House committee holds hearing on bill to raise minimum capital for savings-and-credit cooperatives to $300,000

San Juan — The Comisión de Cooperativismo de la Cámara de Representantes held a public hearing on Aug. 27, 2025, to consider Proyecto de la Cámara 771, a bill to amend inciso G of Article 3.02 of Ley Núm. 255 de 2002 (Ley de Sociedades Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito de 2002) to raise the minimum initial capital required to begin operations from $50,000 to $300,000.

The measure drew competing testimony from the Corporación Pública para la Supervisión y Seguro de Cooperativas (COSEC) and the Comisión de Desarrollo Cooperativo (SEDECOOP). COSEC’s executive president, Mabel Jiménez Miranda, told the committee that the existing $50,000 threshold was established “hace más de décadas” and no longer reflects the actual cost of launching a cooperative. “Iniciar operaciones con cooperativas de ahorro y crédito con un capital de 50,000 no representa una base suficiente para sostener una operación segura, competitiva y conforme a las normas vigentes,” Jiménez said during her remarks.

COSEC provided a line-item estimate for typical start-up costs that it said support a $300,000 minimum: systems of information ($100,000), studies of viability ($15,000), plan strategic ($9,000), facilities (~$50,196), equipment (~$18,950), security and cameras (~$4,340), payroll (~$45,847) and insurance/premiums (amounts listed in COSEC materials). COSEC also said recent new cooperatives have required significant additional resources and cited supervisory experience showing consolidation in the sector; it noted there were 91 cooperatives at the time of testimony and that between 2021 and the hearing only one newly created savings-and-credit cooperative had been registered and that entity later entered liquidation, a process COSEC estimated would cost the deposit-insurance fund about $200,000.

COSEC argued the $300,000 floor (while preserving an exception for closed cooperatives) would strengthen new entities’ technological, compliance and liquidity capacities and reduce early insolvency risk. “Un capital inicial más robusto aumenta las probabilidades de éxito de las entidades de nueva creación,” Jiménez said.

SEDECOOP Commissioner Alicia Alfaro Mercado testified with a contrasting view. Alfaro described SEDECOOP as the executive-branch agency charged under Ley Núm. 247 de 2008 with promoting cooperative development and said the measure, if enacted as written, “se convertiría en un obstáculo para la creación de nuevas cooperativas de ahorro y crédito.” Alfaro said cooperatives are meant to serve lower-income communities and warned that raising the floor to $300,000 could reduce access for those populations. She suggested a smaller increase as an alternative and told the committee: “Yo entiendo que sí se puede aumentar, puede ser 150,000; quizás 150,000, pero 300,000, yo considero que es va a ser un obstáculo para seguir creando nuevas cooperativas.”

Representative Omaira Martínez Vázquez said she supports the cooperative movement but expressed concern that a $300,000 requirement could produce concentration in the sector and limit new entrants. Representative Lilibeth Rosas and other members signaled support for increasing the floor after reviewing COSEC’s cost breakdowns; Rosas said the $50,000 level was “muy poco” given current costs and asked for the submitted documentation.

Committee chair Representative Cristian Muriel and other members asked COSEC and SEDECOOP for their underlying studies and asked the Liga de Cooperativas (whose director Heriberto Martínez Otero was expected to testify) to submit its memorandum. COSEC said it would provide the detailed study and cost breakdowns to the committee.

No vote was taken at the hearing. Committee members said they would continue discussions, request additional written materials from COSEC and the Liga, and hold follow-up meetings. The committee adjourned the public hearing at 10:36 a.m., Aug. 27, 2025.

(Notes: quotes and numeric figures are taken from public testimony submitted and read into the record.)