MAG VENEZIA, the most recent alternative financing scheme in Italy

The people who set up MAG Venezia have been actively involved for a number of years in MAG 3 (Padova). All of them took part in a seminar on "North-South for an action of peace". Mag Venezia was founded in 1992 in order to promote conscious forms of saving and controlled and positive investments. The cooperative is run on a voluntary basis and there are no payed staff. Until now, there has not been a clear allocation of duties. However for specific issues it uses external consultancy.

Members participate in the life of the cooperative through two general meetings a year and all Board of Managers’ meetings are open to them. Mag Venezia has close relations with all member cooperatives and organizations. It also organizes seminars an conferences. All profits come from active intereston loans to member cooperatives.

Important elements in providing financing such as loans are a direct knowledge of the project to be supported, its social usefulness and the management skills of the cooperative running it. There are no quantitative limits to the amount of financing for a single project but the total amount of loans for projects cannot exceed 80% of the total savings on deposit. There are no standard criteria for guarantees of repayment: each cooperative may proceed in a different way. Most loans go to support social and solidarity projects. The social capital is 5 million lire (around 3,300 US $). Mag Venezia has 43 individual and 14 collective members and a savings fund of 175 million lire (around 117,000 US $).