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We provide empirical evidence on the bargaining power model proposed in Hu and Ritter (2007) by examining the financial constraints channel on the direct and indirect cost of going public. We find that financially constrained firms possess lower bargaining power and thereby incur higher direct costs (gross spreads) and higher indirect costs (underpricing) in an IPO. Consistent with the bargaining power model, we find that IPOs of financially constrained firms are usually managed by sole bookrunners and underwritten by smaller syndicates. Finally, we find that these financially constrained IPO firms underperform their non-financially constrained IPO peers in the long term. These results are robust to multiple endogeneity tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article undertakes an empirical analysis of the role that principles of responsible banking (PRB) plays in the progress towards sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the case of Europe. Results suggest that in countries where the share of wholesale banks that are signatories to PRB is higher, progress towards SDGs is at a more advanced stage. However, the same is not the case for retail banks. This can be attributed to the crucial role that corporate and investment banking plays in financing large-scale projects that support the SDGs, such as renewable energy and sustainable agriculture, as opposed to retail banks that typically have a more limited capacity to finance sustainability-linked projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the comparative advantage of firms with focused and multidivisional organizational forms at attracting valuable human capital. Using the merger and acquisition (M&A) advisory industry as a laboratory, we show that high-performing individuals are more likely to migrate to boutique (focused) banks, especially those who are still on the upward trajectory of their career. Such migration is amplified by the cross-subsidization inside bulge bracket (multidivisional) firms, proxied by poor performance of their non-M&A departments. The transition of skilled labor improves the performance of the boutique sector, potentially contributing to the rise of boutiques over the past two decades. Moreover, M&A deal outcomes differ when having boutique advisors. Our findings suggest that corporate organizational structure and labor migration can jointly shape industry dynamics. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Funding: W. Wang gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Daniel C. Smith Fellowship. Supplemental Material: Data and the internet appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.03829. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of employment background on the objectivity of profitability forecasts in the financial sector. We find that investment bank analysts provide relatively biased recommendations and less accurate forecasts than their counterparts at independent research firms (IRFs). The performance discrepancy is greater for bulge bracket banks and for firms involved in syndication with the analysts' employers. A closer look at analysts transitioning between IRFs and investment banks reveals that these biases stem from their affiliation with investment banks rather than personal bias. Our findings emphasize the critical influence of the work environment on analyst behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a sideways approach to analyzing market visualizations on trading screens as a part of the sensoryscapes of financial trading. Based on ethnographic research on the trading floor of a market-maker investment bank in Istanbul, I develop an anthropologically driven interdisciplinary lens built on social studies of finance (SSF) and film and media studies. Through this lens, I use 'haptic' (Marks, Laura U. 2000. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and Senses. Duke University Press) as a key analytic and argue that markets on screens generate a haptic visuality that shapes traders' bodily, sensuous, affective, and emotional engagements with markets. In this way, I offer an alternative reading of Beunza and Stark's conceptualization of pattern recognition and re-cognition by bringing it back to the works of Knorr Cetina and Bruegger. I show that traders' aspirations, intuition, and memories take part in pattern recognition and re-cognition, transforming these experiences into subjective and embodied knowledges and practices. Hence, I expand social scientific studies on financial trading by demonstrating that intersubjective relations with anonymous market actors require self-embedding into market visualizations, through which one can engage with the faces of markets as a face that touches back to the haptic visuality of markets on screens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using novel merger valuation data, we show that firms selected by investment banks as "comparable peers" are more than twice as likely to later become takeover targets themselves compared to matched control firms. Peer firms not subsequently acquired attract more institutional ownership and analyst coverage, deliver strong operating performance, reduce investments, and increase payouts. Investors are inattentive, though, to peer identification at the time of merger filings' public disclosure. A portfolio that longs peers and shorts controls earns up to 15.6 |$\%$| alpha annually, which mainly comes from the long leg and is difficult to explain by short-sale constraints. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In U.S. mergers and acquisitions, target directors are required to consider third-party financial valuations, summarized in a "fairness opinion" before accepting a takeover offer. Critics argue (1) that these valuations are not relevant for public companies, which can assess the desirability of the deal based on the market premium, and (2) that the investment bank providers cater to management by "rationalizing" the deal price rather than providing an independent valuation check. I find that fairness valuations can provide valid information about the target's value, incremental to its predeal stock price. They can impound expected transaction synergies, unravel rumor-driven stock price runups, and may signal ex ante fundamental mispricing. I also find evidence of the alleged catering, which I distinguish from "legitimate" valuation disagreements. This suggests that third-party fundamental valuation could play a useful role in the governance of public company takeovers, but there are flaws in its current implementation. This paper was accepted by Brian Bushee, accounting. