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The purpose of this paper is to utilize legitimacy theory to test the association between the governance of credit unions and their social and environmental disclosure in a developing country, Kenya. A further examination of institutional pressures due to regulatory forces on the association between co-operative governance and credit union social and environmental disclosure (CSED) is performed.

Using a sample comprising of 1,272 credit union observations over the period 2008-2013, panel OLS regressions are performed to establish the association between co-operative governance and CSED. A comparison of the pre- and post-regulatory influences on co-operative governance and CSED is also performed.

The findings, which are in support of both legitimacy and institutional theories, depict a positive and significant association between co-operative governance and CSED. The significance of the co-operative governance score improves from the pre-regulation period to the post-regulation period. Other significant variables influencing the volume of CSED by credit unions in Kenya include credit union size and financial performance as measured by the return on assets.

The study examines CSED practices in a developing country and in organizations in a single sector. Further, CSED is measured using a self-constructed index with data being obtained from audited annual reports only.

The study highlights the need to develop CSED guidelines tailored for credit unions, and a focus on co-operative governance as a way of improving disclosure practices.

The study utilizes a sector-specific governance variable and a CSED index to examine the association between the two variables by credit unions in a developing country. The study also attempts to investigate the role of regulation on the association between co-operative governance and the volume of CSED.

This paper aims to explore how accountability to members is practised within credit unions. In particular, this study examines formal and informal practices and underlying approaches regarding accountability to members.

Adopting a case study approach, this study explores accountability within two credit unions in the lightly-regulated context of Indonesia through focus group discussions with credit union practitioners and documentary analysis.

Findings reveal both credit unions prioritised accountability to members for financial and social performance, underpinned by a socialising, relational approach and driven by a strong sense of social mission. Various mechanisms were adopted to directly address accountability to and empowerment of members, facilitating their participation and education. Further, several mechanisms of and approaches to accountability to other stakeholders indirectly enhanced the credit unions’ accountability to members.

This study highlights the interrelated nature of credit unions’ accountability mechanisms to members. Further, empowerment through participation, education and small business development, suggests valuable investment in members’ social, intellectual and financial capital.

This study examines the socialising nature of accountability to credit union members and other stakeholders to support members’ interests, providing insights into how third sector organisations more broadly might enhance accountability to those the organisation seeks to serve.

The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in calls for change. Commentators suggested that co-operatives, in particular credit unions, could provide accountability and sustainability through their open governance and mutual status. However, such suggestions assumed that co-operative principles and practice continued to underpin the efficacy of co-operative banking, and that credit unions, one of the most prevalent forms of co-operative banking, could offer a viable financial alternative. Instead, in the case of Cyprus, the financial crisis and the associated aftershocks triggered the nationalisation and demutualisation of credit unions. This prompted the researchers to question both the viability of a co-operative banking future and the extent to which co-operative principles were shaping decision making, governance, accountability and sustainability. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A case study approach was adopted to explore the degree to which co-operative principles still shaped credit union thinking and stakeholder relationships.

As is the case elsewhere within the co-operative movement, the findings point the fact that governance is weaken by the low membership participation and that the principles are no longer universally applied. Credit unions, if not co-operative banking, may not offer the financial assurances that commentators have called for. Moreover, the guiding principles may no longer be embedded within the fabric of the movement.

Findings are important for practitioners/supervisory body as they highlight possible impacts on co-operative’ future and especially on their governance model and level of autonomy and independence in case of state intervention.

The research undertaken is original as it is the first time credit unions in Cyprus were examined for adherence to co-operative principles.

This article comments on the present growth of credit unions in Australia and their prospects for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that affect the Canadian credit unions' financial performance which play an important role in providing financial services to the agriculture sector.

We surveyed the literature to identify different performance metrics of credit unions and a set of possible factors that might affect their performance. We collected data related to different dependent and independent variables from financial statements and balance sheets of 189 credit unions and from general websites like Statistics Canada and Bank of Canada. Then, we imputed the missing data and developed fixed effect and random effect panel data regression models. First, we used return on asset as the main dependent variable. Afterwards, we used six performance metrics to check the robustness of our models.

From an initial list of 16 possible factors that might affect the financial performance of a credit union, we were able to narrow the factors down to the nine most significant ones. It was observed that credit unions in the prairies were more likely to perform well financially as compared to other provinces. Membership size, the size of a credit union in terms of total assets, capital adequacy ratio, market penetration, diversification of income, inflation rate and provincial GDP and interest rates were significant. The cross-sectional analysis performed confirmed the findings of the fixed effect panel data models.

This study has a limitation concerning the number of years included into the time series analysis. Only ten years worth of data were available.

Results provide credit union management, service providers for credit unions and market analysts with a current understanding of how different internal and external factors might affect return on assets, return on equity, delinquency, cash ratio, efficiency ratio, asset growth and loan growth. Our models can be used to predict financial performance of credit unions based on the defined significant variables.

