Learning About Money Cooperatives

Abstract

Women in Lima, Peru, are involved in informal banking systems, known as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs). In Peru, these systems are called Tandas or Juntas, and they are the traditional money systems, rooted in cooperative principles, that enable women to overcome obstacles in their local environment. In this chapter, the authors draw on J. K. Gibson-Graham’s ideas of community economies to understand surveys from the field and interviews with Junta participants in Lima, as well as to cite local scholarship to fill in the cultural gaps. The finding reveals that Juntas are a deliberately informal cooperative system based on reciprocal relations and trust between the members. And that members do not require any collateral to belong to a Juntas. Further analysis of the data shows that the personal relationships created and maintained in Juntas to finance women-owned small businesses are extremely important, especially at the start-up stage of a business, and this loyalty is remembered by Juntas members. These Juntas are also increasingly transnational and move with the Peruvian diaspora to other parts of the world, where they have merged with similar practices as immigrant communities meet and intermingle. This backdrop of globalization, coupled with emerging technologies, adds a new dimension to research into the general idea of informal credit and savings associations.