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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between bank-specific characteristics and profitability in European banking sector to find the role of internal factors in achieving high profitability.

A regression analysis is built on an unbalanced panel data set comprising 175 observations of 35 top European banks over the period 2009-2013. To this end, the empirical data are collected from Bankscope and a comprehensive set of internal characteristics is examined.

All the determinant variables included in the model have statistically significant impacts on European banks’ profitability. However, the effects are not uniform across profitability measures. Regression findings reveal that size and capital ratio are significant company-level determinants of bank profitability in Europe, while higher loan loss provisions result in lower profitability levels. Findings also suggest that banks with higher deposits and loans ratio tend to be more profitable but the effects on profitability are statistically insignificant in some cases.

This study has considerable policy implications, as the performance of the European banking sector depends on its efficiency, profitability and competitiveness. In view of these findings, some suggestions may be functional for bank regulatory authorities to intensify and sustain robustness and stability of the banking sector.

The results provide interesting insights into the characteristics and practices of profitable banks in Europe. Few econometric studies have empirically explored the determinants of bank profitability in Europe so far, even though similar studies have been conducted in several developed countries. Therefore, this paper tries to close an important gap in the existing literature improving the understanding of bank profitability in Europe.

This paper aims to evaluate the market concentration and competition in the European Banking Sector using an integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach under the fuzzy environment.

The hybrid model combining fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) and fuzzy VIKOR methods is applied to measure the market competition and concentration in the European Banking Sector. For this purpose, two academicians and one expert from banking sector with at least five-year experiences are selected to evaluate the dimensions, criteria and alternatives. The academicians are also appointed to define the decision-making problem and determine the dimensions and the criteria on the basis of related literature. The implementation of the model has been constructed in three main phases. The first phase consists of the fuzzy DEMATEL technique for understanding the impact-relation map among the dimensions. The second phase includes the fuzzy ANP method for measuring the relative importance of the criteria. The last phase comprises the fuzzy VIKOR approach to rank the alternatives with the values of the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI).

Turkey, France, England and Germany are placed in the competitive market structure of the European Banking Sector respectively. Additionally, the comparative results of the study confirm the market shares and the competitive policies of the European and Turkish Banking Sector.

The novelty of the paper is to construct a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model with the proposed HHI scales under the fuzzy environment and defined competition dimensions and criteria based on the literature for the European Banking Industry.

Previous academic literature indicates that the case of the banking crises recovery, in view of implemented regulations and policies, differs across times and countries. This is explained by varied institutional environments in which banking sectors operate, and in which financial crises persist. Therefore, the aim of this study is to prioritize investigation of the regulatory framework in the crisis‐response policies across European countries affected by the current financial turmoil. In order to elicit most accurate results and fill in the gap in existing literature on banking crises, the paper aims to focus on both qualitative and quantitative methodological frameworks in order to ensure that the concerns raised by practitioners are addressed and implications for the regulatory processes instrumented.

The emphasis of the current study has been laid to flag the region‐ and country‐specific vulnerabilities in regulatory framework employed for banking crisis recovery. Additional focus has been put on groups of systemic risk which evolved from the current financial crisis and ways these risks can be ameliorated. Furthermore, the current paper strives to explore the ideas of ways to ameliorate negative outcomes of the global crisis and mitigate common risks with reference to the flawed regulations. Especially, important issues have been raised by the interviewed experts who put forward their opinions on the ways of lifting the regulatory shortcomings and costs of remedies identified in the study and who provided solutions to ensuring the financial stability of European capital markets.

The study highlighted areas of regulations that require immediate attention and which failed to prevent financial markets from the current banking crisis. These findings are then summarized with constructive proposals on how to amend banking sector and financial regulations. The study also provides a cross‐European comparison of the financial crisis‐recovery policies, evaluating solutions adopted in various selected European countries. Henceforth, the empirical model tested the possibility of a tradeoff existing between remedies which involve substantial public funds and exert burden on both fiscal balances and taxpayers, and the speed and effectiveness of the recovery processes. To this point, no tradeoff has been found. Moreover, contrasting the current banking crisis to the past financial market disturbances, highlighted the magnitude of the nascent economic downturn prevailing in Europe.

Since the existing body of literature abounds in studies devoted to investigations of the causes for the current banking crisis, the research focus of this paper has been shifted away from the factors and flawed regulations that trigger banking crises. To this point, the paper has traits of pioneering work.

This paper aims to investigate the correlation between banking sector non-performing loans (NPLs) and the level of sustainable development.

Pearson correlation test statistic was used to assess the correlation between bank NPLs and sustainable development.

There is a significant positive correlation between banking sector NPLs and the level of sustainable development measured by the sustainable development index (SDI). The significant positive correlation is evident in European countries and in countries in the region of the Americas. There is a significant negative correlation between banking sector NPLs and achieving SDG3 and SDG7 in African countries and European countries. There is also a significant negative correlation between NPLs and achieving SDG10 in European countries. There is a significant positive correlation between banking sector NPLs and achieving SDG4 and SDG7 in the region of the Americas. There is also a significant positive correlation between NPLs and achieving SDG10 in African countries and in countries in the region of the Americas.

