The research gravitates around ethical, sustainable banking activity in an attempt to measure its responsible impact, which is proxy by the efficiency of their financial intermediation function. The paper focuses on ethical banks included in the membership of the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks. Ethical banks are in the spotlight as they are explicitly involved in channeling financial resources towards start-ups and investment projects characterized by the social, cultural and environmental value-added, by encouraging the development of responsible, durable projects. The data envelopment analysis technique was used for computing the relative efficiency score which applies a linear programming algorithm for aggregating multiple inputs and outputs specific to banking activity. The main research stages developed within the paper consist of the following: (i) Computation of efficiency scores for each ethical bank in a timeframe of four successive years; (ii) developing the efficient frontier; (iii) performing discrimination between efficient and less efficient ethical banks and making a ranking. Therefore, the results emphasize ethical banks' comparative performance, in terms of efficiency, and allow the identification of resembling peers whose monitoring may help the bank in achieving a further efficiency status. Overall, the results show that a single ethical bank constantly fulfills its mission to be socially responsible and exhibits a persistent efficiency status while the remaining ones face heterogeneity in terms of efficient business conduct.
The chapter focuses on the innovative financial technology called FinTech and explores its prospects for becoming a catalyst for financial inclusion. The novelty of the research approach resides in being the first study computing an EU FinTech index for the EU member countries. The index gathers four dimensions and provides insights on whether the FinTech environment in one country is better or worse compared to other countries in the sample. Countries' ranking based on index scores computed for two different years show that Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, and Germany are always placed on the top of the hierarchy. Therefore, they exhibit real development opportunities in this regard. At the opposite are some countries in South-Eastern Europe that persistently record the lowest FinTech index scores; thus, there is still room for improvements in terms of market players' presence, existing regulation, access to digital financial inclusion.
The paper employs a threshold regression framework conditioned by two COVID-19 related proxies, to investigate whether Bitcoin and Ether exhibit short-term safe haven or diversifier features for stock and bond markets. Both cryptocurrencies fulfil a diversifier role for the responsible investments represented by sustainable stock market indices, a safe haven role for major bond markets and a mixed role for a selection of representative stock market indices. Furthermore, in times characterized by an increasing number of COVID-19 daily cases or deaths the statistical relationship between both cryptocurrencies and the main financial market determinants weakens.
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