The recent financial crisis has stimulated much debate on the governance of financial institutions, as well as research on the effects of governance arrangements on risk-taking, performance and financial institutions more generally. Furthermore, researchers are asking how regulation, legislation, politics and other factors influence the governance of financial institutions and their behavior in different dimensions. The specially commissioned contributions featured in this timely Handbook confront these complex issues. The contributors - top international scholars from finance, law and business - explore the role of governance, both internal and external, in explaining risk-taking and other aspects of the behavior of financial institutions. Additionally, they discuss market and policy features affecting objectives and quality of governance. The chapters provide in-depth analysis of factors such as: ownership, efficiency and stability; market discipline; compensation and performance; social responsibility; and governance in non-bank financial institutions. Only through this kind of rigorous examination can one hope to implement the financial reforms necessary and sufficient to reduce the likelihood and severity of future crises. Bringing the reader to the frontier of research on governance of financial institutions, this volume is sure to inspire future research in scholars and students of financial institutions, governance and banking. Practitioners in financial institutions and public regulatory and supervisory authorities will also find much of value and insight in this book. Contributors: E. Arbak, F. Arnaboldi, R. Ayadi, J.R. Barth, T. Berglund, A.W.A. Boot, D. Brash, B. Casu, Y. Chang, H. Choe, W.P. De Groen, J.K. Dietrich, W. Dolde, R. Galema, S. Gangopadhyay, C. Girardone, P.A. Gompers, Y. Gong, C.A.E. Goodhart, B.E. Gup, J. Hagendorff, I. Hasan, R.J. Herring, A.G.F. Hoepner, J. Houston, J. Itzkowitz, J.D. Knopf, S. Koibuchi, R.M. Lastra, B. Lee, R. Lensink, L. Li, C. Lin, Y. Ma, P. MacKay, M. Marinc, D.G. Mayes, R. Mersland, R. Mohan, P. Molyneux, A. Mullineux, A. Naranjo, A.A. Palvia, A.P. Prabha, H.L. Root, W. Sawangngoenyuang, S.K. Shanthi, C.-H. Shen, F.M. Song, L. Song, K.R. Spong, T. Subhanij, R.J. Sullivan, F. Vallascas, P.J. Wallison, I. Walter, L.J. White, C. Wihlborg, T.D. Willett, J.O.S. Wilson, Y. Xuan, Z. Zhou

The recent financial crisis has stimulated much debate on the governance of financial institutions, as well as research on the effects of governance arrangements on risk-taking, performance and financial institutions more generally. Furthermore, researchers are asking how regulation, legislation, politics and other factors influence the governance of financial institutions and their behavior in different dimensions. The specially commissioned contributions featured in this timely Handbook confront these complex issues. The contributors - top international scholars from finance, law and business - explore the role of governance, both internal and external, in explaining risk-taking and other aspects of the behavior of financial institutions. Additionally, they discuss market and policy features affecting objectives and quality of governance. The chapters provide in-depth analysis of factors such as: ownership, efficiency and stability; market discipline; compensation and performance; social responsibility; and governance in non-bank financial institutions. Only through this kind of rigorous examination can one hope to implement the financial reforms necessary and sufficient to reduce the likelihood and severity of future crises. Bringing the reader to the frontier of research on governance of financial institutions, this volume is sure to inspire future research in scholars and students of financial institutions, governance and banking. Practitioners in financial institutions and public regulatory and supervisory authorities will also find much of value and insight in this book. Contributors: E. Arbak, F. Arnaboldi, R. Ayadi, J.R. Barth, T. Berglund, A.W.A. Boot, D. Brash, B. Casu, Y. Chang, H. Choe, W.P. De Groen, J.K. Dietrich, W. Dolde, R. Galema, S. Gangopadhyay, C. Girardone, P.A. Gompers, Y. Gong, C.A.E. Goodhart, B.E. Gup, J. Hagendorff, I. Hasan, R.J. Herring, A.G.F. Hoepner, J. Houston, J. Itzkowitz, J.D. Knopf, S. Koibuchi, R.M. Lastra, B. Lee, R. Lensink, L. Li, C. Lin, Y. Ma, P. MacKay, M. Marinc, D.G. Mayes, R. Mersland, R. Mohan, P. Molyneux, A. Mullineux, A. Naranjo, A.A. Palvia, A.P. Prabha, H.L. Root, W. Sawangngoenyuang, S.K. Shanthi, C.-H. Shen, F.M. Song, L. Song, K.R. Spong, T. Subhanij, R.J. Sullivan, F. Vallascas, P.J. Wallison, I. Walter, L.J. White, C. Wihlborg, T.D. Willett, J.O.S. Wilson, Y. Xuan, Z. Zhou

Privacy and Copyright protection is a very important issue in our digital society, where a very large amount of multimedia data are generated and distributed daily using different kinds of consumer electronic devices and very popular communication channels, such as the Web and social networks. This book introduces state-of-the-art technology on data hiding and copyright protection of digital images, and offers a solid basis for future study and research. Steganographic technique overcomes the traditional cryptographic approach, providing new solutions for secure data transmission without raising users' malicious intention. In steganography, some secret information can be inserted into the original data in imperceptible and efficient ways to avoid distortion of the image, and enhance the embedding capacity, respectively. Digital watermarking also adopts data hiding techniques for copyright protection and tampering verification of multimedia data. In watermarking, an illegitimate copy can be recognised by testing the presence of a valid watermark and a dispute on the ownership of the image resolved. Different kinds of steganographic and watermarking techniques, providing different features and diverse characteristics, have been presented in this book. This book provides a reference for theoretical problems as well as practical solutions and applications for steganography and watermarking techniques. In particular, both the academic community (graduate student, post-doc and faculty) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics; and the industrial community (engineers, engineering managers, programmers, research lab staff and managers, security managers) will find this book interesting.