Credit union - Shinyokinko

It is a cooperative financial institution established under the Shinkin Bank Act of 1951 (Showa 26) as a non-profit, community-based mutual aid organization. It is a local, regional retail (small transaction) financial institution whose members (investors) are residents of a certain area, small and medium-sized businesses, and individuals. In order to ensure equality of status among members, each member has one vote, and the general meeting or general meeting of representatives is the highest decision-making body and appoints directors and auditors. As a non-profit corporation, dividends are limited, it has a high public nature, and a minimum capital investment is set in order to maintain credit and protect depositors.

The main business is accepting deposits and regular installment savings from members and non-members, lending to members, discounting bills, and domestic and foreign exchange transactions. Loans to non-members are permitted up to 20% of the total loan amount, as long as they do not interfere with member loans, and are limited to public institution loans, financial institution loans, alumni loans, which continue to lend to members for a certain period of time after a member's company has grown beyond the scope of its membership and withdraws, and small loans to non-members of up to 7 million yen. There are also restrictions on the amount of loans per person and large loans. Ancillary business has expanded to include member debt guarantees, acquisition and transfer of monetary claims, securities and trust business, insurance sales, defined contribution pension business, and agency business, and all of these businesses are not very different from banks, and the number of deposits from non-members exceeds that of members, and the homogenization is progressing. They are somewhere between a joint-stock bank that deals with an unspecified number of customers and a credit union that mainly deals with members. The surplus funds of each bank are efficiently managed by the Shinkin Central Bank, a central institution.

Since the "Lost Decade," increased competition among financial institutions has led to a series of bankruptcies, liquidations, dissolutions, mergers and acquisitions, and the number of financial institutions has fallen sharply from 456 at the end of 1985 to 281 at the end of March 2008.

[Kunihiko Kaneko]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1951年（昭和26）施行の信用金庫法に基づいて設立されている非営利地域密着型相互扶助組織の協同組合金融機関。一定の地域内の居住者と中小企業、個人を会員＝出資者とする地域限定・地縁的リテール（小口取引）金融機関である。会員相互間の地位の平等性から1人1票の議決権を有し、総会または総代会が最高議決機関として理事および監事を選任する。非営利法人であることから配当が制限され、公共性が高く、信用の維持と預金者保護のため、出資金の最低限度が定められている。

　固有業務は会員および非会員の預金・定期積金の受入れ、会員への貸出と手形割引、内国・外国為替取引である。会員外の貸出は会員貸出を妨げない範囲で貸出総額の20％以内で認められ、公的機関貸出や金融機関貸出、会員であった事業者が会員資格の範囲を超えて企業が成長して脱退した場合、脱退後一定期間に限り引き続き融資する卒業生金融、会員資格はあるが非会員に対して700万円まで融資する小口員外貸出などに限定される。同一人に対する貸出額制限、大口融資規制も実施されている。付随業務には会員の債務保証、金銭債権の取得・譲渡、証券・信託業務、保険販売業務、確定拠出年金業務、代理業務などと拡大しており、いずれの業務も銀行とあまり変わらず、非会員からの預金が会員の預金を上回るなど、同質化が進行している。不特定多数の顧客と取引する株式会社の銀行と、おもに組合員を対象とする信用組合との中間的存在である。各金庫の余裕資金は、中央機関である信金中央金庫が効率的に運用している。

　「失われた十年」以降、金融機関の競争の激化から経営破綻(はたん)、清算や解散、合併・吸収が相次ぎ、1985年末の456から2008年（平成20）3月末には281まで激減している。

［金子邦彦］

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