During the last decades the globalization, the intensified competition and the rapid changes in the socio-economic and technological environment had a major impact on the global economic, financial and business environments. Within this environment, it is clear that banking institutions worldwide face new challenges and increasing risks, as well as increasing business potentials. The recent experience shows that achieving a sustainable development of the banking system is not only of interest to the banking institutions themselves, but it is also directly related to the development of the whole business and economic environment, both at regional and international level. The variety of new banking products that is constantly being developed to accommodate the increased customer needs (firms, organizations, individuals, etc.) provides a clear indication of the changes that the banking industry has undergone during the last two decades. The establishment of new products of innovative processes and instruments for their requires the implementation efficient management. The implementation of such processes and instruments is closely related to a variety of disciplines, advanced quantitative analysis for risk management, information technology, quality management, etc. The implementation ofthese approaches in banking management is in accordance with the finding that empirical procedures are no longer adequate to address the increasing complexity of the banking industry.

The aim of this book is twofold: Firstly to focus on the development of new instruments and topics in the financial industry. Secondly to analyze the development of “old” themes applied to different international contexts, such as cross-border banking and the role of government financial resources in China. With these goals in mind, the book explores the investigation of new instruments for the financing of SMEs and new ventures, such as mini bonds and equity crowdfunding. Additionally, it covers the field of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility including financial inclusion, gender roles, disclosure, social media roles and litigation. The book also investigates the choices followed by the Royal Swedish Academy in the selection of Nobel laureates in economics science to analyze their influence on the financial industry. Geared to banking academics, researchers and students, this book uncovers the most prominent issues within the banking industry today.

The recent financial crisis and the rapid changes in the economic and technological environment have highlighted the need for further reinforcement of the financial sector. Banks have been forced to be competitive and to implement risk assessment and management systems. Due to the competitive financial environment that has been developed, the principles of the Second Banking Directive, have provided equal competitive conditions for all European banking institutions, and lead us to the principles of Basel III. Moreover, new banking products and techniques are developed to accommodate increased customer needs. The establishment of these new products requires the implementation of innovative processes for their efficient management. There is plenty of research about bank efficiency and especially with the methodological tools that can be used to improve performance of the banking sector. Therefore, the purpose of this edited volume is to contribute to the understanding of issues dealing with new trends in bank efficiency during the years of financial crisis, covering a range of banking problems, such as bank performance, efficiency, profitability, credit risk and stress testing.

This volume presents current developments in the fields of banking and finance from an international perspective. Featuring contributions from the 3rd International Conference on Banking and Finance Perspectives (ICBFP), this volume serves as a valuable forum for discussing current issues and trends in the banking and financial sectors, especially in light of the global economic challenges triggered by financial institutions. Using the latest theoretical models, new perspectives are brought to topics such as e-finance and e-banking, Islamic banking, capital flight, bank efficiency, risk assessment, bankruptcy, investment diversification, and insider trading. Offering an opportunity to explore the challenges of a rapidly changing industry, this volume will be of interest to academics, policy makers, and scholars in the fields of banking, insurance, and finance.

This book describes various approaches in modelling financial risks and compiling ratings. Focusing on emerging markets, it illustrates how risk assessment is performed and analyses the use of machine learning methods for financial risk assessment and measurement. It not only offers readers insights into the differences between emerging and developed markets, but also helps them understand the development of risk management approaches for banks. Highlighting current problems connected with the evaluation and modelling of financial risks in the banking sector of emerging markets, the book presents the methodologies applied to credit and market financial risks and integrated and payment risks, and discusses the outcomes. In addition it explores the systemic risks and innovations in banking and risk management by analyzing the features of risk measurement in emerging countries. Lastly, it demonstrates the aggregation of approaches to financial risk for emerging financial markets, comparing the experiences of various countries, including Russia, Belarus, China and Brazil.

This book presents a contemporary insight into key trends impacting on global financial institutions in the post-crisis period and highlights areas of major policy and academic interest. It highlights the key issues faced by the financial sector today and is drawn from the European Association of University Teachers of Banking and Finance Conference (otherwise known as the Wolpertinger Conference) held at the University of Rome III, Italy in September 2009.