EACB
The European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) represents the cooperative banks of Europe toward the institutions of the European Union, with its secretariat in Brussels. The association was founded in 1970, and its 29 member institutions are national associations and central bodies of cooperative banking groups. Among them are the German BVR, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, BPCE, Rabobank and OP Financial Group.
The EACB speaks for some 2,400 locally operating cooperative banks with 91 million members and 228 million customers, mainly consumers, SMEs and local communities. It works on banking regulation, payments and the digital euro, anti-money laundering, sustainability reporting and taxation, together with cooperative law. Each full member has the same weight in decisions, whatever its size or financial contribution.
Members and member banks
Full membership of the EACB is open to national associations and central bodies with their seat in an EU member state that group cooperative banks. Germany is represented by the BVR, the federal association of the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken, and by DZ BANK, while France sends Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel and BPCE through their national bodies. Further full members include Rabobank in the Netherlands, OP Financial Group in Finland, the Italian Federcasse, CrelanCo in Belgium, Banque Raiffeisen Luxembourg and the Spanish UNACC.
Associate membership is open to associations from countries outside the European Union. The General Assembly also includes representatives of Raiffeisen Schweiz, the British Building Societies Association, the Canadian Mouvement Desjardins and The Norinchukin Bank from Japan.
Cooperative banks in Europe: key figures
Cooperative banks are owned by their members, who hold cooperative shares and vote under the principle of one person, one vote. The cooperative banks in Europe have 91 million members and 228 million customers and an average market share of about 20 percent. They form decentralized networks that fall under both banking law and cooperative law, and the EACB names democracy, transparency and proximity as the core of their business model.
The EACB publishes key statistics on its member groups every year, with series of financial indicators that go back to 2004.
President, board and CEO
Priscille Szeradzki, general manager of the Confédération Nationale du Crédit Mutuel, is president of the EACB. She was first elected in June 2024, and the 59th General Assembly in Vienna re-elected her in June 2026 for a two-year term. Daniel Quinten, member of the board of managing directors of the BVR, and Vincent Maagdenberg, chief risk officer of Rabobank, are vice-presidents, while Sergio Gatti of Federcasse and Rainer Borns of Volksbank Wien sit on the board. Nina Schindler is chief executive officer of the EACB and leads the Secretariat General in Brussels.
Upcoming fintech and finance events in Belgium
Digital euro cost study
The digital euro working group of the EACB follows the draft regulation and has published positions on it since 2023. With the European Banking Federation and ESBG, the EACB commissioned PwC to estimate what a retail digital euro would cost the banks. The study of June 2025 surveyed 19 retail banks and puts the change costs for the euro area at up to 18 billion euros in the first four years, about 75 percent of it for technical work on banking apps, cards, ATMs, branches and point-of-sale systems.
Payments and the European Network for Payments
The payment systems working group of the EACB follows EU rules on instant payments, the Payment Services Regulation and PSD3. In October 2026 the EACB, the EBF and ESBG welcomed the founding of the European Network for Payments, which is to connect Bancomat, Bizum, EPI with Wero, SIBS with MB WAY and Vipps MobilePay. These services count about 130 million users in 13 European countries.
Events and Apropos Coop Banking
The EACB runs the Apropos Coop Banking series of events and webinars, for example on how cooperative banks help close the financial literacy gap, with speakers from the OECD and the European Commission. It also holds an academic conference every year and a convention on cooperative banking every two years, and it gives an award to young researchers who write on cooperative banks.
Address in Brussels
The EACB secretariat is at Rue de l'Industrie 26-38 in 1040 Brussels, Belgium. The EACB is registered in Belgium as an international non-profit association (AISBL) with the enterprise number 0896.081.149 and is listed in the EU Transparency Register.
EACB and Finance Loop
Finance Loop members follow many of the files that the EACB takes to Brussels, from the cost of the digital euro and instant payments to the new anti-money laundering rules. Finance Loop discusses these questions in its Payments & Digital Money track, at events in Frankfurt and other European cities.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.