MELIAN-NAVARRO, Amparo; CAMPOS-CLIMENT, Vanessa    SANCHIS-PALACIO, Joan Ramon. Analysis of Mergers Between Rural Savings Banks and Their Influence on Agrarian Cooperatives: The Valencian Case in Spain. []. , 21, 41, pp.91-110. ISSN 0121-5051.

In recent years there has been a strong concentration due to mergers and takeovers in cooperative credit entities of the Valencian Community (Spain). This process changes the competitive strengths between these entities, which directly affects the agrarian cooperative sector and its financing systems. The objective of this work is to study how these relationships have been changed. To do so, the process of mergers in the Valencian Cooperative credit system during the 1995-2007 period was studied, how that process has affected the degree of concentration in the sector (measured according to the ratio of discrete concentration to diverse variables) and the levels of profitability (ROA and ROE) as well as the efficiency of the credit cooperatives and the repercussions on relationships with the agrarian cooperatives. The results show that the degree of concentration of credit has increased over the period studied, due to the decrease in the number of entities as a result of mergers, which in turn has produced a decrease in the agrarian cooperatives' negotiating power. While the smallest rural savings banks continue their policy of support for the agrarian cooperatives and their partners, the larger ones are getting out of agrarian cooperativism.

: Rural savings banks; agrarian cooperatives; credit sections; mergers; Valencian Community; Spain.

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