The book describes the current role and rationale of co-operative banking and examines features such as governance, consolidation, outsourcing, shareholder value and rating evaluation. It then analyses the likely impact on the strategic, organisational and operative model of cooperative banks.

This book examines the opportunities opened up for financial cooperatives by the recent financial crisis, and explores the role of these institutions in promoting and sustaining local development. The global financial crisis has not only shown the limits of the mainstream theory of markets and rational expectations, but has also generated a great deal of disillusionment with the banking system and underlined the importance of a healthy society for the welfare of the individual. Consequently, new and innovative ways of providing finance are needed, especially for strengthening the development of local societies.

Chinese banks have been making headlines recently, but what lies beneath? Banking in China appears different. What explains the current arrangement? What can we expect from such a banking industry in the future? This book answers these two questions in a fully revised second edition and contributes to a new understanding of Chinese banks.

The historical response to bank crises has always been more regulation. A pattern emerges that some may find surprising: regulation often contributes to bank instability. It suppresses competition and effective response to market changes and encourages bankers to take on additional risk. This book offers a valuable history lesson for policy makers.

This book provides a deep insight into the market changes and policy challenges that transition economies have undergone in the last twenty years. It not only comments on and evaluates the development of financial markets in transition economies, but also highlights the key obstacles to full integration of financial markets into the EU market.

As the real economy is increasingly digitalized, banking lags behind. It is thus not well placed to support the new economy. The book provides some perspective on the changes taking place, identifying the systemic weaknesses in the traditional financial infrastructure, and proposing some radical rethinking to address systemic financial instability.

How did Sweden go from a financially backward country to one with a well functioning financial system? Why did this financial revolution occur after the mid-nineteenth century and not before? This book discusses the role of politics and economics in this change and what it means for economic development, market integration and financial crises.

The book describes the current role and rationale of co-operative banking and examines features such as governance, consolidation, outsourcing, shareholder value and rating evaluation. It then analyses the likely impact on the strategic, organisational and operative model of cooperative banks.

The book describes the birth and growth of financial institutions and stock exchanges in Scandinavia and Finland from 1656 to 2010, including their banking crises and the history of banking regulation. It argues that quantitative regulations cannot, in the long run, produce the desired results and bear the seeds of future financial crises.