The Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito- Credicoop Arequipa, was prevented from receiving deposits from new savers since 2020.
Last Tuesday, the Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and AFP (SBS) intervened the largest cooperative in the country (96 agencies) and declared it bankrupt under the cause of total loss of capital stock. The measure affects 60,000 members, most of them older adults, retirees, merchants and people of humble condition who entrusted their entire life savings to the entity.
The SBS Cooperative Supervision Intendant, Mario Zambrano revealed that the entity’s audit process began in 2019. However, upon noticing problems in the entity’s liquidity and equity, last year, they sent him various notices where “They prohibited them from taking deposits from new depositors,” however, Credicoop ignored it.
Zambrano yesterday went to the Credicoop headquarters on Calle San José, where dozens of savers demanded between screams and despair, the return of their money. The official called for calm, answered the questions of the partners and asked that they let them work to know for sure the real assets of the entity and consider a possible return of the money from now on.
Money laundering
Credicoop’s legal situation is not good either. The deputy superintendent of Cooperatives of the SBS, Óscar Basso denounced that Credicoop has an investigation open for money laundering.
He recalled that Credicoop has questionable origins. It was founded with the partners and presumably with an economic base from the cooperative “La Isla”, closed years ago, after being intervened by the Public Ministry. “The president of the board of directors (Rosario Zapana) has not been able to explain to date where the initial funds for Credicoop came from,” he observes.
The founder of Credicoop is Hipólito Batallanos. This businessman is the owner of the Credicoop San Cristobal club (Moquegua), promoter of artistic events and owner of a radio and newspaper in Arequipa. However, the president of the Credicoop board of directors, Rosario Zapana avoids commenting on Batallanos’ relationship with the questioned cooperative.
Basso recalls that the entity has always been reluctant to be transparent and, on the contrary, has hidden information. “She never wanted to be supervised,” she adds and adds that despite the fact that the audit began three years ago, it was only last year that they reached the company’s membership list, data that must be verified today.
Breached agreements
The directors of Credicoop, at the moment, have not given direct explanations to their partners. Yesterday through a statement they reiterated that the intervention of the SBS is an abuse and a ruse to take them out of the market in order to favor the big banks. They claim to have the patrimony to return the savings and their partners and deny being bankrupt. However, they do not show any document that accredits their claims.
Basso highlighted that the SBS intervention is due to the fact that the entity’s financial situation is delicate and it has lost half (S / 262 million) of its partners’ savings, which approximately reach S / 500 million.
The directors point out that after being observed by the SBS, they presented an adaptation plan whose term expires in 2026. Basso refers that in said plan, Credicoop promised to recover the lost capital and inject S / 60 million, but did not comply. “No cooperative or financial entity can function bankrupt for six years, they have been given all the opportunities so that they can recover their assets but they were not able to do so,” he explained.
Prestaperú members only received S / 1,200
In 2019, the SBS declared the dissolution of the savings and credit cooperative PrestaPerú due to a similar situation.
Henry Hurtado, a former partner of the entity reveals that after two and a half years of the closure, those affected have only received S / 1,200.
He explains that this is due to the fact that the investigation against the former directors of Prestaperú, in the Public Ministry, has not started.
The ridiculous amount returned comes from the Deposit Insurance Fund. In the case of Credicoop, according to Mario Zambrano, at this time, the fund is not in force for cooperatives; which aggravates the return of savings to members. Hurtado suggested that the affected partners join forces to claim their rights.
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