We investigate real effects of a widespread corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting mandate. In 2014, the European Union (EU) passed Directive 2014/95 (hereafter, “CSR Directive”), mandating large listed EU firms to prepare annual nonfinancial reports beginning from fiscal year 2017...

We investigate real effects of a widespread corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting mandate. In 2014, the European Union (EU) passed Directive 2014/95 (hereafter, “CSR Directive”), mandating large listed EU firms to prepare annual nonfinancial reports beginning from fiscal year 2017...

Trust in the independence of auditors is essential for the functioning of markets. If auditors are not independent or not believed to be independent, transaction costs will rise. In our view, structural weaknesses currently impair auditor independence. We therefore put forward several reform...

IFRS 9 was introduced by the IASB in 2014 and became mandatory for fiscal years starting in 2018. It bears fundamental changes in the accounting requirements for financial instruments, especially in the areas of recognition, categorisation and measurement, impairment and loan loss provision. As...

In March 2020, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Most European governments reacted with lockdowns. A drop in demand as well as supply disruptions affected the economy which also hit European banks with quite a lot of uncertainty, not only regarding possible...

Banks are crucial enablers of financial and economic development. They have an immense corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards society. Bank´s CSR activities are considered increasingly vital for their own success and sustainable growth, especially as they operate in a business...

Post-crisis European reforms have focused on 'micro' measures, like shoring up financial institutions, ensuring their solvency and sound supervision, and the resolution to deal with them in a crisis. However, bold 'macro' measures to deal with problems that cut across the whole financial sector...

In recent years, reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) became mandatory in many countries. The capital-market effects around this change have been extensively studied, but their sources are not yet well understood. This study aims to distinguish between several...

In recent years, reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) became mandatory in many countries. The capital-market effects around this change have been extensively studied, but their sources are not yet well understood. This study aims to distinguish between several...

The present article contains a brief but comprehensive overview of the development of the Capital Markets Union (CMU) project in the EU to further deepen EU capital markets’ integration. After the Introduction, it first discusses the Commission’s 2015 CMU Action Plan and its follow-up,...