Special Issues

Call for Papers - Special Issues

We are planning several special issues and you are welcome to contribute to any of them.

Call for Papers - Special Issue on

"Empirical Research in the EU Banking Sector"

Guest Editors

Fotios Pasiouras, University of Bath, UK f.pasiouras@bath.ac.uk

Constantin Zopounidis, Technical University of Crete, Greece kostas@dpem.tuc.gr

Over the last years, a number of significant changes occurred in the EU banking industry. For example, deregulation concerning the establishment, operation and supervision of credit institutions as well as the ability of non-financial firms to offer traditional banking services contributed to the growing competition. Therefore, banks were forced to generate new products and seek new customers as reflected in the continued diversification across geographical areas and business lines. The improvements in computer and telecommunication technologies also offered more opportunities for economies of scale and scope. Many banks have attempted to obtain a size that will allow them to compete in the enlarged European market leading to an unprecedented level of consolidation through merger and acquisitions. The establishment of the single European market, the introduction of euro, and the enlargement of the market with the twelve new member states posed further challenges to EU banks. The new regulatory environment (e.g. Basel II, IFRS) is also expected to have a significant impact on the banking sector. On one hand the changes in the regulatory environment aim to achieve a better harmonization of the market and increase stability. On the other hand, they introduce further challenges for EU banks as they require changes in risk management, accounting policies, and the way they do business.

Despite all the above mentioned changes, the economic importance and the size of the EU banking sector, the strand of the literature that examines the EU as a single market is relatively small compared to research in the US banking sector. Nevertheless, the EU offers a unique opportunity for research because of its heterogeneity and the differences among its member states that allow the incorporation of macroeconomic, regulatory and other country specific variables in the analysis.

The proposed special issue aims to present recent empirical work that uses management science/operations research methodologies to examine the EU banking sector. Of particular interest are studies that focus on the Single Market, provide cross-country comparisons, or compare the banking sectors of the old (i.e. 15) and new (i.e. 12) member states. Topics of special interest, although not limited to the ones below, are:

Bank merger and acquisitions
Efficiency and performance in the banking sector
Risk management (credit, operational, market risk)
Asset-Liability management
The impact of new computer and communication technologies
Foreign banks and multinational banking
Market structure, regulations and stability

Both academics and practitioners can contribute to the special issue. The papers will be initially screened by the special issue editors, and then send out for single blind peer review in accordance with the procedures of OMEGA.

Authors should submit their paper via EES http://www.ees.elsevier.com/omega/ and indicate in the title “Special Issue: Empirical Research in the EU Banking Sector”

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Refereeing and the selection of papers will be carried out according to the standards of OMEGA. For details related to the page format for submission to OMEGA, please check the webpage: http://www.omegajournal.org/authors.html.