Raiffeisen Switzerland is a cooperative of cooperatives – the union of all independent Swiss Raiffeisen banks. It bears responsibility for the business policy and strategy within the Raiffeisen Group. The 219 independent Raiffeisen banks of Switzerland are organised as cooperatives. With 896 branch offices in total, they make up the densest branch network of any Swiss bank. After the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, the Raiffeisen Group has become the second-largest banking group in Switzerland with client assets under management of 246.6 billion francs. Since June 2014, Raiffeisen has been classified as one of Switzerland's systemically important banks and must therefore meet special requirements in terms of capital. Raiffeisen Switzerland has 3.65 million clients in Switzerland, of whom approximately 1.9 million are cooperative members and thus co-owners of their regional Raiffeisen banks.

A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. They differ from collectives in that they are generally built from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down. Cooperatives may include:Worker cooperatives: businesses owned and managed by the people who work there Consumer cooperatives: businesses owned and managed by the people who consume goods and/or services provided by the cooperative Producer cooperatives: businesses where producers pool their output for their common benefit eg. Agricultural cooperatives Purchasing cooperatives where members pool their purchasing power Multi-stakeholder or hybrid cooperatives that share ownership between different stakeholder groups. For example, care cooperatives where ownership is shared between both care-givers and receivers. Stakeholders might also include non-profits or investors. Second- and third-tier cooperatives whose members are other cooperatives Platform cooperatives that use a cooperatively owned and governed website, mobile app or a protocol to facilitate the sale of goods and services.