Organizational Structure and Exposure to Crisis Among European Banks: Evidence from Rating Changes

Abstract

The Great Crisis that started in 2007 deeply affected banks throughout Europe. Using the assessments of the two global agencies that publish ratings of the financial strength of individual banks, we study whether the crisis hit European banks differently depending on their organizational structure. We analyze the changes in the ratings during the crisis and how they are related to bank ownership. Our results lend support to the hypothesis that stakeholder banks, especially cooperative banks, were downgraded to a lesser degree than shareholder banks. However, the results differ somewhat across the rating agencies. We also discuss the sources of ratings disagreements in the paper. Our paper is among the first presenting statistically based evidence on the relative merits of different organizational structures during the recent financial and economic crisis.

Keywords: European banking; shareholder banks; cooperative banks; savings banks; performance; credit rating agencies

JEL Classification: G2; G3; L2; P1