Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments October 25, 2009 erstellt
Description:
Commercial banks are seen as shareholder value maximising banks, whereas savings banks may have a social or regional agenda and cooperative banks focus on providing value for their customer-owners. Hence, it is generally thought that savings and cooperative banks are less profitable than commercial banks. On the other hand, the risk-taking incentives are also lower. But is this really due to differences in objectives or rather due to differences in operational and ownership structure? The objective of this study is to answer this question. Using a sample of banks from 14 European countries, I find that the profitability and risk of savings and cooperative banks do differ from the one of commercial banks, but that the profitability and risk differences depend on the characteristics of the comparison group. Hence, it appears as if it is distinct operational and ownership characteristics rather than the mere fact that a bank is a savings or cooperative banks, which explain the differences in profitability and risk. Moreover, the profitability differences are smaller in countries with a competitive banking sector. These findings suggest that savings and cooperative banks are not to be treated as two homogenous groups of banks