The study examines the relationship between earnings management, competition and risk by using a panel data of 74 cooperative banks for 5 countries during the 1994-2009 periods. The results show that earnings management has a negative effect on risk, indicating that bank managers' manipulation of earnings will raise the probability of bank failures. Competition has a positive effect on risk, showing that a higher cooperative bank presence means less space for commercial banks in the loan market (retail market). We also find that earnings management and competition are negatively related, the evidence supports that bank managers will have less incentive to manipulate earnings if cooperative banks do not face much competition.