Are Cooperative Banks Better Equipped to Weather Financial Crisis than their Commercial Counterparts? Evidence from the Italian Banking Sector before and during the Credit Crisis

Background and Purpose: The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the performance of different types of Italian banks before and during the recent credit crisis with an emphasis on the behaviour of cooperative banks. It is well established in theory that cooperative banks follow more conservative business strategies and care more for stakeholders in comparison to commercial banks. On this background, the paper tries to show the empirical effects of those characteristics on the cooperative bank’s performance during financial distress compared to commercial banks. In fact, the paper can prove that Italian cooperative banks were less exposed to the shocks of the crisis and showed a better performance.