This list of European cooperative banks includes individual cooperative banks, integrated cooperative banking groups, and loose nationwide networks, the latter typically tied together by an institutional protection scheme.
European cooperative banks have developed since the mid-19th century, principally on the basis of early pioneering initiatives in the German confederation led by Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch [1] and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. [2] The German model was emulated in France from 1878 [3] (1882 in German-ruled Alsace–Lorraine [4] ), in Italy from 1883, [5] in Austria-Hungary from 1886, [6] in the Netherlands from 1895, and in Spain from 1901. [7] Similar developments occurred in other European countries.
Cooperative banks expanded dynamically in Europe during the 20th century. [8] In some instances, they have largely or entirely demutualized, as in the case of Italy's banche popolari in the 2010s. [9] Conversely, some banking groups that were not originally organized as cooperatives have eventually adopted that form, such as France's Groupe Caisses d'Épargne (now part of BPCE) in 1999. [10]
The European Association of Co-operative Banks, initially established in 1970 as the Association of Cooperative Savings and Credit Institutions of the European Economic Community, is the sector's umbrella association, based in Brussels. [11]