Corporate governance and performance: a study of the reform of cooperative credit system in Italy

The aim of the paper is to identify and discuss the suitability of the corporate governance structure of the Cooperative Banking Group (CBG) for preserving the distinctive characteristics of the cooperative credit banks (CCBs), such as mutuality and localism, as well as for guaranteeing the levels of capitalization, respecting the overall performance objectives. The analysis methodology uses an ethnographic case study. The qualitative approach for the collection of information was considered useful in the context of research that is still "in progress" and aimed at describing and interpreting the logic of governance in the CCBs. The case represents the pilot of the study that will be carried out on a sample of cooperative banks aimed at evaluating consistencies (or inconsistencies) and recurring traits that can lead to a tendential generalization of the logic underlying the decision-making processes in cooperative banks. The paper provides some reflections on the possible impacts of a radical change in the Italian cooperative credit system following the 2016 reform. The pilot model needs further adjustments in itinere, based on rigorous empirical tests conducted to confer on it the characteristics of universal applicability in the context of the CCBs. The major contribution of the paper is evident from the resulting interpretative process; the analysis conducted on a case study allows us to highlight the importance of the organizational dimension in the CCBs; the performances achieved by these, although with some distinctions throughout the Italian territory, are the result of the adequacy of the governance structures and of the corporate control functions, which, even when partly outsourced, are always rigorously inspired by logic of interconnection among those responsible for the functions themselves.