The financial structure regime of cooperatives in the new portuguese Cooperative Code

<p>This study analyses the major points of development of the cooperative financial structure regime after the reform of the Portuguese Cooperative Code. In order to ensure the sustainability of the cooperative, providing it with appropriate mechanisms to be efficient on the market, the reform introduced the figure of investor members, reduced the amount of the minimum share capital, extended the list of statutory limits on exercising the right to reimbursement, strengthened the guarantee function of the share capital and of the legal reserve. In the modernization of the cooperative financial structure regime the legislator did not abdicate of the preservation of the cooperative identity, continuing to recognize the variability of the share capital, the indivisibility of the mandatory reserves and of the reserves established with results from transactions with non-members, and the specificities of the reserve for cooperative education and training. Nevertheless, the legal approach to the problem of determination and allocation of revenues from cooperative economic activity is considered to be insufficient.</p><p><strong>Received</strong>: 04.06.2016<br /><strong>Accepted</strong>: 05.09.2016