The latest scholarly developments in research on banking, financial markets, and the recent financial crisis. This selection of papers were presented at the Wolpertinger Conference held in Valletta, Malta, 2012 and provide insights into bank performance, banking risk, securitisation, bank stability, sovereign debt and derivatives.

1. The Impact of the New Structural Liquidity Rules on the Profitability of EU Banks; Laura Chiaramonte, Barbara Casu and Roberto Bottiglia 2. Basel III and Banking Efficiency; Ted Lindblom and Magnus Willesson 3. Estimating the Probability of Financial Distress in European Markets: Prediction Models and Empirical Applications; Andrea Cerri, Gimede Gigante 4. Performance Management Systems in Swedish Savings Banks: A Longitudinal Study through the Deregulations' First Quarter of a Century; Viktor Lundberg 5. Does Asset-Backed Securitization Affect the Credit Risk of the Originator Banks? The Italian Case; Francesca Battaglia and Maria Mazzuca 6. Microcredit Securitization; Mario La Torre and Fabiomassimo Mango 7. Country Risk: Measurement Approaches and ECAIs Rating; Pasqualina Porretta, Gianfranco A. Vento and Fabrizio Santoboni 8. Top Players in Central and Eastern Europe: Does their Widespread Presence Enhance Bank Efficiency?; Katarzyna Miko?ajczyk 9. Asset Management Issues in Sovereign Wealth Funds: An Empirical Analysis; Andrea Paltrinieri and Flavio Pichler 10. A VAR Approach to the Analysis of the Relationship between Oil Prices and Industry Equity Returns; Joseph Falzon and Daniel Castillo 11. China's Controlled Potential Property Bubble and its Economic Slowdown: Overview of Causes and Policy Options; René W.H. van der Linden