August 27, 2016
In collaboration with the European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE), the Institute and the University of Victoria (Gustavson School of Business and the Department of Economics) are organising a conference on “The Role of Cooperative Banks in Promoting Financial Stability and Sustainable Economic Development” for the International Workshop on Financial System Architecture & Stability (IWFSAS).
The IWFSAS aims to provide a forum for academic researchers and policy makers to discuss issues related to the structure and design of financial systems and their impact on growth and financial stability, both nationally and globally.
The 2016 inaugural meeting of the IWFSAS is dedicated to discussing the role of Cooperative Financial Institutions (CFIs). CFIs appear to have weathered the 2008 global financial crisis better than commercial banks. For instance, European co-operative banks, which represent about 20 percent of the European banking sector, were responsible for a much smaller portion of the direct losses and write-downs of the European banking sector during the crisis. While commercial banks retreated somewhat from the credit markets in the period 2007-2010, CFIs expanded their loans to the private sector during this time frame. Despite this, the role of cooperative banks, credit unions, and other types of financial institutions with alternative forms of ownership, seem to be missing from the current discussions and debates about financial stability and regulatory reforms.
Following a call for papers, members of the IWFSAS’s Scientific Committee selected the best papers to be presented at the conference. They can be viewed in pdf format, together with the presentation schedules, on the University of Victoria website.
The papers will be submitted for publication in the Journal of Financial Stability. In addition, the CSSI at University of Victoria and the Institute will award two prizes of $1,000 each for the best submission.