Analysis of the internal control process in savings and credit cooperatives

Abstract

Savings and credit cooperatives are socioeconomic entities with the capacity to meet the economic needs of their members and influence the welfare of the community and society through effective and efficient administrative processes, while respecting the principles and values of the international cooperative movement. In Ecuador, these types of entities are part of the social and solidarious economy sector in the financial sphere and play an important role, since they achieve equity in access to financial resources in an environment where large banking institutions prevail. The objective of the research was to analyze the internal control process of the 14 Savings and Credit Cooperatives of the canton "La Maná", province of Cotopaxi, for which the COSO model questionnaire was adapted, applied as part of the observation method, and finally descriptive statistics were applied for the analysis of the data obtained. It was determined that the Control Environment, Control Activities and Supervision and Monitoring components have a high level of performance, while the Risk Assessment and Information and Communication components showed a lower level of compliance in the cooperatives studied.