The new legal framework of the functioning of cooperative banks in Poland opens wider possibilities for the cooperative banking sector regarding the choice of model of association. One of the potential strategies for banks, which do not perceive the institutional protection scheme, created in the existing associations as an optimal solution, and which at the same time do not fulfil the requirements for conducting independent activity, is to establish a new associating bank and organize around it an association based on a deeper integration, but without the mutual guaranties of its participants in the scope of ensuring liquidity and solvency. The proposed solution applies both to the cooperative bank – through modelling its design on the basis of an apex bank, as well as the association – designed with the application of the integrated association model. The main aim of this article is to present the theoretical model of the apex associating bank which may find application in the designing of association, integrated association, as well as the institutional protection scheme.

The conducted analyses are to be used as verification of the hypothesis that the described model of apex bank shall:
1) provide cooperative banks with all the benefits associated with the activity within the framework of the association structure, and at the same time
2) enable the significant reduction of risk in the activity of the associating bank, and in consequence the risk of incurring by the cooperative banks the costs of materialization of risk generated by apex bank and
3) may contribute to the reduction of costs of functioning of the associating bank, and as a result also – the costs of services provided by that bank in favour of associated cooperative banks.

Organizing the association of cooperative banks around apex bank, may contribute also to the release of part of the financial resources of cooperative banks, involved so far with their capital in the associating banks, which conduct commercial activity, as well as within the framework of liquidity support for those banks. Subsequently, the increase of involvement of the network of cooperative banks organized in such a way in the crediting action in the traditional areas of activity of those banks can be expected, among others, in the local government sector. Because the locally operating cooperative banks are a natural source of financing for the entities of the local government and related entities of the public finance sector and local government companies. The organizational and legal solutions propounded in this article, meeting the expectations of cooperative banks, may also indirectly contribute to the increase of availability of financing provided by those banks to local governments and their entities through such instruments as loans or municipal bonds. Consequently, they may be regarded as beneficial from the point of view of practical implementation of the principle of providing the local communities with the access to domestic capital market expressed in Article 9 (8) of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.
The implementation of the research goal adopted in this study requires the application of legal methods, such as in particular the general theoretical method and the formal-dogmatic method.