Guarantee Societies

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Description

"Mutual assurance of risk by Guarantee Societies is not a new concept. For over 150 years ship owners have clubbed together in a range of ‘Protection and Indemnity’ (P & I) Clubs which mutually assure shipping risk which commercial insurers will not cover. For 135 years the same service provider, Thomas Miller, has served P & I Clubs by: managing risks, handling the pool of resources backing these risks; handling claims and providing other services to P & I Club members.

Since 1992 some 18 European countries have seen the formation of Guarantee Societies which enable members of an association, typically businesses, to join together to mutually guarantee bank loans by their members.

Anyone familiar with the work in the field of micro-credit of Dr Muhammad Yunus with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh will know that one of the key success factors was the way in which micro-loans are supported by the guarantees and support of small circles of friends and relatives. The advent of pervasive direct instant connectivity and paperless accounting and administration now enables the concept of the Guarantee Society to mobilise a new approach to mutually assured community credit." (https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/01/18/the-community-is-the-currency/)