Article by John
E. Bowman and Tom Barnes, Director at The Cooperative Bank in
Roslindale, MA
Introduction
Mutual banks are the quintessential community banks. Community
service at every level of the bank is a hallmark of being a mutual.
The inability to raise capital except through retained earnings is
counter-balanced by the independence and longer-term vision that
you are able to take. During the writing of this paper we asked a
number of CEOs if mutuality was a strategy or an ownership choice.
The answers were pretty evenly split. Some thought mutuality is
embedded in every strategic decision that is made, because raising
capital from external sources is not an option.
Others believe mutuality was an ownership decision made 75 or
100 years ago that shaped their roots but not their current
operations strategy. Regardless of the difference, all believe that
factors fundamental to mutual banks should be reflected in
examination conclusions. In order for that to
