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Being a Member of a Cooperative Bank: Ethical of Financial Decision?

The definition of co-operative banks given by the International Cooperative Banking Association (ICBA) states that co-operative members, who buy and hold member shares, believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. Using a unique database of 246,120 clients/members at a cooperative bank, we show that the trading volume of member shares is far from negligible. The analysis of clients’ portfolios over a 13-month period shows that clients use member shares as standard savings and investment vehicles. These results show that the reasons given by the ICBA to become a member of a cooperative bank are unimportant in the decision process.