Ms Teodora Corcoran:

In the 1970s, co-operatives were prohibited from engaging in deposit taking, apart from agricultural or fishing co-operatives that could do it, albeit not as their main activity. We are repealing the 1978 legislation but this is what we are putting in the new legislation. The idea is that they cannot engage in deposit taking. They cannot act as a bank. They must be using the services and should not be engaging in the financial sphere. There is more regulation nowadays. The Central Bank is in this space and companies are heavily regulated when they are acting in this space. We do not believe there is scope for co-operatives to work in this area.