Are you horrified by the amount of fraud, conglomeration, oligopoly, and lobbying on the part of the modern banking industry? Are you feeling at a loss for what you can do? Are you supportive of market economies in general and the innovations that they have created for the betterment of humanity? Well then, you may be interested in mutual banking.
Mutual banks go back for thousands of years, from the Savings and Friendly Society, to the anti-usury stance of many religions of antiquity. A mutual bank is an inherently cooperative institution. Nobody that is a member may procure more profit from the institution than another member. Everybody may contribute to the common pot of savings from their own private savings. Loans are offered to both members and non-members at very low or 0% interest. When first starting out a mutual bank, members would have to agree on savings target for the whole bank as well as dues that the members agree to pay in a routine amount of time (say $15 a month). At every meeting, you can ask for donations of money and ask the members to solicit goods and services as well as things they might need and agree to a trade of another service, good, or a receipt of the service performed or good sold that guarantees a certain amount of money depending on the amount accumulated in savings.
For loans, a member may easily take one out with a promise to pay back the loan in full. A registered member may have the benefit of not compounding interest on their loan and being able to volunteer to work off their debt on a contract agreed upon with the rest of the members, especially if they default on their loan monetarily. Different arrangements for members and non-members as well as government of the institution will arise. I hope I have at least piqued your interest, as more is to come!
- Sister Ray Schumacher