The EACB is pleased to announce the release of its annual publication “European co-operative banks in 2024: a concise assessment ”. The analytical assessment evaluates 18 leading European cooperative banking groups, relative to their banking competitors. Prepared by prof. Dr. Hans Groeneveld, Tilburg University, the research paper has tracked the sector's performance across Europe for the last 20 years.
“In 2024, European cooperative banks showed what member-driven banking can achieve: they welcomed 1.9 million new members, strengthened their role as stable employers, and continued to expand loans and deposits to the real economy while keeping market shares and capital ratios at record levels. 2024 certainly stands out as a year in which resilience, local member engagement, and sustainable growth of the stakeholder-driven, cooperative banking clearly outperformed short‑term, shareholder‑driven banking.” - Nina SCHINDLER, EACB CEO
"The figures for 2024 once again reveal structural differences between cooperative banks and all other banks. As always, cooperative banks have granted more new loans to individuals and businesses. Their income and returns are also more stable. This year, banks have been examined more closely in their role as employers. It appears that cooperative banks not only have reduced their workforce much less since 2011, but that fluctuations in their employment levels have also been much smaller. This indicates that they pursue a different strategy and business model and are more stable employers." - Prof. Dr. Hans GROENEVELD, Tilburg University
5 preeminent facts in 2024:
- Cooperative banks welcomed 1.9 million new members. Membership for these banking groups now stands at more than 91 million, reaching an all-time high member-to-population ratio of 21.4.
- Full-time employment at cooperative banks rose by 2%, the strongest increase since 2011. It also appears that employment trends at cooperative banks are less volatile, suggesting that cooperative banks are more stable employers.
- Cooperative banks managed to stabilise their market shares at record levels. As in many previous years, the loan portfolio of cooperative banks grew faster (2.9%) than that of all other banks (1.6%). Except for 2013 and 2024, deposits at cooperative banks have also consistently increased at a higher rate.
- Cooperative banks structurally operate with a significantly larger share of – stable – deposit funding than all other banks in terms of aggregated balance sheet total (52% versus 40% in 2024, respectively).
- Regarding key banking ratios, cooperative banks’ average Tier 1 ratio showed an upward jump of a full percentage point to 19.1%, breaking the 2023 record. Their average return on equity remained high at 9.1% and their average cost-to-income ratio hit the lowest level in decades (52.2%).