These financial institutions are regulated by INSAFOCOOP, which is in charge of overseeing the proper management of money and preventing the charging of interest rates not authorized by the Banco Central de Reserva (BCR).

The institution's representatives proposed a new Law for the Regulation and Supervision of Savings and Credit Cooperatives, with the objective of maintaining better financial control within these institutions, taking care of deposits and ensuring that loans are granted in the best way possible.

The deposit guarantee is a complementary protection to a financial institution's sound management practices and supervision, as well as a subsidiary protection in the event of a bank's failure.

Currently, there are 605 savings and credit cooperatives, 173 supply cooperatives, one education cooperative, 146 transportation cooperatives, 19 consumer cooperatives, 46 industrial production cooperatives, 49 agribusiness cooperatives, 43 art production cooperatives, 2 agricultural production cooperatives, 39 housing cooperatives, 204 trade cooperatives, one insurance cooperative, 23 professional cooperatives, nine federations and one confederation, for a total of 1,361 cooperatives.

These are made up of 684,300 members who do not have access to banks and have to resort to other alternatives to obtain financing.

Savings and credit cooperatives, which are the most numerous, have 610,000 members, US$1.438 billion in deposits, and US$2.080 billion in assets.

Section A of these cooperatives has assets greater than US$10 million, with 37 of these institutions with 497,815 members, representing 90% of the members in this group. This is where the cooperatives that manage the largest amount of money are located.

In this regard, President Dania González considered that the supervision mechanisms should be strengthened, mainly for those cooperatives that have the largest client portfolio and the most money at stake.

Likewise, the members of the working group considered that the constitution of INSAFOCOOP's board of directors should be changed, since 50% is made up of cooperatives, which represents a conflict of interest.