 The merging project was announced in March 2012 and completed eight months later, in September 2012, although the new company was not officially presented until April 2013.Caja Laboral – Euskadiko Kutxa was founded in 1959 by José María Arizmendiarrieta, a young catholic priest who had arrived to the small town of Mondragón in 1943 and had since then stablished a technical college and had helped create a few co-operatives, such as ULGOR (later known as Fagor), Funcor (currently Fagor Ederlan), Arrasate (currently Fagor Arrasate) and the San Jose Consumer's Cooperative (later and nowadays known as Eroski).Those co-operatives would be the first members of what is now called the Mondragon Corporation and, according to Arizmendiarrieta's plan, the credit union would serve as a financial instrument for them.