AIDEA bicentenary conference

The papers included in this special issue have been selected from those presented at the track in ‘‘banking and finance’’ of the conference organized in Lecce on the 19 and 20 September 2013 to celebrate the bicentenary of the Italian Academy of Management (Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale, AIDEA). AIDEA is one of the oldest academic societies worldwide, having been founded in Bologna (Italy) on the 11 July 1813 as the Accademia dei Logismofili. The track in ‘‘banking and finance’’ of the conference was organized in collaboration with the Financial Network of European Studies (FINEST), a research and discussion forum for financial intermediation researchers and practitioners throughout Europe. FINEST operates as an open research network facilitating research and other related activities among the faculty in various European Universities as well as policymakers and financial sector practitioners. The ‘‘banking and finance’’ track of the conference attracted 220 paper submissions and, after a rigorous selection process by the members of the Scientific Committee, 108 papers were accepted for presentation. Of the papers presented, 50 papers were submitted for the special issue and went through the normal journal review process. Among them, 9 survived the JBF selection process and have been accepted for publication. These papers cover a wide range of contemporary financial research issues, mostly in banking, and we group them in three areas: (1) banking regulation and supervision; (2) bank performance, and (3) monetary policy and asset pricing