The JAK Members Bank, or JAK Medlemsbank, is a cooperative, member-owned financial institution based in Skövde, Sweden, and based on a concept that arose in Denmark in 1931.
JAK is an acronym for Jord Arbete Kapital in Swedish or Land Labour Capital, the factors of production in classical economics.
JAK Bank Report Part 1/4 - EthicsVídeo de YouTubeA report about Swedish interest-free bank JAK, shot in Germany and Sweden, August 2007. The BasicsA membership of approximately 39,000 (as of December 2015) dictates the Bank's policies and direction. The Board of Directors is elected annually by members, who are each allowed only one share in the bank. JAK Members Bank does not charge or pay interest on its loans, a principle it shares with Islamic banking. All of the bank's activities occur outside of the capital market as its loans are financed solely by member savings. Administrative and developmental costs are paid for by membership and loan fees. JAK banking employs the "Saving Points" system: members accumulate Saving Points during saving periods and use them when applying for a loan. The concept is that one is allowed to take out a loan for oneself to the same extent as one allows other people to be granted loans, saving into one's account. For this reason (applying for a loan), earned Saving Points must be equal to spent Saving Points to ensure sustainability. If a member is borrowing more saving points than they currently possess, they are obliged to continue accumulating "aftersavings" during the repayment period. Aftersavings are a fixed quota of money that a member must save after one's loan was made, so they can continue to earn Saving Points. This way, at the end of the repayment period, Saving Points earned will be equal to Saving Points spent, and at that time they will be able to have back all their aftersavings. JAK also offers a couple of loans where you do not need any saving points. JAK Valuesfrom website: https://jak.se/content/jak-values Interest according to JAKJAK Medlemsbank promotes a society without interest. JAK Medlemsbank is interest-free, since the member’s doesn´t take interest from each other.We are against that one can make money only from having money. Like other banks JAK have costs for administration, which includes surplus to guarantee long-term sustainability and coverage of credit losses. Charges are being adjusted to the principle of prime cost so that it doesn´t cause redistribution of funds and profit is not given to owners. According to conventional meaning interest means the expectation of continuous revenue from capital or the charge of loan that is being charged by the lender. This means a redistribution of resources from those who have little to those who have plenty. We consider interest as being all payments of loans (borrowing and lending) that exceeds the actual and reasonable costs that the lender will have administrating this. Thus we make a distinction between what is paid as interest and what is paid as a cost or a charge of the loan. Values Within JAK Members Bank we air our values openly. All economic rules are based on the values of the people. Therefore, it is important that we talk about our underlying values before we make decisions and consider economic actions. At the annual meeting of the association, the members of JAK Members Bank have agreed upon the values, which form the basis for the activities within our bank. Extracts from JAK’s ideological program, adopted at the meeting of the association in 2002: We believe that:
|