Cooperative Banks in Greece and Small & Medium Enterprises Views at a Time of Credit Constraints

Abstract

Cooperative banks are among those credit institutions that have played an important role in the financial systems of many countries, usually operating supplementary to the traditional commercial banks, mainly at regional level and aiming mostly at supporting SMEs financial needs. They provide traditional banking products to local SMEs even in remote areas. The number of Cooperative Banks in Greece has been decreased from originally 16 banks to 6 in the second half of 2020. The scope of this paper is to examine the managers’ views of 158 SMEs towards Cooperative Banks’ support (banking facilities) over the economic and financial crisis period (2015-2019). The research was carried out the last three months of 2019, using constructed questionnaire to a random sample of 208 Cooperative Banks’ clientele in places where Cooperative Banks have branches. Research showed that SMEs have a quite good opinion for Cooperative Banks presence in Greece.