Legislation laying down the institutional system of the Banking Union was finalised in April 2014. In accordance with the regulations, non-euro area Member States, including Hungary, may notify the ECB at any time if they wish to participate in the common system even before the euro is adopted....

Cooperative banks are widely seen as sustainable alternatives to profit-driven banking. However, while most banks struggle to meet the stringent capital requirements of regulators, cooperative banks are in particular need of cautious capital-related decisions given their little ability to...

Both the literature and public opinion consider cooperative banks as local banks, that is, socially embedded financial service providers. Their primary objective is to fund the local economy from locally collected deposits. To offset any possible disadvantage stemming from their lack of adequate...