The Italian Minibond market was born in 2013 and was expected to ease debt financing of SMEs as a complementary channel to bank credit. In this chapter, we investigate what were the determinants of the issuing prices of Minibonds in the ExtraMotPro market from 2013 to 2016, with a special focus...

Since small and medium-sized enterprises and innovative start-ups always face greater difficulties in obtaining capital from traditional sources of finance, the development of alternative funding tools such as equity crowdfunding has helped them to bridge their financing gap. The purpose of this...

Crowdfunding has come to play a significant role in the democratisation of financial markets and provides more accessible funding, especially for women entrepreneurs. The aim of this work was to analyse gender dynamics from both the seeker and the investor sides. From the seeker side, we...

This chapter provides a background on financial inclusion and examines the progress and trends across different indicators of financial inclusion and different macro and income regions. The data show positive growth in different indicators of financial inclusion over recent years; however, the...

This chapter aims at analysing banking litigations according to a behavioural perspective. The purpose is to uncover the intensity of affection for distortions or cognitive biases suffered by customers and to do an impact assessment. In fact, perfect rationality during the decision-making...

Banks are increasingly using online social media to engage with their existing and potential customers; however, the use of technology can both strengthen and weaken these "virtual" relationships. We analyse the adoption of online social media for 151 Italian banks and test how it affected bank...

Risk disclosure in banking is particularly important for the efficacy of market discipline, the assessment of bank performance, the efficiency of the financial market, and the overall stability of the financial system. The European banking union and the financial crisis have enhanced the...

This chapter investigates the relationships between banks in different countries through an empirical study based on interviews with the six leading Nordic banks and the Swedish export credit agency. The authors find that although all six banks have significantly reduced the number of...

The research question is to what extent the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) plan will be effective in helping China bounce back from its economic slowdown and what its financial implications are in a policy trilemma context. The BRI was implemented in 2013 as a response to the economic slowdown...