Delegates from Costa Rica's Coopenae and CoopeAnde savings and credit cooperatives voted on 17 October 2026 to merge by absorption, creating a financial group with about 1.62 trillion colones, roughly US$3.58 billion, in assets. The deal isn't done. Regulators and the country's competition authority still need to sign off.
The Deal
Under the plan, Coopenae will survive and absorb CoopeAnde, which will dissolve as a legal entity. The combined organization would operate under the Coopenae brand. Separate extraordinary assemblies at the Costa Rica Convention Center approved the deal, and organizers announced the result after 5 p.m. They didn't publish vote counts or the number of delegates present.
Adrián Álvarez, Coopenae's general manager, called the vote a concrete step toward consolidation and said the cooperatives would now move through the regulatory stages responsibly. Alexandra Márquez Massino, CoopeAnde's general manager, said the decision answered a long-term vision in the face of technological change.
Size and Market Position
The numbers are substantial. Sugef's July 2026 data show Coopenae holding 948.2 billion colones, about US$2.09 billion, and CoopeAnde holding 674.2 billion colones, about US$1.49 billion. El Financiero reported that the merged group would rank as Costa Rica's fourth-largest private financial intermediary, ahead of Banco Promérica at 1.35 trillion colones, about US$2.98 billion, and Grupo Mutual at 1.06 trillion colones, about US$2.34 billion.
La Nación used figures dated 1 August, putting Coopenae at 952.5 billion colones and CoopeAnde at 664.0 billion, and rounded the combined total to about 1.6 trillion colones, or US$3.5 billion. Dollar conversions use the central bank's reference selling rate of 453.48 colones per dollar on 18 October 2026, so they'll shift with the exchange rate. The combined loan portfolio stands at 1.09 trillion colones, about US$2.40 billion.
The Regulatory Gauntlet
The cooperatives must now formalize their request to Sugef, which reviews the plan and passes it to Conassif, the national council that supervises the financial system. Coprocom, the competition commission, must also approve the deal. Sugef has said the organizations will remain under separate supervision until a final decision.
Álvarez told El Financiero he expected the regulatory requirements to be met by December 2026, about two months from now. That's the cooperatives' expectation, not a regulator's commitment. No one has published an approval or decision date. After approval, the internal merger process could take one or two years.
Members, Staff and Branches
Both cooperatives said they'd keep operating normally while approvals are pending. Members would retain current products, services and contracts. Coopenae would take on deposits and obligations under the originally agreed terms, including term and interest rate, while loans would keep their agreed conditions. Álvarez said CoopeAnde members' share capital was intended to pass "intact" to Coopenae, with each member's seniority and assembly rights unchanged.
Audited 2025 accounts show member share capital of 100.2 billion colones, about US$221 million, at Coopenae and 85.6 billion colones, about US$189 million, at CoopeAnde. Coopenae employs 798 people directly, and CoopeAnde employs 437. Together they run 38 branches.
Staffing remains less settled. Álvarez said most staff would stay, but headcount wouldn't remain exactly the same. The branch plan will come after approval because some branches sit close together. Álvarez stays on as Coopenae's general manager. Márquez Massino is to advise on integration; her longer-term role wasn't specified.
The Rationale
The managers argue that scale pays. A larger group, they said, could fund technology and corporate-governance investment and meet tougher regulatory demands. Álvarez estimated that reaching the same market share on its own could take 10 to 15 years. CRHoy noted that each cooperative has about 60 years of operating history. The sources didn't identify a single trigger for the merger beyond the managers' stated aims of scale and competitiveness.
Several questions remain open: the vote counts, the filing date, the staffing plan, the branch plan and the future role of CoopeAnde's manager.
Why This Matters:
This is a market consolidation story, and the facts cut both ways. Two member-owned lenders are choosing to combine rather than wait for regulators or competitors to force the issue, and they say rising compliance and technology costs favor larger balance sheets. That's a private decision made by their own delegates. But a group holding 1.62 trillion colones and 38 branches will draw scrutiny from Sugef, Conassif and Coprocom, and the outcome will show how Costa Rica weighs competition against financial stability. Job cuts and branch closures are likely questions once approval arrives. Members, who own these institutions, will judge whether scale delivers on the managers' promises.
- coopenae
- coopeande
- costa rica
- cooperative merger
- financial services
- sugef
- coprocom