Reflections on the future business model of European banks and the supervisory approach

Relevant forces are reshaping the banking sector and redefining banks’ business models. On the one hand, banks have been facing structural difficulties, such as a prolonged low interest rate environment and the costs of excess capacity. In addition, banks need to deal with more recently developing challenges, like the digital transformation, the entrance of new competitors in the banking sector and the climate change. A demanding regulatory environment and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic further aggravate the situation. As a result, European banks are not being able to produce enough returns to cover their cost of capital, making it necessary to urgently face these challenges. To that purpose, banks may adopt different strategies, some of them complementary, among which the following can be highlighted: the reduction of overcapacity, consolidation, diversification or specialisation and the exploitation of the value of long-term relations with clients, as well as taking advantage of the opportunities stemming from digitalization and sustainable finance. Supervisors will need to stay abreast of the changes in the banking environment and closely monitor the adaptation processes. This article is intended to serve as a basis for discussion, given that several of the issues raised are controversial and uncertain under the current fast changing environment

Reflections on the future business model of European banks and the supervisory approach

Importantes factores están reconfigurando el sector bancario y redefiniendo los modelos de negocio de las entidades. Las entidades han venido afrontando dificultades estructurales, como un entorno de bajos tipos de interés prolongado o el exceso de capacidad instalada. A esto se añaden otros retos más recientes, como la transformación digital, los nuevos competidores en el mercado bancario y el cambio climático. Adicionalmente, un entorno regulatorio exigente y el impacto del COVID-19 suponen una presión añadida. Como resultado, los bancos europeos no están siendo capaces de producir resultados que cubran el coste del capital, lo que hace necesario afrontar con urgencia estos retos. Para ello, existen distintas estrategias posibles, algunas de ellas complementarias, entre las que se pueden destacar: la reducción de la capacidad instalada, la consolidación bancaria, la diversificación o especialización y la explotación del valor de la banca relacional, así como el aprovechamiento de las oportunidades derivadas de la digitalización y las finanzas sostenibles. El supervisor deberá estar al nivel de los cambios que se produzcan en el entorno bancario y seguir de cerca los procesos de adaptación. El propósito de este artículo es servir de base para el debate, dada la controversia existente y la incertidumbre que rodea a algunas de estas cuestiones en un entorno como el actual, que cambia con rapidez

Comparative study of polymeric matrices embedding oxygen-sensitive fluorophores by means of Layer-by-Layer nanosassembly

In this work, a comparative study of luminescent optical fiber oxygen sensors fabricated by means of Layer-by-Layer nanoassembly technique (LbL) has been carried out. The oxygen-sensitive fluorophore is the same in all the cases, the metalloporphyrin platinum tetrakis pentafluorophenylporphin (Pt-TFPP), which was deposited using LbL method by entrapping it into anionic micelles formed with a surfactant. As cationic counterpart to form the anionic-cationic bilayer, different polyelectrolytes acting as the polymeric matrices embedding the sensing material have been studied: poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA), polyethyleneimine (PEI) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). Absorbance spectra, contact angle, Atomic Force Microscope and Scanning Electronic Microscope analysis were performed on the sensing films. The kinetics, resolution and sensitivity of the sensors for different number of bilayers were also determined. It has been found a remarkable difference on these characteristics depending on the polymer used

Candida albicans Hyphal Extracellular Vesicles Are Different from Yeast Ones, Carrying an Active Proteasome Complex and Showing a Different Role in Host Immune Response.

Candida albicans is the principal causative agent of lethal fungal infections, predominantly in immunocompromised hosts. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been described as crucial in the interaction of microorganisms with their host. Since the yeast-to-hypha transition is an important virulence trait with great impact in invasive candidiasis (IC), we have addressed the characterization of EVs secreted by hyphal cells (HEVs) from C. albicans, comparing them to yeast EVs (YEVs). YEVs comprised a larger population of bigger EVs with mainly cell wall proteins, while HEVs were smaller, in general, and had a much higher protein diversity. YEVs were able to rescue the sensitivity of a cell wall mutant against calcofluor white, presumably due to the larger amount of cell wall proteins they contained. On the other hand, HEVs also contained many cytoplasmic proteins related to protein metabolism and intracellular protein transport and the endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) pathway related to exosome biogenesis, pointing to an intracellular origin of HEVs. Interestingly, an active 20S proteasome complex was secreted exclusively in HEVs. Moreover, HEVs contained a greater number of virulence-related proteins. As for their immunogenic role, both types of EV presented immune reactivity with human sera from patients suffering invasive candidiasis; however, under our conditions, only HEVs showed a cytotoxic effect on human macrophages and could elicit the release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by these macrophages. IMPORTANCE This first analysis of HEVs of C. albicans has shown clear differences between them and the YEVs of C. albicans, showing their relevance and possible use in the discovery of new diagnostic markers and treatment targets against C. albicans infections. The data obtained point to different mechanisms of biogenesis of YEVs and HEVs, as well as different involvements in cell biology and host interaction. YEVs played a more relevant role in cell wall maintenance, while HEVs were more closely related to virulence, as they had greater effects on human immune cells. Importantly, an active 20S proteosome complex was described as a fungal-EV cargo. A deeper study of its role and those of many other proteins exclusively detected in HEVs and involved in different relevant biological processes of this fungus could open up interesting new areas of research in the battle against C. albicans

Challenges in coupling atmospheric electricity with biological systems

The atmosphere is host to a complex electric environment, ranging from a global electric circuit generating fluctuating atmospheric electric fields to local lightning strikes and ions. While research on interactions of organisms with their electrical environment is deeply rooted in the aquatic environment, it has hitherto been confined to interactions with local electrical phenomena and organismal perception of electric fields. However, there is emerging evidence of coupling between large- and small-scale atmospheric electrical phenomena and various biological processes in terrestrial environments that even appear to be tied to continental waters. Here, we synthesize our current understanding of this connectivity, discussing how atmospheric electricity can affect various levels of biological organization across multiple ecosystems. We identify opportunities for research, highlighting its complexity and interdisciplinary nature and draw attention to both conceptual and technical challenges lying ahead of our future understanding of the relationship between atmospheric electricity and the organization and functioning of biological systems

Testu-ahots bihurketa (TAB) euskaraz gaur egun

En este artículo se describe la situación de la conversión de texto a voz en euskara, teniendo en cuenta tanto los problemas lingüísticos como técnicos. Después de describir las diferezites etapas del procesado lingüístico, preprocesado, transcripcióti fonética, análisis acentuar y prosódico, se contemplan las aplicaciones que puede tener esta tecnología en sistemas de información, enseñanza de idiomas, ayudas a personas discapacitadas, investigación básica de voz, investigación lingüística y en multimedia. Finalmente tras mostrar los principales problemas lingüísticos que hemos encontrado con el euskara así como las decisiones tomadas durante el desarrollo del sistema, se sugieren los próximos pasos

Testu-ahots bihurketa (TAB) euskaraz gaur egun

En este artículo se describe la situación de la conversión de texto a voz en euskara, teniendo en cuenta tanto los problemas lingüísticos como técnicos. Después de describir las diferezites etapas del procesado lingüístico, preprocesado, transcripcióti fonética, análisis acentuar y prosódico, se contemplan las aplicaciones que puede tener esta tecnología en sistemas de información, enseñanza de idiomas, ayudas a personas discapacitadas, investigación básica de voz, investigación lingüística y en multimedia. Finalmente tras mostrar los principales problemas lingüísticos que hemos encontrado con el euskara así como las decisiones tomadas durante el desarrollo del sistema, se sugieren los próximos pasos