CDA grants special cooperative license to DigiCOOP

THE Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) has granted a special type of cooperative license to DigiCOOP Technology Service Cooperative (DTSC), the first technology service cooperative in the Philippines.

DigiCOOP primarily aims to accelerate tech transformation and provide web and mobile banking capability to its members.

Prompted by the need for cooperatives to be able to develop and provide a complete technology platform and transaction apps for their members, CDA issued Memorandum 2021-14 in November 2021, which includes guidelines for the registration of a technology service cooperative (TSC), a special type of cooperative organized among registered cooperatives of all types and categories.

Under CDA’s TSC memorandum, DTSC is expected to pool its resources to introduce technological innovations, particularly in supporting members of its cooperative through e-commerce, portals and innovative ways of bridging the gap in market access.

“We are honored to be the first to organize and apply for registration under this special type of cooperative. With this, DTSC envisions to offer e-commerce-related products to accelerate the digitization of cooperative operations among our members,” said Ann Cuisia, founding president and chief executive officer of DTSC.

Assistant Secretary Vidal Villanueva 3rd, head of the CDA’s Credit and Financial Services, Banking, Insurance and Credit Surety Fund Cooperatives Cluster, said that this step is a response to the changing needs of the cooperatives sector.

“While some cooperatives — particularly the bigger ones — have already started their own digital systems, there is still room to improve their smaller counterparts’ access to online services. The special type of cooperative will give us the opportunity to build the digital infrastructure for our movement,” Villanueva said.

According to Cuisia, DigiCOOP is the first Philippine cooperativeowned technology platform for cooperatives. It will be focused and dedicated for cooperatives that aims to “RevolutiUnite” the Philippine cooperative sector through digitalization of banking and finance, insurance and health care, e-commerce and value chain, and management and logistics using the latest technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and blockchain