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4959. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive banks aggressively invest in information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance their market share and reduce Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC). This study examines the impact of cumulative stock of ICT investment on (a) deposit and loan market share and (b) CAC of banks operating in India. The analysis uses a longitudinal dataset of 84 domestic and 70 foreign banks from 2000 to 2020, employing a two-step system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM). It is found that ICT investment adversely affects the market share of domestic banks, indicating a need for these banks to strategically invest more in CAC. Conversely, foreign banks are able to increase their market share through ICT investment and reduced CAC, thereby demonstrating greater efficiency in utilizing ICT. The study underscores the strategic importance of cumulative stock of ICT investment for banks. Nonetheless, it is emphasized that ICT investment must be complemented with innovative marketing strategies to enhance customer experience, reduce CAC, and increase market share. Overall, while foreign banks are able to leverage ICT to boost efficiency, domestic banks must leverage ICT to implement targeted marketing strategies and strive to enhance their customer service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By constructing a text quality analysis system and company quality analysis system based on a prospectus, the intelligent analysis method of investment banking IPO business risk is proposed based on the machine learning method and text analysis technology. Taking the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in China as a sample, the empirical analysis results show that the text quality and the company quality disclosed in the prospectus can affect the withdrawal rate of investment banking IPO business. By carrying out a text analysis and machine learning on the text quality and company quality, the risk of investment banking IPO business can be predicted intelligently and effectively. The research results can not only improve the business efficiency of investment banking IPO, and save resource cost, but also improve the standardization and authenticity of investment banking IPO business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of International Business Studies is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The conventional view suggests that bank profits and interest rates are expected to move together. When interest rates increase, banks make more money on loans and other assets. However, prior studies have often examined this relationship without distinguishing between various types of banks. This misses important nuances in the relationship between interest rates and profits. This paper incorporates local factors to determine if different types of banks are more sensitive to these nuances as they deal with interest rate changes, employing bank-level Call Report data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation covering the 1987–2020 period. The local indicators used in the study came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Banks are also categorized based on size and whether they are community banks or not to test whether the determinants of profits differ across these categories. The findings reveal that while the conventional view holds true for mid-size banks, higher interest rates negatively affected the profitability of community banks, as well as large banks, for different reasons. Community banks do not have access to tools to isolate themselves from the increased defaults that the local economy may experience because of increasing interest rates. On the other hand, large banks are known to engage in more investment banking activities. High interest rates hurt these banks by killing lucrative investment-bank revenues, which results in lower overall profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the challenge of ensuring that international reparations payments are effective in benefiting the recipient countries of such reparations. To guarantee that these financial flows provide long‐term benefits to the recipient economies, the article recommends the adoption of a developmental state approach to the use of the funds. It also considers in detail the advantages of establishing a Bank of International Reparations that serves as a trustee for the receipt and distribution of reparations, facilitates coordination of the use of reparations across countries to avoid disadvantageous forms of competition, provides investment banking services to support the use of the reparations to fund a domestically focused 'sovereign wealth fund', and provides 'public option' commercial banking services to recipient country firms in order to foster the growth of recipient country economies. Finally, the article finds that the most effective means of funding the reparations would be to use Special Drawing Rights (or SDRs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work experiences, conceptualized as work attitudes, influence employees' turnover and performance. Therefore, it is essential for investment banks to understand the determinants of traders' work experience. Analyzing traders' reviews of major investment banks, this study shows that traders' attitudes depend on the banks' culture, traders' career opportunities, and, to a lesser extent, their pay perceptions. Furthermore, traders are often happy with their coworkers but dissatisfied with their banks' technology, bureaucracy, ethics, and their work-life balance. Hence, this study identifies non-monetary determinants of traders' work attitudes, extends behavioral finance research, and offers