This paper investigates the impact of policy interest rate news from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) on stock returns and volatilities of U.S. NYSE and German DAX listed commercial banks. We find that Fed news has the most influence on both U.S. and German...

At present, Western European banks are increasingly branching out into asset management as well as the consulting business, which cannot be influenced directly by monetary controls. We have therefore conducted a factor analysis of banks' balance-sheet items, and we have also plotted figures from...

Over the last twenty years, the process of European integration, and improvements in the processing and transmission of information, have meant that the European financial system has become less bank-based and more market-based. This trend has been reinforced by the transition to a single...