Purpose – Bank regulators across the world have recently lifted restrictions on where banks can operate and what type of activities they can perform. Following the deregulation of the sector, bank mergers and acquisitions have grown substantially. The purpose of this paper is to outline bank...

Purpose – Bank regulators across the world have recently lifted restrictions on where banks can operate and what type of activities they can perform. Following the deregulation of the sector, bank mergers and acquisitions have grown substantially. The purpose of this paper is to outline bank...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review current trends in reforms of the supervisory architecture in European Union (EU) countries. Design/methodology/approach – Against the background of the debate on the advisability of further centralizing prudential supervision in the EU this...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the size of the banking sectors in central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The banking sectors' ability is focused to provide financial intermediation between savers and investors in the economy. Design/methodology/approach...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the outcome of European Union (EU) deregulation and competition policies on the competitive conditions of the main EU banking markets. Design/methodology/approach – After a review of deregulation and competitition policies in the EU banking...

Purpose – Modern portfolio theory demonstrates that a well‐diversified portfolio will minimize unsystematic risk. It may be impractical to achieve a well‐diversified portfolio of venture capital (VC) investments due to market imperfections, leading to the decision to specialize. The...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the quantitative determinants of individual ratings of commercial banks (as conducted by Fitch Ratings). Design/methodology/approach – The ordered probit model is applied as an extension of the standard binary probit model. The model is...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss two important extensions to the well‐known value‐at‐risk (VaR) methodology, namely extreme value theory (EVT) and expected shortfall (ES). Both of these extensions address the weaknesses of VaR, in particular the methodology's tendency to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report and comment on the High Court ruling on recoverability of claimants' losses arising from unauthorised insurance activity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines the facts surrounding the case and comments on the decision. Findings...