Facts and Stereotypes about Cooperative Banks: To Whom Do CBs Actually Lend?

Cooperative banks’ (CBs) customers have been traditionally described as small or medium firms with poor performance working at local level. Moreover, they are usually involved in tertiary sector of industry or in agriculture and are financed by several sources (i.e., not just banks). This paper attempts to verify whether the characteristics listed above are stereotypes that no longer apply to CBs’ clients or, on the contrary, whether these are still some of the most relevant features CB loan recipients. In order to test this hypothesis, we used data collected through a survey conducted in 2011 by MET on Italian firms working in manufacturing industries.