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They are known as cundinas or tandas in Mexico, and for many people these local savings-and-loan operations play an indispensable role in the struggle to succeed in today's transborder economy. With this extensively researched book, Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez updates and expands upon his major 1983 study of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), incorporating new data that reflect the explosion of Mexican-origin populations in the United States. Much more than a study of one economic phenomenon though, the book examines the way in which these practices are part of greater transnational economies and how these populations engage in-and suffer through-the twenty-first century global economy.Central to the ROSCA is the cultural concept of mutual trust, or confianza. This is the cultural glue that holds the reciprocal relationship together. As Vélez-Ibáñez explains, confianza \"shapes the expectations for relationships within broad networks of interpersonal links, in which intimacies, favors, goods, services, emotion, power, or information are exchanged.\" In a border region where migration, class movement, economic changes, and institutional inaccessibility produce a great deal of uncertainty, Mexican-origin populations rely on confianza and ROSCAs to maintain a sense of security in daily life. How do transborder people adapt these common practices to meet the demands of a global economy? That is precisely what Vélez-Ibáñez investigates.

Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Transborder and Transnational Dimensions of Culture and Political Economy -- 2. Confianza: Building Block of Social Exchange and the Operational Cycles of ROSCAs -- 3. Social and Cultural Dimensions and Dynamics of Their Class Contexts -- 4. Living at a Slant in the Midst of Megascripts in the Transborder Southwest North American Region: Dos mujeres sin fin -- 5. Crossing Divisions and Social Borders: ROSCAs as Transborder Practices and Their Functions -- 6. Conclusions -- Appendix A: Foreword to Bonds of Mutual Trust -- Appendix B: FYGO -- Appendix C: Six-Person, Thirty-Week Tanda -- Appendix D: Contract of Agreement -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.

This paper examines whether credit associations in Japanese regional lending markets compete on price now that Japanese financial authorities have replaced the convoy system of financial regulation with the principle of competition. Specifically, the effects of the market share of credit associations in regional markets on their lending rates are empirically investigated. Accordingly, we determined that credit associations compete with each other in regional lending markets by using two different proxies for the market share held by credit associations in a region. The first proxy was the credit associations’ share of all deposits in a region and the second was the credit associations’ share of all branch offices in a region. In addition, credit associations that face more intense competition from regional banks in regional markets were found to face more intense competition from other credit associations.

Since China started the \"revolution\" of the rural economy in 1978, a series of reforms has been implemented in the area of rural finance, focusing on institutional changes.Looking back on these historical changes, there is still a long ways to go.China's central government has put forward a new concept in the rural financial system.

Credit cooperatives in India make up one of the largest rural financial systems in the world. Playing a vital role in dispensing credit in largely agricultural areas, they are also the weakest link in the formal credit delivery system. This book provides a valuable case study of the traditional banking system in this developing economy, exploring the reasons for the poor performance of credit cooperatives in India and suggesting measures to revitalise them. Although this sector has grown along with the micro-credit sector to provide finance for the poor and the less creditworthy borrowers, financing development still remains a major problem in the developing world. However, the financial health of credit cooperatives in India has been a matter of perennial concern. The author argues that cooperatives hold great promise for financial inclusion if the financial position of the cooperatives can be consolidated. Providing a detailed analysis of the historical evolution of cooperatives in India, the book establishes the link between different segments of this institutional system and their performance in a commercial sense to show that cooperatives occupy an important place in India’s financial edifice as they play a key role in the multi-agency framework for rural credit delivery. As such, the analysis provides a valuable reference for scholars of economics, Asian economics and finance. Biswa Swarup Misra is Associate Professor of Economics at the Xavier Institute of Management in Bhubaneswar, India. He was previously a Research Officer at the Reserve Bank of India (Department of Economic Analysis and Policy) and Economist for the Union Bank of India. 1. Introduction 2. Evolution of Credit Cooperatives in India 3. Revitalising Primary Credit Cooperative in India 4. District Central Cooperative Banks: Reorienting the Middle Tier in the Cooperative Edifice of India 5. The Role of State Cooperative Banks in the Indian Cooperative Structure 6. Interdependence in the Cooperative Credit Structure in India 7. Impact Analysis of Credit Extended by Cooperatives 8. Redesigning the Cooperative Edifice in India

PurposeGuided by the institutional theory of savings, the purpose of this study is to assess the institutional elements of rotating, savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) that enable participants to save.Design/methodology/approachThe study used data from in-depth qualitative interviews (N = 10) conducted among the ROSCA group leaders from African immigrant communities in the USA.FindingsThe primary goal for joining the ROSCA group among participants is to achieve economic stability. The results of the study postulate that, through institutional mechanisms and social networks, ROSCAs create an environment for families to save and invest. The emphasis on the concept of “you cannot save alone” underscores the importance of supportive structures to enable low-income households to save. Although “alternative savings programs” such as ROSCAs are imagined as something that less well-to-do persons use, the findings from this study demonstrate that such strategies also appeal to some people with higher socioeconomic status. This appeal and utility speaks to the importance of ROSCAs as an institutional response, rather than just an informal arrangement among persons known to each other.Research limitations/implicationsIt is prudent to bear in mind that the study sample is not nationally representative, and therefore, the results presented cannot be generalized to immigrants across the country. However, as one of the few ROSCA studies in the USA, the findings from this study make generous contributions to the immigrants’ savings and ROSCA practices literature.Practical implicationsROSCAs could be used as a bridge to the formal financial institutions. Non-profit agencies working with these communities could work with these groups to report ROSCA payments to the major credit bureaus, to help them build a credit line in their new country.Originality/valuePrevious studies of ROSCAs have assessed ROSCAs as community support systems and social networks. The current study has analyzed ROSCAs from an institutional perspective by examining the institutional characteristics of ROSCAs comparable to the institutional determinants of savings that enable savings among the participants.

Canada, like other advanced Western countries, wrestles with the challenge of immigrant integration. Canadian scholars, policymakers and service providers are tasked with finding ways to assist immigrants to find livelihood as well as a sense of belonging in their new homeland. Because of their potential to isolate immigrant groups and/or prevent them from making important connections with the broader society, ethnocultural associations may be seen as a threat to this goal. This reasoning is not unconnected with the sparsity of research on informal immigrant ethno-cultural associations in Canada. Framed by anti-Black racist and feminist epistemologies and based on data collected in semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the experiences of francophone Sub-Saharan African women who participate in mutual aid and savings groups known as rotating credit associations in English or tontines in French. While focusing on the women's informal financial support networks, the paper documents aspects of their lives as minoritized francophones living and working in Toronto. The paper also examines tontines as a transnational practice with significant benefits to both participants and their host society. Given that tontines supplement revenue, they facilitate immigrants' integration into society. Our findings show that, as informal ethnocultural associations, tontines offer participants an opportunity to overcome aspects of the economic precariousness that they encounter in the labour market, while allowing them to express solidarity with one another and to cope with the isolation that they experience as newcomers to Canada. The article sheds light on how Sub-Saharan African immigrant women in the minoritized francophone community in Toronto have reproduced practices that they used in Africa to save money for their own and their family's material needs by organizing tontines.