This edited volume showcases how the European cooperative banks have continued to evolve amid a new competitive scenario that resulted from the Global Financial Crisis started in Europe in 2008. The cooperative banking paradigm has been put under an unprecedented pressure as a consequence of factors such as the exceptionally low interest rates set by the European Central Bank, low profitability generated by traditional banking services—which are the backbone of the cooperative banking business—and the entrance of fintech companies into the banking market. Furthermore, tightening regulation since the beginning of the crisis has produced an increased capital and liquidity burden which in some cases have forced cooperative banks to reduce lending to their members and customers, putting under question the traditional countercyclical role of cooperative banks in periods of crisis. For these reasons, it is of the utmost value to observe and analyse how cooperative banks have been reacting in the attempt to preserve their unique business model and, at the same time, to keep providing credit to the economy. A number of scholars active in the cooperative banking sector have been involved in this edited volume as contributors.
Despite growing discussions on the relationship between sustainability and finance, so far little attention has been given to the relation linking sustainability-related risks and financial risks. Climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality, among others factors, may indeed have considerable adverse impacts on financial actors and markets, and even have the potential to harm financial stability. Shedding light on the importance of the nexus between sustainability and financial risks, this book addresses the need for new industry and policy approaches. With insights from a skilled set of scholars in the finance field, this edited collection explores the effects of climate risks on the banking and insurance industries, the problem of stranded assets, the possible corporate risk management frameworks that could be used to control sustainability-related risks, the role of non-financial disclosure in fostering market discipline, and the policy actions needed to integrate sustainability considerations into prudential supervision. Tackling an interdisciplinary topic, this book will appeal to academics and practitioners within the finance, business and sustainability fields.
This book offers a comprehensive discussion of how green finance has been growing thus far and explores the opportunities and key developments ahead, with particular emphasis on Europe. The main features of the market, the key products, the issue of correctly defining green finance, the main policy actions undertaken, the risk of green washing and the necessary steps to mainstream green finance are discussed in depth. In addition, the book analyses some highly relevant aspects of the market that so far have not been sufficiently explored in the policy, industry and academic debate. This includes the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, the crucial role of the effective financing of the agriculture to reach climate and environmental targets and the possible relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of "alternative" finance. This book will be of interest to academics, practitioners, financial institutions and policy makers involved in green finance and to the finance industry in general.
This book offers a comparative analysis of credit cooperative systems across 23 European countries. Cooperative banking has an important place in the financial, economic and social life of most European countries, and while cooperative banks, credit mutuals, credit cooperatives and credit unions share the spirit of cooperation and mutuality, they often have very different features, history and development. The book examines the evolution and current model of each credit cooperative system, its importance for the national and local banking markets, as well as the impact of the financial crisis on cooperative banking, and also presents the sharp contrasts between these systems throughout the EU. It is of significant scientific and practical interest and enables policymakers, practitioners and academics at European and national levels to deepen their understanding of the evolution of the system and its governance.
To a certain extent the dementias have been forgotten diseases until just recen tly when they were brought to the attention of the general public and health authorities as a result of the increasing number of cases in the aging popula tion, especially among famous people, and because of the efforts of private foundations. The goals of the present volume are to present the dementias to health prac titioners, to provide some basic information on their epidemiology and biolo gical basis and to discuss the diagnostic and clinical problems that physicians and institutions face when caring for demented patients. This book explores the various types of dementias and is not limited to Alzheimer's disease although, as expected, more information is available and presented on this pathology. On the other hand, a few fundamental questions on dementia can only be answe red through a comparison of the various forms. Examples of such questions are the following: Is the loss of cerebral tissue sufficient to cause dementia? Are there thresholds or is there a continuous progression toward the irreversible development of dementia? Are there common pathways in the dementing pro cess? Are there common risk factors? Comparative analysis allows the common and distinctive patterns of the various dementias to be defined, ultimately lea ding to more focused therapeutic interventions.
Exploring how green finance has become a key strategy for the financial industry in the wake of the 2007-08 financial crisis, this timely book critically assesses the current dominant forms of neoliberal green finance. Understanding Green Finance delivers a pioneering analysis of the topic, covering the essential tenets of green finance with an emphasis on critical approaches to mainstream views and presenting alternatives insights and perspectives.
This book investigates the main features of the evolution of the co-operative banking model in European countries, using 'country case-study' analysis. Structured in two parts, the first deals with a sample of countries that joined the European Union before 2000; the second part with a sample of newly-admitted European Union member countries.
Niccolo Machiavelli, the first great Italian historian, and one of the most eminent political writers of any age or country, was born at Florence, May 3, 1469. He was of an old though not wealthy Tuscan family, his father, who was a jurist, dying when Niccolo was sixteen years old. We know nothing of Machiavelli's youth and little about his studies. He does not seem to have received the usual humanistic education of his time, as he knew no Greek. The first notice of Machiavelli is in 1498 when we find him holding the office of Secretary in the second Chancery of the Signoria, which office he retained till the downfall of the Florentine Republic in 1512. His unusual ability was soon recognized, and in 1500 he was sent on a mission to Louis XII. of France, and afterward on an embassy to Cæsar Borgia, the lord of Romagna, at Urbino. Machiavelli's report and description of this and subsequent embassies to this prince, shows his undisguised admiration for the courage and cunning of Cæsar, who was a master in the application of the principles afterwards exposed in such a skillful and uncompromising manner by Machiavelli in his Prince. The limits of this introduction will not permit us to follow with any detail the many important duties with which he was charged by his native state, all of which he fulfilled with the utmost fidelity and with consummate skill. When, after the battle of Ravenna in 1512 the holy league determined upon the downfall of Pier Soderini, Gonfaloniere of the Florentine Republic, and the restoration of the Medici, the efforts of Machiavelli, who was an ardent republican, were in vain; the troops he had helped to organize fled before the Spaniards and the Medici were returned to power. Machiavelli attempted to conciliate his new masters, but he was deprived of his office, and being accused in the following year of participation in the conspiracy of Boccoli and Capponi, he was imprisoned and tortured, though afterward set at liberty by Pope Leo X. He now retired to a small estate near San Casciano, seven miles from Florence. Here he devoted himself to political and historical studies, and though apparently retired from public life, his letters show the deep and passionate interest he took in the political vicissitudes through which Italy was then passing, and in all of which the singleness of purpose with which he continued to advance his native Florence, is clearly manifested. It was during his retirement upon his little estate at San Casciano that Machiavelli wrote The Prince, the most famous of all his writings, and here also he had begun a much more extensive work, his Discourses on the Decades of Livy, which continued to occupy him for several years. These Discourses, which do not form a continuous commentary on Livy, give Machiavelli an opportunity to express his own views on the government of the state, a task for which his long and varied political experience, and an assiduous study of the ancients rendered him eminently qualified. The Discourses and The Prince, written at the same time, supplement each other and are really one work. Indeed, the treatise, The Art of War, though not written till 1520 should be mentioned here because of its intimate connection with these two treatises, it being, in fact, a further development of some of the thoughts expressed in the Discorsi. The Prince, a short work, divided into twenty-six books, is the best known of all Machiavelli's writings. Herein he expresses in his own masterly way his views on the founding of a new state, taking for his type and model Cæsar Borgia, although the latter had failed in his schemes for the consolidation of his power in the Romagna. The principles here laid down were the natural outgrowth of the confused political conditions of his time.
