This monograph aims at a presentation of the offer of commercial financial institutions, particularly banks, investment funds and rating agencies pertaining to a varied range of products connected with broadly perceived environmental protection. Through their careful product offer, financial...

In the U.S., credit union lending grew by 15 percentage points more relative to commercial bank lending after the Great Recession. Comparing institutions that faced similar borrowers within narrowly-defined local credit markets and similar crisis exposures shows the effect is supply-driven....

This paper examines the impact of the bank orientation on classical banking business, distinguishing between shareholder and stakeholder banks, and analyzes the preconditions for positive social welfare effects from the existence of stakeholder banks. For this reason we develop a theoretical...

In this paper, to begin with, we define soft information as qualitative, subjective information produced by banks through the establishment of long-term lending relationships. We then highlight the importance of soft information for cooperative and social banks in the screening, pricing and...

The structural diversity of the German banking market and the associated variety of business models is thought to have been an important factor in the stability of the German banking market in recent decades. This diversity is manifested both in the three-pillar structure of the German banking...

Nonprofit banks in the U.S. are primarily organized as credit unions (CUs) and have grown steadily over the last two decades, increasing their share of total lending to U.S. households. This paper studies the economic effects of banking with CUs using consumer credit report data merged to...

The article presents the analysis of determinants of banks' competitiveness in local financial markets, with respect to local (cooperative) banks and branches of large commercial banks. The paper also evaluates the competitive position of the banks using the synthetic measure of competitive...

In the last thirty years, the world’s economies have changed significantly. New technology developments have enabled the transition from the industrial economy to the network economy. The network economy is based on information technology, connectivity and human knowledge. Its development has...

Why do banks squeeze their lending activity? is an oft-repeated question during the times of financial crisis. This study examines an emerging economy's banking system and contributes to the evolving body of literature on the topic by providing answers as to what causes the sluggish bank credit...

Governments often attempt to increase the confidence of financial market participants by making implicit or explicit guarantees of uncertain credibility. Confidence in these guarantees presumably alters the size of the financial sector, but observing the long-run consequences of failed...