1994, they adopted the brand identity "Grupo Caja Rural", and in 1995 the AECC renamed itself as AECR. Meanwhile in 1991, what remained of the BCA was absorbed by Argentaria. By 2000, more than 80 cajas rurales, representing 90 percent of the Spanish agricultural cooperative banking sector's total assets, had joined the AECR. In June 2002, the sector fragmented again as Cajamar Caja Rural was voted out of the AECR. Cajamar went on to create its own network, centered on a new nonprofit body called the (ASEMECC, ), which became the Cajamar Cooperative Group. Grupo Caja Rural was reorganized in the late 2010s. On , the group's cajas rurales and BCE agreed to create an institutional protection scheme (IPS) together with Grucajrural Inversiones, a holding entity established at the same time. Grucajrural Inversiones took over the shares previously owned by the cajas rurales in BCE and Seguros RGA. As of 2024, DZ Bank, the central financial entity of the German Cooperative Financial Group, held 12 percent equity ownership in BCE. The remaining 88 percent were held by Grucajrural Inversiones, which also held a 99.9 percent stake in Seguros RGA. ==Membership==

The annual report of the Grupo Caja Rural's institutional protection scheme for 2024 listed the following entities as its members: • Banco Cooperativo Español (BCE), in Madrid • Caja Rural Central, in Orihuela • , in Gijón • , in Pamplona • Caja Rural de Extremadura, in Badajoz • , in Salamanca • , in Soria • Caja Rural Regional San Agustín Fuente Álamo Murcia, in Fuente Álamo • , in Grenade • , in Oviedo • Caja Rural de Burgos, Fuentepelayo, Segovia y Castelldans (CAJAVIVA), in Segovia • , in Mengíbar • Caixa Rural Galega, in Lugo • , in Santa Cruz de Tenerife • , in Teruel • Caja Rural de Zamora, in Zamora • Caja Rural de L'Alcudia, in L'Alcúdia • Caja Rural San José de Alcora, in Alcora • Caja Rural de Algemesí, in Algemesí • Caja Rural de Casas Ibáñez, in Casas-Ibáñez • , in Almassora • Caja Rural Nuestra Señora de La Esperanza de Onda, in Onda • Ruralnostra, in Betxí • Caja Rural de Villamalea, in Villamalea • Caja Rural de Albal, in Albal • , in Valencia • Caixa Rural Les Coves de Vinromà, in Les Coves de Vinromà • Caixa Rural de Vinaròs, in Vinaròs • Caja Rural del Sur, in Seville • Caja Rural de Albacete, Ciudad Real y Cuenca, branded , in Albacete • , in Zaragoza • Grucajrural Inversiones, in Madrid The individual cajas rurales, though not BCE or Grucajrural Inversiones, are simultaneously members of UNACC, as are some individual members of the Cajamar Cooperative Group as well as Laboral Kutxa, Caja de Ingenieros, and . ==See also==