Volume 66, Issue 4

Cooperative banks are distinguished by their special principles and values and their unique management structure, which differences them from other competitors in the financial sector. But are these characteristics still important in modern bank life? And, should this be the case, can these features contribute to the competitiveness of cooperative banks? Viewed in the context of the new Basel III regulations, these questions are of special interest.

Todays apps are offering services that compete against the traditional business structures of cooperative banks. Taxi cooperatives have reacted on this by forbidding their members the use of those apps. This prohibition is, due to a current judgement by the Higher Regional Court in Nuremberg according to the cartel law, inadmissible and cannot be based on a privilege of the cooperative immanence. On the occasion of this decision the article shows that cooperatives aren’t able to evade themselves from the digital competition but that they should take this as a chance.