During the last decade or so a number of banking crises has occurred in both industrial and developing countries. Bank unsoundness is the focus of deep concerns for its possible interactions with macroeconomic instability. The potential size and severity of sovereign debt crises in integrated...

The multimarket contact hypothesis holds that more contacts between firms competing in the same markets may induce more collusion. This paper tests the hypothesis for the Italian banking market, analysing the behaviour of the largest Italian banks from 1990 to 1996. Market rivalry is gauged by...

This paper reports results from a study of location, ownership, and acquisitions of automated teller machines (ATMs) by a sample of large Italian banks between 1991 and 1995. The sample banks had 85% of Italian banking assets. Data are collected at the provincial level for each bank. The...

The post-crisis financial reform agenda is broad and complex, ranging from strengthening prudential regulation; to enhancing supervision; from mitigating pro-cyclicality to integrating micro- and macro-prudential oversight; from reducing the systemic risk associated with large and complex...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of current progress in financial sector reform and outline some of the remaining challenges. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an analytical survey of recent developments. Findings – The reform agenda is broad,...