applications for investment banks as well as their shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its scarcity, capital is necessary for a country's economic development. To channelise capital foreign investment, financial intermediaries such as development banks, commercial banks, investment and financial institutions, insurance and investment banks are required. The expansion of the capital market is required to encourage and steer capital formation. The capital market encourages investment while also bringing vigour and dynamism to the country's business organisations. The availability of accounting information and financial reporting is crucial for the effectiveness of capital markets, efficient resource allocation, capital information and economic development. Prior researchers prove the relevance of accounting information as a predictor of changes in stock behaviour in particular and growth of stock market in general. To augment this aspect the relevance of segment wise information provided by companies becomes important to be studied. Hence, the present study examines the influence of segment reporting on value relevance. Stock price after 90 days from the end of the financial year has been taken as a dependent variable and various segment related dimensions as independent variable for the period 2016-2017 to 2021-2022. It employed Ohlson (1995) model and indicates that Segment reporting information has significant and positive influence on value relevance thus it clearly indicates that investor's view segment information while making investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IFRS-16 standard showed changes in the quality of disclosure and accounting treatment of lease contracts, which was reflected in the information content of the financial statements. The research deals with the statement of the impact of applying IFRS-16 standard on the efficiency of the financial performance of banks by measuring the level of performance according to financial indicators. The research aims to evaluate the changes in reclassifying lease contracts to financing and operating on the financial position of banks. The financial analysis method was adopted, relying on some of the main financial indicators to evaluate the financial performance of Mansour Investment Bank, the research sample, such as the ratio of debt to equity, the ratio of fixed assets to equity, and some other indicators. The most important conclusions are that there is a clear impact in applying the standard on the efficiency of the bank's performance, the research sample. The most important recommendations are the necessity of applying the standard to all Iraqi banks in order to enhance the qualitative characteristics of accounting information in financial statements and increase the efficiency of these banks in the financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the establishment of GG Wasserstoff, the first hydrogen equity fund in Germany and Austria, by Carmen and Gerd Junker of Grünes Geld GmbH. The fund focuses on investing in hydrogen companies worldwide and differentiates between pure players and blended players in the hydrogen sector. The fund has faced challenges due to delayed industry ramp-up, high interest rates, and stock market turbulence, but the founders remain optimistic about the future of hydrogen investments. Interested investors can easily participate in the fund through various financial institutions or online brokers. [Extracted from the article]

To understand deviations from covered interest parity (CIP), it is crucial to account for heterogeneity in funding costs across both banks and currency areas. For most market participants, the no-arbitrage relation holds fairly well when implemented using marginal funding costs and risk-free investment instruments. However, a few high-rated banks do enjoy CIP-arbitrage opportunities. Dealers avert inventory imbalances stemming from lower-rated banks' usage of FX swaps to obtain dollar funding by inducing opposite (arbitrage) flows from high-rated banks. Arbitrage trades are difficult to scale, however, because funding costs increase as soon as arbitrageurs increase positions. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the multifaceted realm of artificial intelligence (AI) implementation in financial services, providing insights into its potential, challenges and best practices. Highlighting the emergence of generative AI (GenAI) as a transformative tool, the paper underscores its significant impact on productivity and revenue generation within investment banks and capital markets. Addressing inherent risks of AI adoption, the paper stresses the importance of robust governance frameworks to mitigate operational, reputational and compliance risks. Specific attention is given to the phenomenon of GenAI hallucinations and the imperative for deterministic AI models to ensure data integrity and regulatory compliance. The paper outlines four key pillars of AI's applications in financial services: predictive AI, anomaly detection AI, classification AI and GenAI. Examples highlight AI's role in risk management, fraud prevention, customer experience enhancement and internal process optimisation, underscoring its transformative potential across the industry. The paper also covers the distinction between public and private AI models, emphasising the advantages of proprietary data-driven insights in ensuring competitive advantage and regulatory compliance. Concluding with actionable insights for AI implementation, the paper advocates for a strategic approach encompassing clear vision setting, risk oversight, data privacy management, centralised data architecture and comprehensive process automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Economics & Administrative Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Chi Heng Foundation (CHF) is a Hong Kong-based Non-profit Organization (NPO) founded by To Chung, a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard University who quit a Wall Street investment bank career and dedicated himself full-time to sponsoring education opportunities to “left-behind children” who were faced with social stigmatization. In the mid-1990s, in rural China, parents of these children sold their