Banking disclosure and banking crises in Africa: does board gender diversity play a role?

The paper aims to investigate the impact of board gender diversity in explaining the relationship between bank disclosure and the predicted probability of banking crises in Africa. The study employs robust panel estimates based on an aggregate dataset of banks in 42 African countries over the 2006–2018 periods. From the study, board gender diversity (more women on boards and the presence of women on boards) has a positive impact on information disclosure of banks. We find that board gender diversity and bank disclosure have the possibility of reducing a banking crisis. We observe that board gender diversity enhances the reductive effect of bank disclosure on a predicted probability of a banking crisis. The implication is that women on boards provide prudent decisions on financial information disclosure that significantly reduce the possibility of a banking crises in order to ensure stable banking systems.

Switzerland: Formalizing Banking Supervision in the Aftermath of a Crisis, Better Late Than Never

This chapter deals with the formalization of banking supervision in Switzerland, which occurred throughout the twentieth century in a three-step process. First, between 1914 and 1931, the introduction of formal banking supervision, including a detailed Banking Act enforced by an authority, was discussed but was rejected under the influence of leading bankers. Second, in the aftermath of a severe banking crisis in 1931–1934, the resistance of bankers was undermined and a federal law on commercial banking, featuring the setting up of a new supervision agency, was adopted. Third, until the late 1970s, despite the existence of a legal code and a designated authority, the formalization was still incomplete, because the agency was lacking the formal capacity and resources to guarantee an effective enforcement of financial regulation. During that period (1930s–1970s), policymakers were unable to remove the flaws of the supervisory regime because of the strong preference of the main stakeholders (commercial banks, banking supervisors) for the existing system.

Architectural style spreads its wings: New Zealand Architecture in the 1880s

The 1880s was a period in New Zealand of economic depression. It caused "unemployment, family distress, ragged children and exploited women workers, general business collapse, a crash in the property market, a ten-year banking crisis, bankruptcies and unstable ministries." But despite this Hodgson identifies this period in New Zealand's architectural history as one when: "Architectural style ... started to spread its wings and this period contains some fine examples of building design which was definitely out of the mainstream."

EXPRESS: Professional Credibility under Threat: Responses to Negative Social Evaluations in Newly Contested Professions

How do professionals attempt to restore their credibility when it has been tarnished by crises or scandals? To address this issue, we examined how banking professionals who testified during a government inquiry into the 2008 banking crisis in Ireland responded when confronted with negative social evaluations (NSEs) evidenced by personal criticism of their judgment, competence, or morality. We find that professional credibility is renegotiated through two processes: depersonalization and personalization. Testifiers distanced themselves from criticism through a depersonalization process by which they reoriented the unfolding narrative toward broader collectives such as their own profession, adjacent professions, and the macroeconomic environment. They also engaged in a personalization process by which they showcased individual efforts to improve their work processes and outcomes to bolster their professional credibility. Our work theoretically elaborates the view of NSEs as being socially constructed and brings the role of professional credibility of individuals to the fore of the NSE literature. In doing so, it offers a broader perspective on the repertoire of criticisms and responses associated with NSEs than that documented by prior studies, and it emphasizes how professionals seek to reassert their credibility. We also present a less deterministic view of public inquiries.

Residential House Prices, Commercial Real Estate Lending and Bank Failures

We investigate factors leading to bank failures during and after the Great Recession and banking crisis (2008–2015). The FHFA residential real estate house price index (HPI) for each of the 9 Census regions is used to interact with bank mortgage loans and bank financial statement variables. We find that these variables isolate different regional effects on the likelihood of a bank failing. Since we use changes from region to region, we find that regional location and HPI changes have an effect on banks’ commercial lending activity. Other more traditional and associated factors, like construction and land development lending or multifamily real estate lending, similarly explain bank failures during the main period of the banking crisis. By using this approach we better isolate the relationship between residential house prices and builders’ and land developers’ desire to borrow and the willingness of banks to concentrate portfolio lending in commercial real estate.

The Role of the Central Bank of Ireland as an Independent Financial Regulator

The chapter evaluates the extent to which the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) operates as an independent and accountable supervisor. The CBI was established pursuant to the Central Bank Reform Act 2010 as the body responsible for central banking and financial regulation in Ireland. The chapter explains the CBI’s functions and describes the national and EU regulatory landscape within which it operates. It compares the CBI to its predecessor, the Central Bank of Ireland and Financial Services Authority, which was criticized for perceived regulatory and supervisory failures in the lead up to the Irish Banking Crisis in 2008. In doing so, it identifies significant improvements in terms of the CBI’s independence, transparency, and accountability. The chapter also suggests further changes that might be considered in this context.