AShinkin bank (信用金庫,Shin-yō kinko, literally "credit treasury") is a type ofJapanesedeposit institution.

They are cooperative regional financial institutions serving small and medium enterprises and local residents. Anyone who lives, works, or has an office in the region served by the bank can become a member. However, companies with over 300 employees are prohibited from membership.

TheShinkin Central Bank serves as thecentral bank for the Shinkin banks. In this role it makes loans to and accepts deposits from Shinkin banks. The supervising authority is theFinancial Services Agency.

Shinkin banks were founded in 1951. They were created to serve some of the same functions ascredit unions, but can accept deposit from non-members (inside and outside their area) without limitation and make loans to the "graduated" (outgrew the membership qualifications) members.^[1]

As of March 2017, there were 264 Shinkin banks with $1,229 billion in deposits.

• Information from the Shinkin Central Bank
• Statistics of Shinkin Banks from Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute

• Banks of Japan

• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles containing Japanese-language text