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...