This paper analyzes the response of sustainable indexes to the pandemic lockdown orders in Europe and the USA, contributing to both the research on the effects of the global pandemic outbreak and the resiliency of sustainable investments under market distress. Our results demonstrate that sustainable indexes were negatively impacted by lockdown orders; however, they did not show statistically significant different abnormal returns compared to traditional indexes. Similarly, our empirical results confirm that sustainable screening strategies (negative, positive, best in class) did not have an influence during such announcements. These results are robust across several model specifications and robustness tests, including nonparametric tests, generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) estimation of abnormal returns, and alternative events. The findings suggest that investors do not have to pay the price for the investments in sustainable assets when a bear market occurs; consequently, ceteris paribus, these investments appear suitable for financial-first investors. Such results have relevant practical consequences in terms of sustainable investment attractiveness and market growth.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature debate on the regulators’ dilemma affecting international financial regulations focusing on the banking regulation of dual financial systems. In this regard, the paper provides a new taxonomy of Islamic Financial Systems considering the banking regulation as a driver for the classification and a more detailed definition of dual financial systems. The literature review reveals the existence of different financial system structures affected by socio-cultural biases due to different characteristics of various countries and financial systems globally. The risk of regulatory arbitrage or over-regulation phenomena is high, stifling the growth and the level playing field for both some systemically financial systems.

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.

Development banks play an active role in smoothing growth of world’s disadvantaged areas. The social mission of development banks requires that they pay attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to the social outcome of financing activities. However, like any other financial institution, they must consider the business sustainability and the financial stability over time. Thus, a comprehensive loan appraisal process should include financial and social aspects. Literature does not properly investigate development banks loan appraisal process, thus the aim of this paper is to contribute to this stream of literature, analysing how development banks can include the evaluation of social and environmental variables within their loan appraisal process. For the purpose of the research, we employed a case study of the Rwanda Development Bank (BRD). The BRD loan appraisal process combines the evaluation of typical aspects of corporate social responsibility – like the firms or projects compliance to health and safety regulations or the implementation of the code of ethics including diversity policies – with the evaluation of social and environmental impact, as well with financial aspects. The BRD social impact assessment is also valuable because it follows the criteria of proportionality of loans evaluation, balancing completeness of information with the cost of the assessment.

This article examines the prospective Association Agreement between the Republic of San Marino and the European Union, focusing on the economic sustainability of regulatory convergence in a microstate context. While alignment with the EU acquis has strengthened supervisory credibility and financial stability, it has also imposed sizable fixed compliance costs on a small and highly open financial system. The article asks whether, and under what conditions, these costs can be offset by integration-related benefits once effective market access is activated. Thus, the article pursues two objectives. First, it provides a legal and institutional analysis of the reforms undertaken by San Marino in the financial sector as part of EU regulatory alignment. Second, it develops and applies an indicator-based quantitative framework that links regulatory compliance costs to potential market-access benefits. Using quarterly system-level balance-sheet data from the Central Bank of San Marino, the framework constructs a Regulatory Compliance Index (RCI), a Market Benefit Index (MBI), and their difference, the Integration Gap Index (IGI). At the end of the sample (2025Q2), the IGI appears to be positive, but moderate (approximately 0.08), indicating that compliance costs still exceed integration benefits. Scenario-based projections show that closing this gap within eight quarters requires an average quarterly increase in the MBI of about 0.01, a threshold already exceeded by recent observed dynamics (around 0.017–0.018). Under conservative and baseline scenarios, the IGI converges toward zero within two years, while an optimistic scenario implies faster convergence. The results suggest that regulatory convergence can be economically sustainable for San Marino, provided that effective EU market access materializes. The proposed framework intends to be transparent, replicable, and applicable to other microstates engaged in differentiated integration with the European Union.