Pierre Jay

As a banking commissioner, Pierre Jay studied unauthorized banking practices in Massachusetts. His studies made him aware of several groups of employees that started their own informal savings and loan organizations, without the proper legal foundation. Jay believed that these small associations were providing a needed service, and wanted to recommend a way to make them legal.

Jay was familiar with the writings of the European economist Henry Wolff, who wrote about the success of "people's banks." From Wolff's writings, Jay turned to the work of the Canadian cooperative leader, Alphonse Desjardins, with whom he began a chain of correspondence. This resulted in a 1908 conference in Boston in which Desjardins, Jay, Edward Filene, and other public-spirited citizens participated. Working with Desjardins, Jay prepared the legislation for what was to become the first general state credit union act in the United States.