Savings and credit cooperatives (Coopac) in Peru: what does the SBS supervise, and are your savings protected?

What a Coopac is

A savings and credit cooperative that deals only with its members is called a Coopac in Peruvian law. Ley 30822, from 2018, rewrote the rules for them inside Ley 26702, the general law of the financial system. The first thing it says is who a Coopac may serve:

“Solo pueden captar depósitos de sus socios cooperativistas. No están autorizadas para captar depósitos del público.”

(They may take deposits only from their members. They are not authorised to take deposits from the public.)

A Coopac is not a bank. It can only take your money if you are a member (socio).

What the SBS supervises

The SBS, Peru’s banking and insurance regulator, supervises Coopacs through a dedicated unit, the Deputy Superintendency of Cooperatives:

“La supervisión y la ejecución de la intervención de las Coopac está a cargo de la Superintendencia Adjunta de Cooperativas, que para la realización de su labor de supervisión e intervención de las Coopac de niveles 1 y 2, puede contar con el apoyo de colaboradores técnicos.”

(Supervising and intervening in Coopacs is the job of the Deputy Superintendency of Cooperatives, which may rely on technical collaborators for Coopacs at levels 1 and 2.)

Supervision is not the same for every Coopac. The law places each one at a level according to its assets, and how closely it is watched depends on that level:

“Para las Coopac asignadas al nivel 1, la regulación y supervisión se centra principalmente en verificar que la Coopac cumpla con los requisitos para inscribirse y mantenerse en el Registro Nacional […]. Para las Coopac asignadas a los niveles 2 y 3, la regulación y supervisión es acorde a los riesgos que corresponden a las operaciones que se llevan a cabo en dichos niveles.”

(For level 1 Coopacs, supervision focuses mainly on checking that they meet the requirements to join and stay in the National Register. For levels 2 and 3, it matches the risks of the operations they carry out.)

For a small, level 1 Coopac, supervision is mostly about meeting the register’s requirements. The SBS now also uses levels 2A and 2B, which do not appear in the text of the law we read.

What the SBS does not supervise

According to the SBS, it supervises only savings and credit cooperatives. Consumer or multi-service cooperatives “se rigen por la Ley General de Cooperativas y no están bajo supervisión de la SBS” (are governed by the General Cooperatives Law and are not supervised by the SBS).

More important: being supervised is not a guarantee. The SBS says so in its FAQs:

“No; al igual que ocurre con las demás entidades supervisadas, esta Superintendencia no garantiza la solidez financiera […] En cuanto a las Coopac, el registro no implica un proceso de licenciamiento como en otras empresas supervisadas, sino que se trata de un proceso que se limita a evaluar que la solicitud de inscripción presentada, en calidad de declaración jurada, se ajuste a los requisitos previstos en la regulación aplicable.”

(No; as with other supervised entities, the SBS does not guarantee financial soundness. For Coopacs, registration is not a licensing process; it only checks that the application, filed as a sworn statement, meets the regulatory requirements.)

A registered Coopac has filed its paperwork. That tells you nothing about whether it is well run.

The National Register of Coopacs

Every Coopac must be entered in a register kept by the SBS:

“Todas las Coopac están obligadas a inscribirse en el Registro Nacional de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito No Autorizadas a Captar Recursos del Público a cargo de la Superintendencia Adjunta de Cooperativas.”

(All Coopacs must register in the National Register of Savings and Credit Cooperatives Not Authorised to Take Funds from the Public, kept by the Deputy Superintendency of Cooperatives.)

Without registration, a cooperative may not take deposits:

“Únicamente las Coopac que se encuentran inscritas en el Registro Nacional […] pueden captar depósitos de sus socios.”

(Only Coopacs entered in the National Register may take deposits from their members.)

If a cooperative takes deposits without being registered, the law orders the SBS to “disponer la inmediata clausura de sus oficinas” (shut its offices immediately), with the support of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Before you deposit, look your cooperative up in the SBS Coopac Register or its Coopac search tool.

Are your savings insured?

Yes, but not by the same fund as bank deposits, and not in every case. The law created a fund just for Coopacs:

“Constitúyese un Fondo de Seguro de Depósitos Cooperativo, exclusivo para las Coopac, como una persona jurídica de derecho privado de naturaleza distinta del Fondo de Seguro de Depósitos a que se refiere el Capítulo III del Título I de la Sección Segunda de la presente ley […].”

(A Cooperative Deposit Insurance Fund is created, exclusively for Coopacs, as a private legal entity of a different nature from the Deposit Insurance Fund that covers the financial system.)

That fund is not the one that protects bank deposits. And to protect your savings, your Coopac must have paid in for a minimum period:

“Las Coopac que ingresen al Fondo deben efectuar aportaciones a este durante veinticuatro meses, como mínimo, para que los depósitos de sus socios se encuentren respaldados.”

(Coopacs joining the Fund must contribute to it for at least twenty-four months before their members’ deposits are backed.)

The SBS sums it up: you do not sign up for the Fund; the Coopac must join it and pay its premiums. If it did not join or did not pay, “los socios podrían perder parte o la totalidad de sus depósitos” (members could lose part or all of their deposits).

How much it covers

According to the SBS’s official page, if a Coopac closes, the Fund pays each member back up to:

If you hold more than that in one Coopac, the amount above the cap is not covered by the Fund. From its Fund page, the SBS links the list of Coopacs that have coverage.

Where to complain

We found no statute that splits jurisdiction between the SBS and Indecopi for Coopac members. What the SBS does say in its FAQs is this:

“Si el socio considera que la Coopac ha incumplido con sus obligaciones, como la devolución de depósitos pactados, puede presentar una denuncia ante la SBS. […] También podría recurrir al Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual (INDECOPI), si la Coopac actuó como proveedor en su relación con el socio como consumidor.”

(If a member believes the Coopac has failed its obligations, such as returning agreed deposits, they can file a complaint with the SBS. They could also go to Indecopi if the Coopac acted as a supplier towards the member as a consumer.)

In practice:

• If the Coopac will not return your deposits, the SBS says you can file a denuncia with the SBS.
• If it is a consumer problem (a charge, a term of the service), the SBS names Indecopi as an option. How that route works is on how to file a complaint with Indecopi.

If your problem is with a bank rather than a Coopac, the rules are on bank complaints in Peru.

What this page does not cover

We do not cover the Cooperative Deposit Insurance Fund’s regulation or exactly which accounts or contributions it covers, the rules for moving up a level, cooperatives authorised to take funds from the public (a different regime), or what happens to your debts with a Coopac that goes into liquidation. We also did not review SBS or Indecopi decisions on specific cases.