This study outlines the framework of high-performance financial systems and the parameters for financial firms operating in them. It begins with an intuitive structural model of financial intermediation, and then considers issues facing players in, and users of the financial system, with...

Universal banks are multi-product firms in the financial services sector whose complexity is difficult to manage. Ingo Walter asks the question -- do they optimize invested capital? The author moves from book value to market value of equity by adjusting for value increases such as economies of...

Launching of the euro at the beginning of 1999 will accelerate reconfiguration of the financial intermediation process in Europe -- a process that is already well underway -- with dramatic consequences for commercial banking, investment banking, insurance and asset management functions. Banks,...

Very recent reports on Maxwell Communications Corporation and Enron clearly underlined a single important weakness in the behaviour of corporations and financial markets -- the exploitation of conflicts of interest. Although potential conflicts of interest are a fact of life among financial...

We argue that the fundamental cause of the financial crisis of 2007–2009 was that large, complex financial institutions ("LCFIs") took excessive leverage in the form of manufacturing tail risks that were systemic in nature and inadequately capitalized. We employ a set of headline facts about...

We investigate whether the diversification discount occurs partly as an artifact of poor corporate governance. In panel data models, we find that the discount narrows by 16% to 21% when we add governance variables as regression controls. We also estimate Heckman selection models that account for...

This survey paper considers the 'special' nature of financial services and traces the roots of the reputational risk that firms in the industry invariably encounter. It defines what reputational risk is and outlines the types of reputational risk facing financial services firms. It considers the...