That you could be true to your cooperative ideals even while you expand your range of financial services; strengthen your business infrastructure to better compete with the rest of the financial sector; all this, while striving to adhere to acceptable prudential and governance standards; that you can accomplish all these things simultaneously, speaks volumes for the commitment of your management and staff, your current Board of Directors and indeed the entire leadership and membership that built this institution over the last thirty years.
The financial panic that developed in mid-September 2008 marked a dramatic turning point. Interbank trading in the euro area and elsewhere came to a virtual halt. As cash-rich banks were unwilling or unable to lend to cash-deficient institutions, the ECB had to substitute for the missing interbank trading.