The purpose of this study is to estimate and explain the performance of non-life (i.e., property and casualty) insurers. The analysis consists of two stages. First, we propose the use of a multicriteria method to assess the condition of insurers while considering simultaneously a set of...

This study investigates whether the capital market values the efficiency of firms. After tracing stock returns and efficiency changes of 399 listed insurance firms in 52 countries during the 2002-2008 period, the paper reports a positive and statistically significant relationship between profit...

This paper provides the first cross-country study on the impact of regulations on the soundness of insurance firms, using data on over 1,700 insurance firms operating in 46 countries. We find that the power of the supervisory authorities and regulations related to technical provisions have an...

Using a sample of around 340 banks from 48 countries, we examine whether and how corporate governance moderates the relationship between monetary policy interest rates and bank stability. Our results show that low interest rates reduce bank stability and have an adverse effect on risk-adjusted...

Prior studies on the determinants of audit reports focus on non-financial sectors. In contrast, the present study examines the determinants of auditors' opinion in the banking industry, using a sample of banks drawn from 9 Asian countries over the period 1995-2004. We use logistic regression and...

The verification of whether the financial statements of a firm represent its actual position is of major importance for auditors, which should provide a qualified report if they conclude that the financial statements fail to meet this requirement. This paper implements support vector machines...

In this paper we develop a multicriteria decision aid model, to investigate whether it is possible to replicate the credit ratings of Fitch on Asian banks using publicly available data. The model is developed with the Multi-group Hierarchical DIScrimination (MHDIS) approach, following a 10-fold...

This study examines the financial characteristics of 52 targets and 47 acquirers that were involved in acquisitions in the Asian commercial banking sector over the period 1998-2004 and a control sample of non-merged banks matched by country and year. Three logistic regression models are...

In this paper we compare the efficiency of five classification techniques namely, discriminant analysis, logit analysis, Utilites Additives Discriminantes (UTADIS), Multi-Group Hierarchical DIScrimination (MHDIS), and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) in predicting small firms failure. We then...

This short paper presents the first attempt to examine empirically the relationship between the level of bank liquidity and the structure of the board of directors, in terms of board size and independence. A novel database on these board characteristics is built that includes banks operating in...