Dutch lender Rabobank Groep has agreed to fund the Netherlands’ first prostitute-run brothel.
The bank will provide a credit line of “a few hundred thousand euros” for the renovation, furniture and other startup costs of 14 rooms spread over four buildings in the center of Amsterdam, said Carlo Verhart, a Rabobank spokesman. The brothel will be run by My Red Light, a foundation led by five sex workers.
“Their business plan looked really good,” Verhart said by phone. “We’re a cooperative bank and we’re proud to support a fellow cooperation.” He declined to disclose the terms of the loan or details of the business plan…
…Rabobank, a closely held cooperative formed in 1898 to serve Dutch farmers, is the second-largest lender in the Netherlands by assets.
Cooperatives have a long and democratic history in many nations. Even in the GOUSA. Not this liberated, of course.