Large Ecuador Cooperatives Still Have 8.3% Loan Delinquency

What happened

Loan stress remains elevated inside Ecuador's large credit cooperatives.

Ecuador has 394 savings and credit cooperatives, and 44 are considered large because they have assets above USD 80 million. Those large cooperatives carry most of the system's credit exposure.

As of May 2026, Ecuador's cooperative sector had USD 20.288 billion in total credit portfolio. Large cooperatives, also known as segment 1 cooperatives, represented 78% of that portfolio, according to the Superintendency of Popular and Solidarity Economy.

The delinquency number

For large cooperatives, loan delinquency was 6.42% in June 2023. The indicator began rising in February 2024 and crossed the 8% level during the recession period.

By June 2026, delinquency in large cooperatives was 8.3%, still above its pre-recession level.

Edgar Penaherrera, manager of the Ecuadorian Network for Integration of Savings and Credit Cooperatives, said the recovery has been complicated because the recession hit many one-person businesses, which are among the borrowers cooperatives serve most often.

Where the pressure is strongest

The highest delinquency is in microcredit, the type of credit aimed at entrepreneurs and small businesses.

In June 2026, unpaid microcredit in large cooperatives reached 10.81%. Consumer-credit delinquency was 7.24%.

Penaherrera said the microcredit segment has been affected not only by the 2024 recession but also by persistent problems such as heavy winter conditions on the Coast and extortion affecting small merchants.

What This Means for Expats

If you are an expat with money in Ecuador, this is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to understand where your savings sit.

Cooperatives are a major part of Ecuador's financial system, and many foreign residents use them for savings products, local transfers, or higher-yield certificates. But a cooperative is not the same thing as a bank, and risk varies by institution.

The useful step is boring but important: know your cooperative, know whether it is segment 1, understand deposit-insurance limits, and avoid concentrating money in one institution just because a rate looks attractive.

For small-business owners, the microcredit number also says something about the real economy. Borrowers tied to local commerce are still working through the aftereffects of recession, insecurity, and climate shocks.

The headline is not that Ecuador's cooperative system is collapsing. The headline is that credit stress has not fully normalized, and expats should treat high yields as something to evaluate carefully, not as free money.

Source: Primicias.