own blood; as a result, they contracted HIV, died, and left many orphans, some of whom also contracted the virus. In an effort to raise money to help save them, Chung founded the Chi Heng Foundation in Hong Kong in 1998. In 2005, Chung asked Bill Clinton for help, and the Clinton Foundation gave 200 sets of highly specialized antiretroviral medication to the Chinese government, which specially allocated 86 sets to him. However, Chung eventually realized that saving lives and changing misconceptions about people living with HIV were not enough. In his quest to continue to thrive, aside from devoting most of his personal funds to helping those in need, Chung oversaw a transition process that lasted for two decades. The outcome was that the beneficiaries emerged from the shadows of being discriminated against, regained confidence and self-esteem, and reciprocated the charity by acting as role models for their younger peers. Chung, the “responsible leader”, nurtures like-minded youngsters to pass down the baton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how investment fees vary within private equity funds. Net‐of‐fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management‐ and performance‐based fees. Managers of venture capital funds and those in high demand are less likely to use multiple fee schedules. Some investors consistently pay lower fees relative to others within their funds. Investor size, experience, and past performance explain some but not all of this effect, suggesting that unobserved traits like negotiation skill or bargaining power materially impact the fees that investors pay to access private markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) is an international financial institution created in 1975 by the Nordic Council of Ministers to promote investment projects and exports in the Nordic region. In 1998, a new Agreement and Statutes replaced the previous ones and established the international character of the institution. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, NIB started to provide financing to the Baltic states which in 2004 became full members under a new Agreement. The three establishing treaties have marked the evolution of NIB: first, a common institution of the Nordic countries; then, an international financial institution of the Nordic countries; and, finally, a Nordic-Baltic international financial institution. In this process, a key point is to appreciate whether and to what extent NIB has continuously operated as a legal entity across the succession of establishing treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that acquirers create higher shareholder returns when advised by investment banks with more experience in the target industry. This finding is stronger when acquirers face more difficulties understanding and evaluating the targets. Further analyses show that these banks help acquirers avoid overpaying for targets and thus capture more of the deal synergy rather than making deals generating higher synergy. Our results are robust to controlling for an exhaustive set of determinants of acquirer returns and an identification strategy that exploits exogenous shocks to the supply of investment banks with target-industry experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Rama Mani and Professor Alexander Schieffer are embarking on a 7-year journey called the One Home Journey, with the aim of promoting interconnectedness and regeneration. They will visit every country on Earth, guided by grassroots organizations and local hosts, to restore faith in humanity and live in harmony with nature. The journey will focus on planetary regeneration, Indigenous knowledge, Earth Artists, and working with youth and women change-makers. The Home for Humanity movement, founded by Mani and Schieffer, seeks to create a space for diverse backgrounds to come together and imagine a better future. Art, particularly Earth Artistry, will play a central role in this vision. The journey will begin on April 22, 2024, and people are invited to join and support the movement through the One Home UnivEARTHsity. [Extracted from the article]

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) is a facility in Norway that stores seeds in permafrost to protect them from disasters and preserve crop diversity. The article discusses the media coverage of the vault, which initially portrayed it as a hopeful solution to potential apocalyptic scenarios but also raised concerns about its funding and political implications. It emphasizes the importance of seed banks in protecting crop diversity and criticizes industrialized agriculture for its negative impacts. The article concludes by mentioning Martha Stewart's visit to the SGSV and her confidence in its ability to safeguard seeds for future crop populations. [Extracted from the article]

New technologies create a dilemma for senior members of occupations. Traditionally, practical expertise and position are considered correlates, yet when new technologies arrive, they may be knocked out of alignment. This means that senior members must develop new expertise lest their position be threatened. However, because position often signifies expertise, developing new practical expertise may be challenging. Indeed, senior members face strong pressures not to appear to nor actually devote time to comprehensive formal training as they are booked with complex problems using prior methods, they are responsible for the learning of junior members, and they have passed early career training windows. Through comparative ethnographic field studies of urological surgery and investment banking, we show that "inverted apprenticeships," defined as configured struggle and restructured interactions with junior members that allow senior members to develop practical expertise with new technologies while maintaining their position, resolve this dilemma. We identify four pathways that senior experts took to structure these inverted apprenticeships, including seeking, stalling, leveraging, and confronting. We uncover the conditions of each pathway and trace their consequences. Although these pathways allowed senior members to enhance or preserve their position, they generated widely varying practical expertise with the