The EACB is pleased to announce the launch of “The performance of European cooperative banks in 2022 - a snapshot”. The analytical assessment evaluates 18 leading European cooperative banking groups, relative to all their banking competitors. The research paper, prepared by academics at Tilburg University, has tracked performance for the last 20 years.
"This 2023 snapshot highlights once again the critical importance of cooperative banks to the European economy and its people. Cooperative banks are some of the main taxpayers in their local areas and are often the largest local corporate lenders. They are strongly committed to the funding of SMEs, contributing to the sustainable economic development of diverse European regions while ensuring fair access to credit for many local businesses. The impressive performance of cooperative banks is a strong reminder of how paramount diversity and choice in banking are, something all European citizens should enjoy equally." N. SCHINDLER, Chief Executive Officer of the EACB.
Five preeminent facts this year:
- The market share of cooperative banks has risen to its highest ever recorded levels.
- Economic performance at cooperative banks exceeded that of other banks.
- Cooperative banks increased employment by almost 1%.
- Membership of cooperative banks has grown to almost 89 million, representing one in five inhabitants of the 13 countries in the review.
- Cooperative banks continue to be more likely to maintain local branches
About the Author
Prof. dr. Hans Groeneveld is Professor of Cooperative Financial Services. He studied quantitative macroeconomics at Erasmus University Rotterdam and completed his PhD in the monetary economy at University of Maastricht. His professional career began at the CPB in the department Labour and Social Security. He then worked for over ten years at De Nederlandsche Bank in the monetary respectively supervision directorate. Currently he is also Associate Director Cooperative & Control at Rabobank. There he is involved in strategic and organisational projects. He represents Rabobank in many networks in the national and international cooperative world. Previously, he held various senior and management positions at Rabobank. He was Senior Consultant Corporate Strategy, Dep. Chief Economist, Head of SME Sector Management and Director of International Services.
Prof. dr. Groeneveld is a board member of the International Raiffeisen Union in Germany, member of the EACB Academic Advisory Group in Brussels, member of the Scientific Committee of the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises in Italy, and the Co-operative Business Education Consortium in Canada. He has published extensively on monetary policy, banking, cooperative banks and strategic and organizational issues in academic and policy journals.