KBC Group
Volksbank van Leuven, local savings banks and Middenkredietkas
### Volksbank van Leuven, local savings banks and Middenkredietkas

On , a group of prominent Catholics founded the  ("People's Bank of Leuven"), a cooperative bank to finance the development of business in and around [Leuven](/wiki/Leuven "Leuven").

In the early 1890s, the [Boerenbond](/wiki/Boerenbond "Boerenbond") farmers movement, similarly inspired by Catholicsm and [corporatism](/wiki/Corporatism "Corporatism") and also based in Leuven, led the development of burgeoning network of rural cooperative banks inspired by the model created in Germany by [Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen](/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_Raiffeisen "Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen"). The first of these  ("savings and loans associations") was created in 1892 in the village of  near [Aarschot](/wiki/Aarschot "Aarschot"). By 1895, there were 24 ; that year, the Boerenbond established the [Middenkredietkas](/wiki/Middenkredietkas "Middenkredietkas") ("central credit fund") as a central body to help them manage their customers' savings and access funding from the [Caisse générale d'épargne et de retraite](/wiki/ASLK_/_CGER "ASLK / CGER"), a national financial institution. In 1902, the network had grown to 190 local savings banks, and would further expand to 378 by 1913 and 1099 in 1934\. In 1903, the Middenkredietkas decided to reduce its exclusive dependence on the CGER and established a permanent relationship with the Volksbank van Leuven for the management of some of the farmers' savings.


What is the Volksbank van Leuven?