Although there is a wide body of literature that studies performance of banks, not many studies focus on credit unions. Moreover, the existing studies are based on credit unions in United States or Europe, and literature on Canadian credit unions is scarce. The data collected covered 189 Canadian credit unions. To our knowledge this is the first study that looks at the various internal, external and regulatory factors together that affect the credit unions in various jurisdictions of Canada.

The UK's financial watchdog, The financial services authority (FSA) took over prudential regulation and control of credit unions on 2nd July 2002. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the new regulatory framework and its impact on the continued poor perception of credit unions among users of financial services products. It also aims to assess what the future may hold for the direction of the UK credit union sector.

An assessment is made of the impact of the new regulatory framework and its impact on the continued poor perception of credit unions among users of financial services products. Also, an assessment is made of what the future may hold for the direction of the UK credit union sector.

The paper finds that credit union membership is growing, as are members’ deposits and loans, however at the same time the numbers of individual credit unions are falling. Overall, with supervision and regulation passing to the FSA, the outlook for credit unions in the UK is better than at any time in their history. The result of the new regime will ultimately lead to a strong, secure and professional credit union sector, capable of meeting the credit needs of a wide range of persons.

The paper provides a useful overview of the history and present status of UK credit unions, and the effects of recent legislation and regulation.

Credit unions offer an alternative to traditional banking given their distinctive ownership structure and their goal of maximising members’ benefits. Motivated by the increased expectations regarding more ethical behaviour in the financial industry, this paper aims to provide a better understanding of the relevant features and values that facilitated the emergence of the credit union movement in Australia.

Using social movement theory, this study analyses 23 interviews conducted in the early 1990s with the supporters of the credit union movement in Australia, in which the characteristics and values of the credit union movement are identified.

Findings demonstrate that the credit union ethos is rooted in family and religious influences, and that these organisations were keen on promoting their distinctiveness on “fairness” and “caring for their members”. Credit unions, however, have rarely tackled the movement’s most neglected value “cooperation between cooperatives”.

This research contributes to the discussion of ethics in business history as it elaborates on how values and ethos crafted the identity and ensured the survival of the credit union movement in Australia.

The purpose of this research is to examine the growth rates of commercial banks and credit unions around the financial crisis and recovery. Credit unions are analyzed as a group and by field of membership. Specifically, this research analyzes the growth rates of assets, deposits, and loans.

This research employs univariate tests of differences to examine the median growth rates for commercial banks and credit unions. Unbalanced pool regressions analyze growth rates during the pre-crisis, crisis, and recovery periods, controlling for size, net charge-offs, and unemployment.

Univariate test results that control for size show that banks grow at faster rates than credit unions for most of the pre-crisis years. However, medium sized credit unions grow at faster rates for most of the crisis and recovery years. Results of unbalanced pool regressions suggest that, overall, credit unions grow at slower rates than do banks. However, during the crisis and recovery, credit union growth is significantly greater than that of banks, after controlling for net charge-offs, size, and unemployment. Credit union growth varies by field of membership type.

Although a large volume of research examines commercial bank performance around the financial crisis, only a few papers assess the performance of credit unions. And very few papers compare commercial banks and credit unions. This paper explores how the recent financial crisis influenced the growth of commercial banks and credit unions from 2005 to 2013.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that tend to influence credit union efficiency, specifically examining cost efficiency (CE) and technical efficiency.

Using a two-stage method, the authors first estimate CE using Tones’ SBM data envelopment analysis method and technical efficiency in a variable returns to scale setting during the period 2008–2014. The authors estimate a mixed-effects and two-limit Tobit regression to examine the effect of credit union specific characteristics, banking industry and macroeconomic conditions, on efficiency.

Credit unions’ CE averaged 38.9 percent compared to 54.4 percent for technical efficiency. The authors find that technical efficiency does not translate into CE and vice versa.

The authors suggest that when targeting CE, credit union managers would have to make technical efficiency a priority. A monopolized and inefficient banking sector does not challenge efficiency improvement in the credit unions industry.

This study employs data from a frontier market.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the efficiency scores of branches and districts, the sources of inefficiency for branches and projections of variables for inefficient branches. It measures the comparative performance of branches of a credit union for internal benchmarking.

The paper measures the performance of 35 branches of a credit union in the USA and suggests managerial insights. Data envelopment analysis is used for measuring the relative performance of the branches and districts of the credit union. The paper also compares performance differences among the districts using non-parametric statistical analyses.

Parts of the findings indicated that branches should focus on cost containment by reducing operating expenses and increasing their loan balances. In addition, districts were operated in different market conditions, which were evidenced by scale efficiency. The major contributions of the study are filling the void of benchmarking studies at a branch level in the credit union sector, suggesting a framework for internal benchmarking, and providing practical insights to managers of credit unions. The framework of this study can be applied to similar financial institutions with minor revisions.

The limitation of this study is found in the use of cross-sectional data, which is mainly due to the sensitivity of information disclosure of the credit union.

The paper includes implications for the development of benchmarking studies at a branch level in the credit union sector.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how to identify source of inefficiencies so as to further improve the efficiency of branches.