Fusionen von Genossenschaftsbanken haben in den vergangenen Jahren im genossenschaftlichen Finanzverbund große Bedeutung erlangt. Dies wird von den beiden IfG-Mitarbeitern Dirk Lamprecht und Christian Strothmann zum Anlass genommen, sich grundsätzlich mit den Bewertungsmethoden bei...

This paper suggests a motive for bank mergers that goes beyond alleged and typically unverifiable scale economies: preemtive resolution of banks' financial distress. Such "distress mergers" can be a significant motivation for mergers because they can foster reorganizations, realize...

Motivated by the recent discussion of the declining importance of deposits as banks' major source of funding we investigate which factors determine funding costs at local banks. Using a panel data set of more than 800 German local savings and cooperative banks for the period from 1998 to 2004 we...

Cooperation among savings and cooperative banks was criticized by the European Commission because of potentially anti-competitive effects. In an industrial economics model of banks taking deposits and giving loans we look at regional demarcation as one of such cooperative practices. There are...

A healthy banking system is a fundamental condition for financial stability. When assessing the riskiness of the banking system, analysts often restrict their focus to large banks. This may create a distorted picture in countries like Germany with fragmented banking systems. In Germany, savings...

This paper analyzes the effect of the business cycle on the regulatory capital buffer of German savings and cooperative banks in the period 1993-2003. The capital buffer is found to fluctuate anticyclically over the business cycle. The fluctuation is stronger for savings banks than for...

In this paper, we show the importance of accounting for heterogeneity among sample firms in stochastic frontier analysis. For a fairly homogenous sample of German savings and cooperative banks, we analyze how alternative theoretical assumptions regarding the nature of heterogeneity can be...

Im Rahmen des vorliegenden Bandes arbeitet der Verfasser heraus, dass es grundsätzlich auch für kleinere Banken möglich ist, entsprechende Verfahren einzuführen. Voraussetzung dafür ist allerdings, dass die Thematik seitens der Bank offensiv und engagiert angegangen wird, man sich...

Microfinance is not a recent development, and neither is the development of regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Every now developed country has its own history of microfinance. It is important to recognize this because it presents a view different from that of many in...