Zold Alap
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 | |
 Villa Tzillaghaza in Angrast, seat of the ZZ-Alp' central commission | |
Native name | |
|---|---|
| public cooperative | |
| Industry | Retail banking Commercial banking Investment banking Private banking Wealth management Asset management |
| Founded | July 7, 1924 |
| Headquarters | Drevstran |
Area served | Drevstran |
| Revenue |  8.19 billion solidus |
| 2.2 billion solidus | |
| 1.3 billion solidus | |
| Total assets |  300 billion solidus |
Number of employees | 91,000 (2020) |
The Green Saving Bank, also known as the Zold-Zelena Fund or simply ZZ-Alp is a Drevstranese international banking group that operate as a network of independent local "Saving Banks" united and coordinated by a central institute based in Angrast. It's the second largest banking group in Drevstran with assets totalizing around 300 billion Solidus and with 900 branch offices in total, it has the densest branch network of any Drevstranese bank. This network offered services to around 20 million clients in Drevstran, with 11 million being cooperative members and thus co-owners of their local banks.
History
Before the creation of the Green Saving Bank, farmers in Drevstran had set up since the 19th century local Rotating savings and credit associations known as Hártatázok. These groups were part of a wider Anarchist and Communalist movement that became popular in Drevstran during the second half of the 19th century. Defiance toward official institutions and fear of repression led to the Hartatazok organising themselves into militant organisation capable of controlling multiple villages without the involvment of the legal authorities. These organisation would go on to play local roles during the Drevstranese Civil War, notably in the Sevrodomark where their network was the densest against General Gyorgy Mazravem who would perpetrate many war crimes against local civilians, always suspect in his eyes of supporting the Hartatazok.
The Hartatazok did not survive the Civil War, bled out by Mazravem' repression and the destructions of capitals brought by the conflict. Nonetheless, Jozef Kovak, an agronomist from the Medenzag and partisan of Vilvo Orbraggar, took inspiration from the Hartatazok' model to create new financial institutions capable of spearheading the reconstruction of the agricultural world, almost entirely destroyed by the civil war.
In 1919 and 1920, laws were passed by the new Parliament of Drevstran to give a legal basis to the farming unions de-facto created by Vilvo Orbraggar during the war to secure and control the countryside. Drawing on the experience of both these farming unions and of the Hartatazok' survivors, Jozed Kovak created the first agricultural mutual bank in 1920, quickly followed by many more across the Furodomark, Medenzag, and Sevrodomark regions. Contrary to these predecessors, these were full-fledged Cooperative banks set up by local elites (agronomists, teachers, property owners...) dealing in both short-term (advances on harvests) and long-term (investments in equipment and livestock) loans.
Unfortunately, these banks had no legal advantage to help them in their mission and they soon ended up facing grave financial problems. Using his position in the Assembly, Jozef Kovak was able to convince Vilvo Orbraggar that the cooperative banks would be the most efficient way to rebuild Drevstran' agriculture. An agreement was found where the National Bank of Drevstran would provide low-interest loans to the "Green Saving Banks" (as they had become known) but on the condition that a central "cooperative of cooperatives" was created to bring together all the local banks, to redistribute funds depending on their needs, and to act as their clearing organisation.