Basic HTML-Version
16
‘Cooperative banks think long-term’
Professor Theresia Theurl of Münster University is an ex-
pert in cooperative banks. She regards systems such as
the Raiffeisen one as being the ideal business model for
today’s needs.
Professor Theurl, you have stated that if the cooperative bank
system did not already exist we would have to invent it. Why?
Professor Theresia Theurl:
Because it is a brilliant organisa-
tional model, applying the tenet that if you are not big, you
have to be clever and work together. There is much talk these
days of shareholder value, but it should be noted that the co-
operatives were the true pioneers here. The same goes for the
idea of the cooperative business model.
Before the upheaval on the financial markets the cooperative sys-
tem was ridiculed by some as being too stolid and safety first.
Today there could be no greater compliment than being re-
garded as safe. Whereas others think in the short-term, worry-
ing only about bringing in the right quarterly figures, cooper-
ative banks think long-term, being driven not by the financial
markets but by the region, the real economy, and the SMEs in
which they have their roots.
How do you judge the prospects for cooperative banks over
the coming years?
They have excellent prospects. And their fate is in their own
hands. The key factors for their success are solidarity, team-
work and togetherness. Therefore I would say to the Tyrole-
an Raiffeisen banks: keep up the good work, you’re on the
right path.
helm Raiffeisen. The cooperative union’s first chairman was Johann
Tobias Haid, a member of the State Assembly and of the Austro-Hun-
garian Imperial Council, the parish postmaster, landlord of the splen-
did Posthotel Kassl in Oetz, a wine dealer and one of the most influ-
ential and well-connected men in the region, but not one to ignore the
plight of the needy.
Back then, times were hard for country people. In the Ötztal, the pop-
ulation was particularly hard hit by the impact of the coming of the rail-
way and steam ships, from new transport routes such as the Arlberg
railway, which opened in 1884, and also by inventions such as arti-
ficial fertiliser. As a result, flax production, an important source of in-
come for the valley, collapsed. Many farmers could not afford agricul-
tural tools or machinery. A great many of them fell into debt, often to
usurers who charged crippling rates of interest. Meanwhile, tourism
was very much in its infancy.
Against this backdrop, the ideas of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen,
one of the great social reformers of the 19th century, were exact-
ly what Haid and his comrades-in-arms, all of them central figures
in Oetz village life, had been looking for: helping people to help
themselves, taking action locally, independence and self-reliance.
So it came to pass that Tyrol’s first Raiffeisen credit union finally
opened for business in February 1889.
Successful model
The founding fathers of Tyrol’s first Raiffeisen credit union had correctly
read the signs of the times. The cooperative bank model proved a hit
not just in the Ötztal district but also further afield. All over the region,
village communities followed the lead of the pioneers from Oetz, and
within two years, 32 credit unions applying the tenets of Friedrich Wil-
helm Raiffeisen had sprung up across Northern and Southern Tyrol.
Ever since its creation the sustained success of this business mod-
el has been founded on the golden rule ‘from the region for the re-
gion’. Putting it simply, that means banks making the local money
entrusted to them available for the region in the form of loans – for
example to build a house or factory. This decisively strengthened
the regional economy and assured its long-term success.
The future will no doubt bring many new challenges, not least for
the banking industry. For Raiffeisen, however; proximity to custom-
ers and the common good will continue to be its guiding princi-
ples, rather than maximising profits.
Interview with Professor
Theresia Theurl
• Self-help
Willingness to provide mutual assistance
• Self-reliance
A cooperative’s members make the decisions themselves ac-
cording to democratic principles
• Economic ethos founded on solidarity
Working towards common economic goals on the basis of ‘all
for one and one for all’ (= liability)
• Sustainability of cooperative success
The common goal is long-term economic improvement. Day-
to-day successes are not always conducive to that goal.
• Subsidiarity
The strength of the cooperative is only brought to bear where
the strength of the individual is not enough, and he or she
therefore needs help.
• Identity principle
Members (partners) and customers are one and the same in a
cooperative.
The cooperative idea
The key features of the cooperative idea are:
Raiffeisen Banking Group Tyrol