ABSTRACT

Cooperative banks perform a strong role in the EU economies and the banking sectors. In 2015, an Italian reform forced the Italian cooperative banks with assets higher than 8 billion euros to leave their mutual nature (one head one vote) and to transform into limited companies. The rationale underlying this law would support the idea that corporation is a superior banking model than the cooperative one, at least for larger banks. However, in many European countries (France, Germany, The Netherlands, Finland, etc.), large cooperative banks still operate and represent leading banks in national and international economies. Using a sample of 253 European commercial banks, of which 68 cooperatives, from 8 European countries, where the cooperative model is important (as it was in Italy, before the reform), we found that in 2019 larger cooperative banks (i.e., with assets higher than 8 billion euros) have lower systematic and business risk, better asset quality, are more oriented to finance the local real economy as well as to satisfy their customers (borrowers and depositors) rather than their shareholders, in comparison with comparable non-cooperatives. In addition, they are more homogeneous among themselves and adopt a stable and recognizable business model, no matter if they differ in size. Therefore, more than 10 years after the 2008 crisis, they still represent a good model of financial sustainability.

摘要

合作银行在欧盟经济和银行业中发挥着重要作用。2015年，意大利的一项改革迫使资产超过80亿欧元的意大利合作银行放弃相互性质（一人一票）) 并转变为有限公司。该法律的基本原理将支持这样一种观点，即公司是一种优于合作银行的银行模式，至少对于大型银行而言是这样。然而，在许多欧洲国家（法国、德国、荷兰、芬兰等），大型合作银行仍在运营，并代表国内和国际经济中的领先银行。使用合作模式很重要的 8 个欧洲国家的 253 家欧洲商业银行（其中 68 家合作社）的样本（如意大利改革前的情况），我们发现 2019 年规模较大的合作银行（即拥有资产的合作银行） 80 亿欧元以上）系统性和业务风险较低，资产质量较好，与可比的非合作社相比，它们更倾向于为当地实体经济融资并满足其客户（借款人和存款人）而不是股东。此外，它们之间的同质化程度更高，无论规模大小如何，都采用稳定且可识别的商业模式。因此，在 2008 年危机之后的 10 多年后，它们仍然代表了财务可持续性的良好模式。