Shinkin bank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Shinkin bank is a type of Japanese bank.
They are cooperative regional financial institutions serving small and medium enterprises and local residents. Anyone who lives, works, or has an office in the region served by the bank can become a member. However, companies with over 300 employees are prohibited from membership. All funds procured by the bank must be from its region.
The Shinkin Central Bank serves as the central bank for the Shinkin banks. In this role it makes loans to and accepts deposits from Shinkin banks. The supervising authority is the Financial Services Agency.
Shinkin banks were founded in 1951. They were created to serve some of the same functions as credit unions, but can make loans to non-members.
As of March 2006, there were 292 Shinkin banks with 109,221 billion yen in loans.