new technology. Furthermore, the majority of these pathways undermined the learning of those most junior, who were supposed to be developing expertise through their interactions with seniors. Funding: This work was supported by the Strategic Management Society [Grant SRF-2015DP-0063] and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Grant 752-2014-0378]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study examines the impact of competition and concentration on bank income smoothing in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Design/methodology/approach - The two-step system GMM method was used to analyse the impact of competition and concentration on bank income smoothing in 17 CEEs from 2004 to 2015. Findings - Loan loss provisions (LLPs) are negatively related to bank competition and concentration. The authors find no evidence for income smoothing using LLPs in a high-competition or high-concentration environment. Research limitations/implications - A limitation of the study is that the analysis was restricted to commercial banks. The authors did not examine investment banks or microfinance banks in this study. Also, not having access to databases does not allow them to include recent years in the study. Practical implications - CEE commercial banks will likely keep fewer provisions or engage in underprovisioning when they face intense competition, and this can expose them to credit risk, which may threaten their stability. Originality/value - This study is the first to investigate the effect of concentration and competition on income smoothing among CEE banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study whether the meteoric rise of boutique advisors in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is justified by their buy‐side performance. We find that acquiring firms represented by boutique advisors generate superior short‐ and long‐run abnormal returns over those employing full‐service advisors. This effect is mainly prominent in private deals, interindustry mergers, and deals involving inexperienced acquirers, where valuation uncertainty tends to be higher. Overall, our results reflect that acquirer shareholders benefit from boutique investment banks' high level of industry expertise and independent advice, supporting the rising demand for their financial advisory services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study tests whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance is a predictor of the financial sector's financial stability (FS), with the moderation of a sustainability committee. Design/methodology/approach: The sample covers financial sector firms included in the Thomson Reuters Eikon database. The analyses are based on 8,840 firm-year observations for the years between 2002 and 2019 and the country-firm-year fixed-effects (FE) regression analysis is executed. Findings: The results reveal that CSR initiatives contribute to the financial sector's FS as a whole and the sector's three individual sub-sectors. This proven significant association holds for all sub-sectors, namely insurance, banking, and investment banking. Moreover, the moderation analysis reveals the prominent role of a sustainability committee in bridging CSR performance (CSRP) with FS. Research limitations/implications: The findings highlight that meeting societies' expectations pays back in the form of greater FS in the financial sector. Practical implications: The findings suggest that CSR engagement helps the financial sector firms manage their risks and alleviates exposure to insolvency. This is because CSR performance promotes firms' accountability and transparency toward stakeholders. The results help motivate managers to pursue CSR goals more seriously to ensure FS. The moderation analysis implies that sustainability committees develop policies and practices to integrate the non-financial and financial goals of the firm. Originality/value: Although prior studies have examined the link between CSR and financial performance (FP) in the financial sector, those studies have largely ignored FS in terms of risk-adjusted performance. Besides, prior studies have exclusively focused on the banking sector, but the authors concentrate on the banking, insurance, and investment banking sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timer options, which were first introduced by Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking in 2007, are financial securities whose payoffs and exercise are determined by a random time associated with the accumulated realized variance of the underlying asset, unlike vanilla options exercised at the prescribed maturity date. In this paper, taking account of the correlation between the underlying asset price and volatility, we investigate the pricing of timer options under the constant elasticity of variance (CEV) model, proposed by Cox and Ross [10], taking advantage of the approach of asymptotic analysis. Additionally, we validate the pricing precision of the approximate formula for timer options using the Monte Carlo method. We conduct numerical experiments based on our corrected prices and analyze price sensitivities concerning various model parameters, with a focus on the value of elasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central & Eastern European Forum 2024 conference, organized by Euromoney, took place in Vienna from 16-17 January 2024. The conference focused on economic trends and challenges in the region, with panel discussions covering topics such as inflation, fiscal and sovereign debt financing, the recovery in Ukraine, and the banking sector. The discussions highlighted the resilience and adaptability required by financial institutions and central banks in the face of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties. The conference also addressed the role of central banks in managing inflationary spikes and navigating global supply shocks. Green bond issuance and the development of sustainable capital markets were also discussed. Overall, the conference presented an optimistic outlook for the economies and banking sector of the CEE region, while acknowledging the challenges posed by geopolitical risks and inflation caused by the energy crisis. [Extracted from the article]