CIBP is an international non-governmental organisation representing banking and financial institutions specifically targeted at supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual customers. At present, CIBP has members in 22 countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, CEEC* & Malta, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Turkey.

It was founded in 1950, when a group of 9 credit institutions from different countries met in Saint Malo with the purpose of establishing a network for co-operation.

Most of its member institutions have a co-operative statute including solidarity and guarantee mechanisms. They tend to have a decentralised structure with one or more federal bodies in charge of representation, monitoring and financial support. This decentralised nature means that they benefit from a network of regional banks closely involved in local economic life, allowing members to be particularly attentive to their customers' needs and therefore able to provide the right solution for each client.

CIBP is thus a central point that gathers banking and financial organisations with similar customers and common concerns, promotes each other's achievements and encourages exchanges of experiences and partnership agreements.

CIBP is structured as follows:

• The Executive Committee is CIBP’s decision-making body. It consists of top management delegates elected by the General Assembly. Meetings take place at least once a year.

• The Presidential Committee is made up of the President and the Vice-Presidents and its mission is to establish the strategic orientations of CIBP.

• The General Secretariat is the permanent body of CIBP. It is responsible for the efficient running of CIBP’s activities. It monitors the meetings, prepares and organises the work of the Confederation. It promotes and develops the different initiatives to ensure the smooth circulation among members of reports, good practices, and topics of general interest in order to facilitate their implementation within member organisations.

• The Working Groups are made up of experts coming from the members, who meet regularly to study possible strategies and solutions for the topics selected by the Executive Committee.

^*Central & Eastern European Countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.