The expected loss approach (ECL) defined by IFRS 9 replaced the old incurred loss approach (IAS 39) in the international accounting standard setter. In Europe, the IFRS 9 are accompanied by new regulatory frameworks (BCBS), opinion, technical standards (EBA) which do not always provide the same methodological and operational implications of the accounting standard setter. Many aspects of IFRS 9 have been studied, but this paper analyzes its interdependencies and overlaps with the credit risk framework for financial intermediaries (also Basel 3). Using a case study, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the ECL, its main impacts on coverage ratio of a loan’s portfolio. The main findings are: usually, the rules laid down for Stage 1 of IFRS 9 do not reduce the excess coverage produced on a portfolio in bonis; in the presence of impaired loans IAS 39 generates a lack of funds; the lifetime ECL (Stage 2 of IFRS 9) imposes excess of provisions because it does not consider the effect of coverage produced by expected premiums; for loan portfolios with short repayment times, the excess of provisions produced by IFRS 9 compensates the lack of coverage of the capital requirement. From the academic research perspective, this paper contributes to the literature on ECL model in several ways. First, it adds knowledge to the research on the relationship between Credit Risk Management framework and accounting standard IFRS 9. Second, it also links our findings related to ECL approach with potential implications for the financial sector, policymakers and regulators.

Sustainable finance has become a common lexicon of both supervisors and financial institutions in the last years also due to the COVID-19 crisis. Undoubtedly, the application of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors is currently designing a new strategic perspective, a new approach to business usually named “sustainable”. The paper’s research problem is related to the reengineering of the bank’s business model on sustainability. Integrate ESG factors within the decision-making process will not be enough for the European financial sector; it will be strategic that European authorities and regulators also ensure incentives in this direction. In this perspective, the paper has the purpose to answer the following questions: “How sustainable the business model of cooperative credit banks is and how they are ESG oriented?”, “What are the possible ways, in the prudential framework, to foster a higher attention to the ESG paradigm, in the bank’s business model?”. The research methodology used analyses of a) the main features of cooperative bank systems and the sustainability of their business model and the conceptual benchmark framework used by EBA in the 2020 survey; b) the case of Iccrea Sustainability Framework. The contribution of our paper is manifold and likely to raise the interest of policymakers. Our argumentations and conclusions are likely to contribute in terms of recognition of the sustainable business model also in the prudential framework in the current COVID-19 economy.

We try to answer the following research question: Is unconventional monetary policy (UMP) mediated by European banks’ liquidity and solvency ratios? Starting from micro-prudential tools (unconventional monetary policy), this paper focuses on the micro-prudential perspective and contributes in different ways to the existing literature. First, using supervisory reporting data from European banks (European Central Bank (ECB), Statistical Data Warehouse), provides insights into the UMP (in terms of long term refinancing operation (LTRO)) during the first phase of the COVID 19 pandemic. Second, it empirically investigates the impacts of the LTRO on the liquidity and solvency of European banks, during the Q32016‒Q22021 period. We argue that the impacts of UMP (in terms of LTRO) are strictly related to banks’ solvency and liquidity, thus favouring the stability of the banking system. These results suggest that authorities may want to monitor the bank’s capital ratio and the liquidity position of financial institutions, also to better understand the effects of unconventional monetary tools on lending volume. The topic of our paper is scarcely explored by similar studies; therefore, we believe that our work may fill this gap and significantly contribute to enriching the related empirical literature.

Since banks and insurance companies are financial institutions dealing with risks in various aspects of their business, it is important to make a general approach to the issue of risk and risk management from the perspective of these institutions. In that regard, we made a short overview of the risks these institutions are faced to as well as the methods they use for risk assessments. In order to limit our research to specific financial markets, we provided the basic characteristics of bank and insurance markets of Southeastern Europe (SEE), presenting the core indicators of development level of these markets and their legal and institutional environment related to new regulation proposed in Europe. We analyzed the level of implementation of Basel and Solvency risk assessment standards in these countries and tried to anticipate direction(s) where these markets are going to move in the coming period.

In banks/enterprises relationships a key role is played by Basel II Framework, which accurately correlates banks’ capital requirement to risks, by stimulating a more precise creditworthiness assessment. As known, the containment of risks inherent in bank financing can be carried out ex ante, through an adequate screening, which allows the proper assessment of enterprises’ economic and financial situation and a sound composition of the total loan portfolio, and ex post, through guarantees, which allow benefiting from a loss reduction only after insolvency has occurred. From this perspective, Basel II Framework brings important changes, since life insurance and surety policy are “eligible” guarantees for Credit Risk Mitigation. Nevertheless, banks could offer a better pricing to borrowers not because they are less risky, but because the whole operation would need a lower capital requirement. Therefore, corporate risks reduction – which would allow, in the absence of credit rationing, a more profitable debt capacity – is necessarily achieved through an appropriate “umbrella insurance”, able to cope with both direct and indirect loss. This work aims at investigating the existence of a “virtuous” relationship among corporate insurance purchases, credit risk and debt capacity. Such aim has been pursued through different steps: review of literature, to identify the reasons of corporate demand for insurance; analysis of Italian enterprises’ corporate insurance purchases; drafting of a questionnaire, to submit to a sample of the main insurance companies working in Italy, intended to identify what kind of role they play in the relation with enterprises and which insurance products they offer; drafting of a questionnaire, to submit to a sample of the main banks working in Italy, intended to investigate whether and how the possession of corporate insurance is taken into consideration in the determination of enterprises’ creditworthiness.