During the critical stage of the financial crisis - between June 2008 and December 2009 - the credit policies of Italian banks were characterized by a wide range of different behaviours and performances, not only due to bank size. An analysis of a large sample of Italian banks, representing 85%...

The future of banking will be a return to the origin: increased lending activity, focus on SMEs and the importance of Relationship banking. A review of the literature of the last thirty years shows the success elements to develop the Rb even in the large banks operating internationally: the...

The paper aims to evaluate the quality of the corporate governance information published by Italian listed banks in the period 2010-2012. The results may interest banks, regulators and supervisors to highlight possible areas of improvement. It can also represent a starting point to define...

Consolidation in the banking industry has caused concern about the survival of small banks. Empirical evidence, however, shows that small banks are performing better than larger banks in terms of loan growth and profitability. This paper investigates the determinants of such unexpected superior...