Resumen de Networking, Governance, and Stakeholder Engagement of Financial Cooperatives: Some National Case Studies

Ermanno Tortia, Silvia Sacchetti

• We discuss the nature and relevance of networking among financial cooperatives (FCs) starting from the historical and institutional development of FCs in different countries, particularly in The Netherlands (Rabobank Netherlands), Canada (Desjardins Group), and Italy (Cassa Centrale Banca and ICCREA). There are important structural similarities in the evolution of FC networks in different countries, but they appeared diachronically and evolved in different patterns at different times. In particular: (i) the spontaneous emergence of FCs and their spontaneous tendency to create collaborative and non-competitive networks of actors and organizations with similar motivations and goals; (ii) the spontaneous and gradual evolution of networks from a consensual and informal form, which nonetheless registers high degrees of compliance, mutual support, and collective action, to more formalized forms that assume increasingly important strategic and supervisory functions; (iii) the creation of a central institution owned by the grassroots FCs that assumes the role of controller, lender of last resort, and service provider; (iv) the increasing concentration of the network through pronounced merger and acquisition (M&A) processes, and the development over time of unified and integrated governance.