THE DANISH CO-OPEEATIVE BANK 143 



deposit. The members are the owners of the bank, but are 

 liable for its obligations only to the amount of their holdings 

 of shares. The surplus at the end of the year, after paying 

 4 per cent, interest on the share capital and setting aside a 

 sum for the reserve fund, is distributed among members in 

 proportion to the profit which the bank has made from its 

 transactions of all kinds with the members. The bank will 

 transact business with anybody, member or non- member ; on 

 the other hand, members need not transact their banking 

 through the Co-operative Bank, but if they do not they have 

 no share in the surplus. 



The Co-operative Bank has done very well during the few- 

 years of its activity. Its turnover in 1915 was £51,000,000, 

 and in 191 6, £200,000,000. It has formed a number of branches 

 in other towns, including Copenhagen, and has now over 30 

 such branches. There were in April, 1917, 732 members with 

 shares to the value of £188,000. 



An independent development has led to the formation in 

 Denmark of a special kind of Co-operative Village Banks 

 ('* Andelskasser "). The Co-operative Bank has made it one 

 of its objects to assist in forming these small, local banks and 

 to co-operate with them. The object of the village bank is to 

 carry on limited banking transactions on co-operative lines in 

 the village, and to grant to members small loans for a short 

 period. What gave rise to these village banks was two different 

 requirements. One was caused by the accumulation of savings 

 in some of the co-operative distributive societies, which, when 

 invested in the usual way, were withdrawn from the locality 

 where they might have been usefully employed. If, by means 

 of a local bank, these amounts could be invested locally and 

 lent to local farmers, it would be an advantage to them. The 

 other was the need of farmers to get small loans to provide 

 working capital. This need was felt all the more urgently, as 

 it had until recently been filled by the State. By a Law of 

 26th March, 1898, on Land-Loan Societies, the Government 

 was empowered to lend £280,000 of the funds of the State at 

 3 per cent, per annum interest (in 1908 increased to 3 J per cent.) 

 to societies of farmers formed for the purpose of granting to 

 their members loans to run for a'maximum term of nine months, 



