Privileged Interfirm/Bank Relationships in Central Europe: Trigger or Trap for Corporate Governance?

The paper focuses on the question whether banks and capital markets in Central Europe are capable of exerting a positive influence on enterprise performance at the present stage of the economic transformation. These markets are characterised by privileged, collaborative interfirm/interbank relationships demonstrated through various channels. Among them is the competition for private deposits between commercial and national banks that are simultaneously supervisors of commercial banks, as is the case in Poland. Other channels include: heavily indebted large banks that are owners of industrial companies (as is the case in Slovakia with the steel mill VSZ owning the third largest bank IRB), investment funds that are facilitating industrial restructuring, and foreign banks holding only minority stakes in large domestic financial institutions.

Privileged Interfirm/Bank Relationships in Central Europe: Trigger or Trap for Corporate Governance?

The paper focuses on the question whether banks and capital markets in Central Europe are capable of exerting a positive influence on enterprise performance at the present stage of the economic transformation. These markets are characterised by privileged, collaborative interfirm/interbank relationships demonstrated through various channels. Among them is the competition for private deposits between commercial and national banks that are simultaneously supervisors of commercial banks, as is the case in Poland. Other channels include: heavily indebted large banks that are owners of industrial companies (as is the case in Slovakia with the steel mill VSZ owning the third largest bank IRB), investment funds that are facilitating industrial restructuring, and foreign banks holding only minority stakes in large domestic financial institutions.Interfirm, bank relationship, Central Europe

Asset Management in Volatile Markets

The 27th SUERF Colloquium in Munich in June 2008: New Trends in Asset Management: Exploring the Implications was already topical in the Summer of 2008. The subsequent dramatic events in the Autumn of 2008 made the presentations in Munich even more relevant to investors and bankers that want to understand what happens in their investment universe. In the present SUERF Study, we have collected a sample of outstanding colloquium contributions under the fitting headline: Asset Management in Volatile Markets.derivatives, financial innovation, asset management, finance-growth-nexus; Relative Value Strategy, Pair Trading, Slippage, Implementation Shortfall, Asset Management, Fin4Cast

Large-Scale Atomistic Simulations of Environmental Effects on the Formation and Properties of Molecular Junctions

Using an updated simulation tool, we examine molecular junctions comprised of benzene-1,4-dithiolate bonded between gold nanotips, focusing on the importance of environmental factors and inter-electrode distance on the formation and structure of bridged molecules. We investigate the complex relationship between monolayer density and tip separation, finding that the formation of multi-molecule junctions is favored at low monolayer density, while single-molecule junctions are favored at high density. We demonstrate that tip geometry and monolayer interactions, two factors that are often neglected in simulation, affect the bonding geometry and tilt angle of bridged molecules. We further show that the structures of bridged molecules at 298 and 77 K are similar.Comment: To appear in ACS Nano, 30 pages, 5 figure

Central European Financial Markets from an EU Perspective

des Forschungsinstituts für Europafragen an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, di

Central European banks and stock exchanges:: Capacity-building and institutional development

This paper analyses capacity building and institutional development in the banking and capital market sectors of formerly planned economies in Central and Eastern Europe. While the existing literature mostly addresses the specific situation of banks and capital markets in a particular country or for a few countries of the region only, this paper identifies common institutional and structural problems of all 10 Central European applicant countries for EU membership. Given the strong tendencies towards imprudent banking, the small size of the financial markets, asymmetric information, inadequate capitalization and insufficient supervision, privatization of the large former state owned banks may require strong equity involvement of foreign banks and international institutions like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which reduce the risk for foreign investors by providing guarantees and securing more reliable banking policies of the respective governments.