A few days ago, the Fucerep cooperative and the Seguros Surco company sealed an agreement that links them closely in a strategic expansion plan, through which they will seek to expand and improve services to their clients. The negotiations had begun a year ago.
The president of Fucerep, Carlos Díaz, said that this alliance means that his institution is integrated with a capital contribution in Surco and, with it, it will have the possibility of integrating the assembly of partners and the Board of Directors.
“We are eight partner cooperatives that make up the social capital of Surco. We are one more partner and we are going to contribute from wherever we touch, in terms of the resolutions and the potential that we have with our products and services”, said Díaz.
In this sense, he pointed out that each one has “something that others do not have” and in this way support and complementarity arise “that will result in benefits for the parties involved.”
Fucerep is the only Financial Intermediation Cooperative in Uruguay, and not just a “savings and credit” cooperative where you take out a loan. “With intermediation, we do almost all the activities that a bank does, but with certain limitations. The fact of having all those services and those possibilities, not only increases our business but also helps us to promote intercooperation”, Díaz deepened.
The head of Fucerep remarked that within his institution everyone is “very clear” that among the cooperative principles, intercooperation is something that “many of us talk about but few do.” And, precisely, the link with Surco Seguros is within that spectrum of collaboration and business expansion.
Camila Casas
Satisfaction with the agreement reached.
“Surco is a prestigious company in the insurance industry, it is found throughout the country. And it is made up of cooperatives of different types and we thought it was a good idea to join. Our entry is going to generate some synergies for Surco that we cooperatives have to try to boost their activity and try to have another Díazmás element to offer to the clients they have through their services”, explained Díaz.
Fucerep was born in 1974 and currently has more than 20 thousand affiliate accounts; in Cooperative Banking, it serves employees of public and private companies, salaried workers, micro and small companies throughout the country. “We have gone through very difficult times, such as the 2002 crisis, and we did not have any problems. We have always taken safe steps to overcome complicated situations and not get dizzy when the periods are good”, affirmed its president.
empower
In Surco Seguros they also have the image that it is a step towards strengthening both entities. “That an institution of the prestige of Fucerep has viewed us as an investment possibility, speaks of the validity of the project and the future of our company. Surco is turning 30 years old, and it comforts us to see that our project continues to be seen as a reality,” said Walter Ocampos, president of Surco Seguros.
For years, Fucerep has been insuring loans and goods with Surco, confirming with this association a business that works for both parties.
“Most of our partners have a commercial activity with the company, based on purely business parameters. The company is looked at as a whole, not only in customer service”, explained Ocampos.
For the president of Surco, the agreement closes on all four sides. “Surco is also going to provide another vision; Here different visions of the partners are congenial. Fucerep is a cooperative that is going to contribute its perspective from the point of view of financial intermediation. Later, with those of the other partners, they amalgamate in strategic planning and set the course for us. They enrich the proposals”.
Ocampos recalled that when Surco was founded, in 1992, the insurance activity was not yet regulated as it is today –it was done in 1993– and that at that time the market was a monopolistic activity of the Insurance Bank. Over the course of these three decades, Surco managed to incorporate foreign partners, which contributed to adding branches such as the automotive and agricultural sectors. “We have been consolidating and growing until we began to develop and diversify in insurance, which is one of the keys,” said Ocampos.
The president of Surco Seguros is clear that the cooperative market has a “very important” potential and they “point” to it. Surco has three savings and credit cooperatives as partners, two consumer cooperatives, two foreign insurance cooperatives, and now one for financial intermediation. “That is marking the insurance market and this submarket is very interesting for us. And the knowledge of the parties in the insurance is a business of transparency and good faith. Knowledge of the parties is critical to this,” he said.
“It is a very interesting message for the market in terms of visualizing a company that continues to grow. Now Fucerep is beginning to participate in the board of directors and is going to propose the opening of possible businesses that we will be analyzing”, concluded Ocampos.
