The German corporate governance system has long been cited as the standard example of an insider-controlled and stakeholder-oriented system. We argue that despite important reforms and substantial changes of individual elements of the German corporate governance system the main characteristics...

This paper starts out by pointing out the challenges and weaknesses which the German banking systems faces according to the prevailing views among national and international observers. These challenges include a general problem of profitability and, possibly as its main reason, the strong role...

This paper investigates the impact of IT standardization on bank performance based on a panel of 457 German savings banks over the period from 1996 to 2006. We measure IT standardization as the fraction of IT expenses for centralized services over banks' total IT expenses. Bank efficiency, in...

In this paper, we first discuss the notion of important financial centres and the socioeconomic and political conditions which need to be fulfilled for such a centre to exist. We then address the issue of the so-called end of geographyʺ which has attracted a lot of attention recently. Under...

The introduction of a common currency as well as the harmonization of rules and regulations in Europe has significantly reduced distance in all its guises. With shrunken costs of overcoming space, this emphasizes centripetal forces and it should foster consolidation of financial activity. In a...