The present study is unique and different from other studies because it used a unique SDI to capture the level of sustainable development. The analysis is also unique because it covers several regions, which have not been covered in previous studies.

In the framework of the European Union, one of the economic sectors of most interest to politicians, academics and professionals has been the banking sector. The aim of this paper is to verify the existence of differences in the efficiency of the banking sectors and what variables determine these differences in European Union countries in the period 1988 to 1999. In spite of the role of the European Market as an element of homogenisation, the starting point of the banking sector in each country is noticeably different. In this paper we will compare the banking systems, looking at aggregate data for each country, since both the characteristics of the financial systems and the regulatory activity follow national guidelines. The efficiency values of each banking system calculated by the means of stochastic frontiers in the European Union will then be used as the dependent variable in the estimation of a regression.

The purpose of this paper is to ask two questions. How does the customer's loyalty in the banking sector change (at both the structural and quantitative level) in the light of the financial and banking crises? Are any differences observed in those changes between developing and developed countries?

The paper consists of two parts: theoretical and empirical. In the theoretical part the authors discuss the nature of the banking and financial crises, the historical perspective of banking crises occurrence and main causes and consequences of those crises. The second part of the paper demonstrates statistical analysis of the obtained data from the Polish and European banking sector. The authors also present socio‐demographic characteristic of the research samples and the character of the bank‐client relations, comparative analysis of customer satisfaction index changes in the European banking sector and structural equation modes for the Polish banking sector for the years 2007‐2009.

The analyses allowed the authors to confirm the main research hypotheses: first, clients of developing European countries demonstrate generally lower satisfaction and loyalty levels than clients of banks in Western Europe. Second, the recent banking crisis has affected the level of customer satisfaction much more strongly in developing European countries than in developed ones. Third, the recent banking crisis has changed the character of the process of building customer satisfaction and loyalty in Poland by strengthening the influence of the image area.

Hardly anyone has tried to measure the influence of the banking crises at the level of customers’ satisfaction and the structure of the process of building long‐term relations between banks and their clients before.

In this chapter we study the intra-group transactions between the parent bank and its foreign subsidiaries in European Union (EU) countries during the crisis. We use hand-collected data from annual statements on related party transaction and find that they may create a serious problem for the stability of the foreign banks’ subsidiaries. Moreover, as some of those subsidiary banks were large by assets in some of the member states the related party transactions with the parent bank created a serious threat to the host countries’ financial system stability. We attribute this transaction to the weak governance in foreign subsidiaries. We suggest improvements in governance as well as greater disclosure of related party transactions in bank holding companies in Europe.

There is considerable academic interest in the consequences of European integration for human resource (HR) management within multinational companies. In the context of this debate discusses the implications of changes in the organisation of production and markets for the management of HR in the banking sector. Frames the analysis with special reference to British and Spanish banks, and draws implications regarding the impact of such changes for the most prominent development in terms of European legislation at company level, European Works Councils (EWCs). Argues that deregulation and European integration have facilitated restructuring and consolidation within national boundaries, which in turn have facilitated cross‐border mergers and acquisitions. As a result, the number of banks with operations in two or more countries of the European Union has increased. While business continues to be geographically segmented according to countries, affording EWCs a relatively limited role, growing similarities in work organisation and processes in banks across countries offers potential for change.

This paper documents the EU integration process using the uneven and combined development framework. Because capitalist social relations are territorially defined and politically built, unevenness between countries is not unconnected with that within countries and both involve antagonism between capital and labor. This is manifest in the ‘state form’ of the EU and its anti-democratic tendencies: public institutions at the community level play a major role in reinforcing unevenness in favour of leading countries, in both the productive and financial spheres.

This study aims to investigate the effects of board cultural diversity (BCD) and board gender diversity (BGD) of the board of directors on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the European banking sector using resource-based view (RBV) theory. In addition, this study analyses the linkages between BCD and BGD and knowledge sharing on the board of directors to improve ESG performance.

This study selected a sample of European-listed banks covering the period 2021. ESG and diversity variables were collected from Refinitiv Eikon and analysed using the ordinary least squares model. This study was conducted in the European context regulated by Directive 95/2014/EU, which requires sustainability disclosure. The original population was represented by 250 banks; after missing data were excluded, the final sample comprised 96 European-listed banks.

The findings highlight the positive linkages between BGD, BCD and ESG scores in the European banking sector. In addition, the findings highlight that diversity contributes to knowledge sharing by improving ESG performance in a regulated sector. Nonetheless, the combined effect of BGD and BCD negatively impacts ESG performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to measure and analyse a regulated sector, such as banking, and the relationship between cultural and gender diversity for sharing knowledge under the RBV theory lens in the ESG framework.