History

The “Centre International du Credit Mutuel’ (CICM), 20 years of international involvement.

CMSC is a program of CICM (Centre International du Credit Mutuel), an international non-profit organization dedicated to promote economic and social development in developing countries by giving everyone access to financial services, especially people excluded from the traditional banking sector.

CICM has been created in 1979 by the French Cooperative Bank, Credit Mutuel.

Present since twenty-five years in emerging countries, CICM puts the emphasis on solidarity-based values and on savings as a way to alleviate poverty. The international involvement of the Credit Mutuel is based on the promotion of these values as a key component of an effective economic and social development for cooperative institutions in search for sustainability. The interventions in favour of a country or of a credit unions network are not based on the criteria of financial profitability but by political, economic and cultural abilities of these actors to share these cooperative values.

Acting for the development of the local economies

The purpose of the Credit Mutuel is to collect local savings and to develop local economy by providing financial services for the majority. It means developing sustainable institution in technical, administrative, financial and political fields. This could be illustrated either by creating a new financial cooperative movement or by supporting an existing one.

The mutual institutions developed by the Credit Mutuel aims to be autonomous and democratic with trained administrators as guarantees for their independence.

CICM intervenes directly in Congo, Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Central African Republic, Niger and Philippines. In Senegal, for example, the network established by CICM became the biggest savings and credit network in the country with more than 200,000 members.

CMSC Network in Cambodia

CMSC is the result of a meticulous preparation by CICM in Cambodia: following several studies upon the request of the Ministry of Rural Development and the National Bank of Cambodia, CICM has been officially invited by His Excellence Keat Chhon, Minister of Economics and Finance, to build a mutualistic network in Cambodia, named CMSC Network.

Now CICM Cambodia is registered at Ministry of Foreign affairs and at the National Bank of Cambodia as a Microfinance operator. Its program CMSC Network is currently made of 9 Credit Unions, nearby the markets of Chba Ampao, Toul Tom Poung, Olympic, Boeung Keng Kang, Doem Kor, Phsar Chas, Ekreach, Pochentong and Orussey.