AUSTRIA - CO-OPERATION AND ASlrOCIATION 



E. — Central Bank. — The Catholic Bank of the Trent District. 



In the Federal Congress of January 29th., 1896 the erection of a Central 

 Bank was proposed to give the Rural Banks and Co-operative Societies the 

 possibility of suitably investing their surplus cash first in the dis rict 

 itself, and, in case of that not being possible, also outside of it, always with 

 security for the capital, and of obtaining the money necessary for their work 

 on easy and good conditions. On this basis, the Banco di S. Vigilio (Bank 

 of S. Vigilio) was founded, but the new institute was not able to work. 

 There just then manifested itself among the federated societies a disagree- 

 ment with regard to the denominational or undenominational character of 

 the co-operative institutions and the di ection to be given to them. This 

 disagreement was intensified when the Bank of S. VigiHo was founded, in 

 order to act as a Central Bank for the co-operative societies, and pro- 

 duced a rupture between the denominational and undenominational parties, 

 so that there was a severe contest in the Federal Congress on April 26th., 

 1899, in which the denominational party prevailed ; in the elections to 

 ofiices in the society the undenominational part3'^ were completely defeated, 

 and from that date the tendency of the co-operative societies has become 

 markedly denominational. 



The CathoUc Bank of the District of Trent was founded just in con- 

 sequence of the change of tendency, which led to the substitution of the Bank 

 of vS. Vigilio before it had begun working. Founded on December 28ih. , 1898., 

 the Catholic Bank was registered on February 7t]i., 1899 and began working 

 on April loth. of the same year. It is an economic hmited liabiUty consor- 

 tium, in accordance with the law No. 70 of April 9tli., 1873. Its object is 

 the " grant of credit in its various forms and it purposes specially to en- 

 courage by means of credit and collection of deposits, Rural Banks, 

 co-operative societies for distribution and production and other institutions 

 of tendencies in conformity with the CathoUc spirit and therefore ready to 

 co-operate in the solution of the social question. " The share capital is 

 unlimited and formed by contributions of 20 crs. each, the reserve and 

 guarantee funds. The progress made by the Catholic Bank of theTrent District 

 is clearly seen from Tables IX and X which show the situation of this bank, 

 year by year, from its foundation (1899) to 1912 ; the number of members in- 

 creased from 625 in 1899 to 1,678 in 1912 with 58,450 shares, as against 3.350 

 in 1899. The share capital increased from 67,000 crs. 1899 in to 1,316,900 

 crs. in 1912 ; about half of this is derived from contributions of the rural 

 banks and economic consortiums of the Trent district. To the share 

 capital is added the reserve fund, which in 1914 amounted to 173,089 crs. 

 The savings deposits have increased to an extraordinary degree ; from 

 1,460,000 crs. in 1899 they had risen to 39,397,613 crs. in 1912. Besides 

 its head office at Trent, the Bank has some twenty agencies in various of 

 the principal centres of the country ; it has extended its action also to the 

 field of thrift, undertaking life, accident, burglary, transport etc., insur- 

 ance. The Catholic Bank of the Trent District was the initiator of two 



