When you ask a member of any cooperative bank what it is that makes the model unique, the immediate answer is: "governance". Members are the cooperative owners. Each member has one voting right, independent of amount of money invested in membership shares, a model of democracy according to all supporters of the model. But only a small group of activist members is actually aware of their ability to participate in management control at the various decision-making levels. Others are not so engaged. Some don't even remember that they own these membership shares, while most are just concerned about return on investment… because this is often how these particular shares are proposed to customers.