Introduction

This text presents an updated insight into key facts impacting on financial institutions after the financial crisis, and highlights areas of major policy and academic interest. The book includes a selection of papers on this issue which were presented at the past European Association of University Teachers of Banking and Finance Conference (otherwise known as the Wolpertinger Conference) held at the Universitat de Valencia, Spain, in September 2011. From a range of perspectives and approaches the chapters analyse a number of topics related to banking and the financial markets, such as payment protection insurance, intellectual capital, cost efficiency and its relation with bank branch distance and size, bank restructuring and bank stability, credit and liquidity risk, and business models for the wealth management industry among others.