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Studying protein dynamics and conformational heterogeneity is crucial for understanding biomolecular systems and treating disease. Despite the deposition of over 215 000 macromolecular structures in the Protein Data Bank and the advent of AI-based structure prediction tools such as AlphaFold2, RoseTTAFold, and ESMFold, static representations are typically produced, which fail to fully capture macromolecular motion. Here, we discuss the importance of integrating experimental structures with computational clustering to explore the conformational landscapes that manifest protein function. We describe the method developed by the Protein Data Bank in Europe – Knowledge Base to identify distinct conformational states, demonstrate the resource's primary use cases, through examples, and discuss the need for further efforts to annotate protein conformations with functional information. Such initiatives will be crucial in unlocking the potential of protein dynamics data, expediting drug discovery research, and deepening our understanding of macromolecular mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an emphasis on the effects of regional differences and the COVID- 19 epidemic, this study examines the link between Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ratings and the financial performance of European banks while considering the role of governance and law. Our study, which uses panel data regressions spanning five years and 71 listed banks in 21 European nations, shows a negative link between EPI scores and bank performance, which is most noticeable in Southern Europe. These results highlight the significance of taking regional variations in bank size and characteristics into account when assessing EPI performance in the banking industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role of local banking development, per se, in European SME debt policies, using a cross-country dataset. Moreover, it assesses whether the debt policies of SMEs are mainly driven by local or national banking development. We find that higher levels of local banking development increase the amount of debt used by SMEs. Results suggest that national banking institutions reduce the influence of local banking sectors on SME financial behavior. Several robustness and further tests validate our results, suggesting that whilst the process of international integration and digitalization of financial markets, local banking development is still relevant despite the moderating role of national banking policies. Consequently, policy makers should first and foremost allow headquarters and central banks to better support local banks in integrating national banking policies in order to reduce the financial constraints on SMEs and spur their economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing recent calls by European regulatory and supervisory authorities, we develop a new bottom-up climate risk assessment method to examine the resilience of the European banking industry regarding transitory climate risks. We illustrate our approach by estimating the impact of a 50–100 EUR carbon tax per tCO 2 equivalent on the valuation and default risk of STOXX Europe 600 firms. For about 5% of the sample firms, we find asset devaluation shocks larger than 30% and for about 16% of the firms probabilities of default (PDs) dropping below investment-grade level of 3%. At the sector level, our results yield asset devaluations shocks of 15–36% and new PDs of 5–34% for the six most affected sectors. Running a stress test on credit risk based on these results, we find a decrease in capital ratios between - 1.2 and - 1.6 percentage points for key regulatory capital ratios in the most adverse scenario while only addressing 36% of the bank's total risk-weighted assets. Our analysis sheds light on the substantial transitory climate risk for asset portfolios of banks and contributes to the pressing question how to integrate climate risk into risk management and regulation of financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the relevant European Union directives require in-depth sustainability reporting from large institutions, banks are among the concerned with disclosure obligations. Several institutions prepare self-structured recommendations by which companies are indirectly fostered to make their operation more sustainable through reporting and to help compliance with the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) regulations. However, in the preparation period, differences can be found in the actual sustainability disclosure practices across Europe (primarily by a western–eastern European relation). To examine this issue, this study aimed to investigate if there was any variation in the reporting compliance with aspects (key performance indicators—KPIs) of three reporting guidelines (Global Reporting Initiative—G4, Financial Services Sector Disclosures—GRI; Alliance for Corporate Transparency—ACT; ISO 26000:2010—ISO) between top European and Hungarian banks according to their 2021 sustainability/ESG reports, using content analysis-based disclosure scoring. The results revealed no significant differences among the general (aspect-pooled) scores for different guidelines, while the differences were significant for each guideline between the two bank groups. In the aspect-level evaluation, the European banks had higher scores in most cases, with the Hungarian banks receiving higher scores in 4 of 49 GRI, 1 of 16 ACT, and 2 of 37 ISO aspects. Significant correlations were indicated in disclosure score values between the two bank groups, which suggested similar preferences for the aspects demonstrated; however, elaboration levels differed. These findings showed that the European and Hungarian banks could be differentiated by their sustainability disclosure patterns. The results suggest a better CSRD-level preparedness of the top European banks than of the Hungarian ones, with the latter being introduced as a model group of the region. This reflects the need for more efficient adoption of best practices by financial institutions in the eastern parts of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]