Contents:
Introduction Morten Balling
1. In search of anchors for financial and monetary stability Andrew Crockett
2. Banking consolidation in Europe Jacques de Larosière
3. Monetary policy and financial stability in a dynamic world Klaus Liebscher
4. A new capital adequacy framework for Europe Claes Norgren
5. Is a Euroland banking system already emerging? Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa
6. Fiscal discipline and exchange rate regimes: A case for currency boards? Enrique Alberola and Luis Molina
7. Country risk analysis in the light of emerging market crisis Josef Christl and Thomas Spanel
8. Foreign and domestic bank participation in emerging markets: Lessons from Mexico and Argentina B. Gerard Dages, Linda Goldberg and Daniel Kinney
9. Financial stability in the euro area - some lessons from US financial history E. Philip Davis
10. Strategies developed by Spanish banks for adapting to financial globalisation: Mergers, acquisitions and other strategies Ignacio Fuentes and Teresa Sastre
11. Globalisation and Payment Intermediation Hans Geiger
12. A theoretical model of consumer behaviour in the financial services industry Barry Howcroft
13. Inflation, monetary transparency, and G3 exchange volatility Kenneth N. Kuttner and Adam S. Posen
14. Challenges to the structure of financial supervision in the EU Karel Lannoo
15. Financial industry mergers and acquisitions: Evaluating the strategies of diversification or concentration Gary Santry
16. Impact of globalisation on efficiency in the European banking industry: What can we learn from the cost to income ratio? Peter Van Dijcke

In this book leading financial professionals and academics examine the prospects for the European single currency. The impact of the Euro is assessed in terms of risks and opportunities for financial intermediaries, challenges for monetary and supervisory authorities and issues for portfolio management and corporate finance.

eBook available with sample pages: 020346236X

The papers in this volume were presented in Budapest at the 20th Colloquium of the SociA(c)tA(c) Universitaire EuropA(c)enne de Recherches FinanciA]res (SUERF), arranged in association with the Robert Triffin-SzirAk Foundation. Each paper deals with a different aspect of the characteristics of and trends in corporate governance. The three main topics are: Corporate governance of financial institutions; Corporate governance as exerted by financial institutions; Financial instutions as participants in the transfer of corporate governance. A/LISTA The structure of financial markets and institutions has a significant impact on the ways in which the power to manage corporate resources is allocated. The relative roles of different types of owners and the legal framework within which they operate are currently in a state of flux throughout Europe. Financial integration in the European Union, the transition to open market economies in Central and Eastern Europe and privatization, have a profound effect on the behaviour and influence of different enterprises. This collection of papers demonstrates the range of aspects of corporate governance in a world characterized by rapid technological, political and institutional change which is currently concerning researchers and practitioners. The authors come from a wide number of countries and disciplines, and include people from leading banks and corporations, public officials and academics, providing different perspectives on corporate governance, financial markets and global convergence in eastern and western Europe. Their contributions will be of considerable interest to academics in the fields of finance and banking, monetary economics andmacro-economics, and also to professionals in banks, securities houses, corporate treasuries, pension funds, consultancies, law firms, central banks and regulatory bodies.

In this book leading financial professionals and academics examine the prospects for the European single currency. The impact of the Euro is assessed in terms of risks and opportunities for financial intermediaries, challenges for monetary and supervisory authorities and issues for portfolio management and corporate finance.

This book, which is based on the Bank of England's own mainly unpublished archives, describes the internal workings of the bank from 1930 to 1960 under three governors, Lord Norman, Lord Catto and Lord Cobbold. Each chapter is devoted to the organisation and working methods of a particular department, such as Cashier's, Accountant's (now Registrar's), the Printing Works, Overseas, and so on, and the book includes the first published description of how the bank continued working during the Second World War, when many of its staff were evacuated to Hampshire and elsewhere. The book also contains information on the bank's accounting methods and profitability, and on the note issue including bank note design. These decades were a period of enormous change for the Bank, when its working methods (many dating back almost to its foundation in 1694) were radically updated and in some cases mechanised in a progression of record-keeping from handwritten ledgers to computers.

for many years been heavily dependent on bank financing, and this situation has not changed fundamentally. In his paper on stock exchange governance in the European Union Guido Ferrarini discusses the relative merits of member and investor ownership and compares stock exchange regulation in a number of EU countries. Faced with increasing competition amongst themselves and against other enterprises that offer transaction services, such as proprietary trading systems, it is essential for European stock exchanges to improve their efficiency and to generate volume. Large investments in new information technology are necessary in order to preserve competitiveness in agIobaI financial market. The implementation of the ISD has accelerated cross-border transaction activity of member firms and investors and strengthened the pressure for convergence of national stock exchange laws in the EU. In their paper, Francesco Giavazzi and Marco Battaglini look at the role played by banks in privatization processes. Banks can be involved in such processes in several ways. They may themselves be the objects of privatization since in many countries a significant fraction of the banking industry is publicly owned. This is the case in France, Spain and Italy. But banks can also be important buyers of the equity of industrial firms sold by the government if they are allowed to do so. The authors characterize privatizations as a very good opportunity to set up the right environment for the development of new financial intermediaries and in general for asound corporate governance system.

An insightful exploration of the iconic Galapagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world The Galapagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands' namesakes-the giant tortoises-as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it.