Decker, Olufemi (2016) Product development and product governance in financial cooperatives. In: International Conference on CSR and Organisational Governance, 8th to 10th September 2016, Melbourne, Australia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Governance issues in financial cooperatives have attracted a lot of attention recently, due to their relative stable performance during the global financial crisis. The role they play in the financial landscape differs from county to country. In spite of the growing interest in them little is known of how British credit unions embed and account for their responsibility to customers through the products they offer. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by applying governance theory in order to develop a conceptual framework that captures the key relationships, responsibilities and governance mechanisms that are significant in credit union product development. A longitudinal case study is used to explore the experience of a leading credit union and the challenges that it faces in product development. The paper finds that the strategic, compliance and accountability aspects of governance of product development are made more difficult by the ambiguity and stigmatisation that surrounds credit union identity, resource dependency and skills capacity at board and conduct/product risk management levels. If credit unions are to appeal to a broad spectrum of society and widen their product range en masse into regulated products they should have in place demonstrable and auditable governance structures and procedures throughout the product life cycle so that they can not only deliver on their regulatory responsibilities but also deliver practically, not just ideologically, on their ethical responsibilities.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	financial cooperatives; credit unions; product governance; product development; corporate responsibility
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5601 Accounting
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business Faculty of Business > Department of Accounting & Finance
Last Modified:	02 Feb 2023 10:15
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/20198

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