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An industrial and provident society (IPS) is a body corporate registered for carrying on any industries, businesses, or trades specified in or authorised by its rules.[1]
The members of a society benefit from the protection of limited liability much like other corporate forms, but unlike companies for example, each member will normally only have one vote at a General Meeting regardless of their shareholding. The governance of a society is therefore democratically oriented rather than financially oriented.
The legal form originated in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and became the traditional legal form taken by trading organisations with democratic governance including:
- co-operatives (which trade for the benefit of their members);
- societies for the benefit of the community (which trade for the benefit of the broader community).
In Great Britain the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 has renamed these societies as co-operative or community benefit societies.
The term industrial and provident society is still used in statute in New Zealand,[2] the Republic of Ireland[3] and within the UK in Northern Ireland.[4]
- ^ "Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1893". Act of 1893. Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- ^ "Industrial and provident societies".
- ^ "RFS - Registration of Society or Union".
- ^ "NI Credit Unions and Societies | Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI)". Archived from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2015.