In Europe beside commercial banks there is another developed sector of banking system – cooperative banks. Their history began in the middle of the XIX century when first cooperative organizations were founded. Some of them, “Rabobank” (Netherlands), “Credit Agricole” (France), “DZ Bank” (Germany) are among the largest and most powerful banks in the world. They have high influence and high level of stability which were proofed by the Word Financial Crisis in 2008-2009 during which they demonstrated higher stability than commercial banks.
One of the most powerful banking sectors in Europe is German. It is highly segmented with its traditional three-pillar structure of (private) commercial banks, cooperative banks and public-sector institutions, plus a number of other banks [1]. The German banking sector is interesting because of the very high developed cooperative network system with significant history. Germany cooperative bank sector exists more than one hundred years. First cooperative banks were founded in the middle of XIX century on the land of modern Germany. They are an example of effectiveness, stability and reliability.
According to the Annual consolidated financial statements of the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken Cooperative Financial Network for 2014 system characterized by the next indicators:
Source: “Annual consolidated financial statements of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Cooperative Financial Network for 2014” [2]
German Cooperative bank system has three-level structure. The first level is the local cooperative banks which are counted more than 1000. [3]. Second and third levels are the regional and central cooperative banks. As in other sectors of economy in the banking sector is observed tendency of the merging. From 1970 to 2014 number of cooperative banks has declined from 7096 to 1047. Number of branches has declined from 18339 to 12770 [4]. At the same time total assets of cooperative banks have increased from €33,85 bn. to €787,9 bn.
Cooperative banks play significant role in the Germany banking system and in economy too. They are one of the biggest sources of the financial resources for farmers and agricultural enterprises. Agriculture (EUR 49 bn, following strong growth in recent years) has traditionally been the domain of the cooperative banks, which partly trace their roots back to the Raiffeisen banks that were set up by farmers to afford themselves mutual support. Half of the lending market for agricultural operations is claimed by the credit cooperatives, with the savings banks coming a distant second. The private commercial banks, by contrast, are under-represented (their market share is increasing nevertheless) [1].
Conclusions
Cooperative banks play significant role in the German banking sector. Especially this concerns lending to the agriculture producers. Cooperative banks have huge share of the lending business to agriculture. And this share have increased from 46% in 2005 to 50% in 2015 [1]. German experience shows important role of cooperative banks in the development of agriculture and its stable functioning.
The principal features of the German cooperative bank system are:
• historic experience (German cooperative financial network was founded in the middle of XIX century);
• three-level structure (local, regional and central cooperative banks);
• high stability because of the financial support from other members;
• high role of the cooperative banks in the development of the agriculture.
References:
1. The official site of the Deutsche Bank Jan (2015), “German bank lending: Market share developments in individual sectors”, available at: https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000365479/German_bank_lending%3A_Market_share_developments_in_.PDF (Accessed 5 February 2016).
2. The official site of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (2015), “Annual consolidated financial statements of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Cooperative Financial Network for 2014”, available at http://www.bvr.de/p.nsf/0/B2B02DFA3B951CA6C1257D0A00564B59/$file/EN-PK_Juli_2015_F&F.pdf (Accessed 10 February 2016).
3. The official site of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (2015), “Facts and figures”, available at http://www.bvr.de/Press/Facts_and_figures (Accessed 10 February 2016).
4. The official site of the Bundesverband der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (2015), http://www.bvr.de/p.nsf/0/F0F8A6D1636D3A1CC12 57D0A00540564/$file/Development_since1970.pdf (Accessed 22 February 2016).
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