Competition and operativeness of the cooperative credit system in the Province of Trento
The study examines the evolution of the cooperative credit system in the province of Trento over the past decade, with a focus on competitive conditions both among cooperative credit banks and other types of banks, and within the cooperative credit system itself.
Liberalization has profoundly altered the organization of local banking markets, introducing a significant trade-off between the benefits of increased competition, growth in size, despecialization, and more efficient risk management, and the advantages offered by the cooperative banking model in terms of mutuality and localism.
This trade-off has also been influenced by the Banking Consolidation Act, which has removed prohibitions on the territorial overlap of multiple cooperative banks, now observed in numerous areas of the country.
