Course 3110 lessons

Cooperatives and community finance

How Filipinos pool money outside of traditional banks, from paluwagan among coworkers to CDA-registered credit cooperatives, and how to tell the real thing from a scam wearing its name.

What a cooperative actually is

A cooperative is an organization owned and controlled by the very people it serves, called members, rather than by outside shareholders chasing profit. Members pool resources, usually through share capital and savings, so the group can offer things like loans, discounted goods, or shared services that would be harder for any one member to arrange alone.