In recent years financial conglomerates have been established throughout Europe. This horizontal diversification has attracted a great deal of attention in the banking and insurance sector, and has alarmed the supervisory authorities and the European Commission. Financial Conglomerates: New Rules for New Players? gives a broad, innovative survey of the following aspects: it analyzes different sets of definitions of financial conglomerates, groups, consolidation criteria, etc., testing the practical effects of these definitions on the basis of a detailed relational database; although the benefits of financial conglomerates are straightforward, it is clear that quite a number of potential risks cannot be ignored; moreover, the differences in regulation of the solvency requirements for banks, insurance companies and investment firms are analyzed in order to look for a possible approach for calculating the necessary level of solvency for financial conglomerates. Audience: Required reading for practitioners as well as academic researchers in both the financial and the insurance markets. Strategic as well as regulatory perspectives are relevant disciplines.

"Examines the ramifications of the 2007-08 financial crisis on the financial services industry and some of its practices and how these are likely to change in the future"--Provided by publisher.

This book presents the main valuation approaches that can be used to value financial institutions. By sketching 1) the different business models of banks (both commercial and investment banks) and insurance companies (life, property and casualty and reinsurance); 2) the structure and peculiarities of financial institutions’ reporting and financial statements; and 3) the main features of regulatory capital frameworks for banking and insurance (ie Basel III, Solvency II), the book addresses why such elements make the valuation of financial institutions different from the valuation of non-financial companies. The book then features the valuation models that can be used to determine the value of banks and insurance companies including the Discounted Cash Flow, Dividend Discount Model, and Residual Income Model (with the appropriate estimation techniques for the cost of capital and cash flow in financial industries). The main techniques to perform the relative valuation of financial institutions are then presented: along the traditional multiples (P/E, P/BV, P/TBV, P/NAV), the multiples based on industry-specific value drivers are discussed (for example, P/Pre Provision Profit, P/Deposits, P/Premiums, P/Number of branches). Further valuation tools such as the “Value Maps” or the “Warranted Equity Method” will be explained and discussed. The closing section of the book will briefly focus on the valuation of specific financial companies/vehicles such as closed-end funds, private equity funds, leasing companies, etc.

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The last couple of years, financial conglomerates have been established all over Europe. This horizontal diversification has not only attracted a great deal of attention in the banking and insurance sector but has also alarmed the supervisory authorities and the European Commission. Although the benefits of financial conglomerates are straightforward, it is clear that quite a number of potential risks can not be ignored. Since the phenomenon of "financial conglomeration" is rather new, the regulators do not possess a great deal of objective, scientific reference bases on which to construct the necessary regulations. Moreover the complexities and specific char acteristics of the financial conglomerates do not permit a simple extrapolation of the rules for industrial conglomerates. Even the extrapolation of banking regula tions to insurance groups and vice versa poses a lot of difficult questions. These observations lie at the origin of the research carried out at the Erasmus Finance and Insurance Centre (EPIC at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam), in collaboration with the Impulse Centre for Financial Services and Insurance (ALEA at the Vlerick School of Management of the University of Ghent). To confront the research results with the expertise of the business world and the supervisory authorities a workshop was organised in Rotterdam (1994). This publication is partly based on these research results and the workshop discussions. Three main blocs can be distinguished: the definition of financial conglomerates; the potential risks and the regulatory aspects; the strategic issues.