Internal and external factors related to the Return On Equity (ROE) of Ecuadorian Savings and Credit Cooperatives, Segment 1, Period 2014 – 2020

Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Ecuador play a very important role in the socioeconomic development of communities, productive associations and other niches that are not financially served by traditional private banks, both national and foreign. In fact, the financial inclusion of productive and consumer units in the rural sector - above all - depends on the economic and financial sustainability of these entities. In this context, it is important to know how profitable cooperatives are in Ecuador, identifying those factors, internal and external, that explain such profitability; for this reason, this article aims to analyze the relationship between internal factors such as liquidity, management and solvency indicators; and external factors such as inflation and real GDP with the profitability of cooperatives, segment I, measured through the Return On Equity (ROE). Using econometric techniques, it is found that the country's production level and the generalized price level as external factors, maintain a statistically significant relationship with respect to the ROE of the cooperatives.