Ownership and governance of Portuguese credit co-operatives: the legal framework

Abstract

Today, financial system enterprises operate in an environment full of global opportunities and threats; and in the sequence of corporate scandals and world financial crisis, the banking activity is constrained by ethical self-restraining as well as innovative regulations enforced by domestic and global governance institutions. The dual nature of credit cooperative is reflected by their formal and institutional solutions. They need to meet both banking and cooperative regulations, especially for those dedicated to relations between the two areas; hence, they result from considering their singularity and consistency. The main aim of this paper is to provide an insight of the Portuguese legal framework of cooperative credit.