This bank was founded by a local business network, and it’s saving them $2.5B a year.

The year was 1934, and Switzerland was going through a strong recession along with the rest of the depression-period world. The Swiss franc suffered from currency shortages ,spending slowed, and the weak, crisis-struck credit system made bankruptcy a threat for many.

Amidst this downturn many businesses turned to trading directly with each other, bartering for basics and clearing small debts work or spare inventory as payment.

Enter Werner Zimmermann and Paul Enz, two entrepreneurs that saw a huge opportunity in leveraging this trust between businesses. They designed an internal credit system that allowed trading inventory and service hours without the need for money.

What started with 16 businesses quickly expanded, with WIR trading fairs appearing all over the country. By early 1935, WIR listed more than 1,000 account holders trading for everything from groceries to carpentry to accounting.

Seeking to expand their growth to more industries they introduced an interest-free credit line, where businesses could commit future sales in return for upstart capital to make their first purchases.

The 2014 WIR conference

Through the decades WIR bank has become an incredible testament to the power of mutual credit. Since it’s launch it has to grown to connect some 63,000 businesses that trade an average of $2.5B annually.

The network is accredited with Switzerland’s economic stability, soaking up the deal-loss caused by money shortages in times of bust, and acting as a lifevest for businesses in need.

Now and then

The world has changed quite a bit since 1934. Today we can use the internet to allow inter-trading on a global scale. And that’s exactly why we’ve created Credex.

We are a group of passionate believers in the power of mutual credit to transform the lives of

small businesses. We’ve all had businesses of our own; we’ve all faced similar challenges, with debt & lack of working capital holding us back.

We learned that many potential deals don’t happen every day because of money barriers, causing shortage cycles… When I can’t afford to buy from you, you can’t to buy from the next person, and so on.

This causes us all to have unsold goods and services we could trade with other.

Barter networks have proven themselves as a great solution for this, and it’s time to bring them to this new generation of professionals and artisans.

Why loan & debt when you can trade and fly?