The objective of this article is to analyse how the regional financial and economic differences influence the capital structure decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the paper considers the regional financial and economic differences dividing four aspects: the...

This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of credit default swap (CDS) spreads from a sample of 45 listed European banks over the 2004-2010 period. We use variables related to accounting- and market-based data, an indicator of liquidity in the CDS market and several variables from the...

Targets defined in accordance with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria confront the business world, particularly the banking industry, with new challenges. The aim of this paper is to study the effect of ESG controversies on the credit rating of the European banking sector,...

Purpose - Despite the sophisticated regulatory regime established in Solvency II, analysts should be able to consider other less complex indicators of the soundness of insurers. The Z-score measure, which has traditionally been used as a proxy of individual risk in the banking sector, may be a...