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Purpose The purposes of this paper are: firstly, to assess the disclosure related to climate change (CC) by major European banks to understand if the banks have grasped the most substantive aspects of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations and secondly, to evaluate the contribution of a non-traditional committee (i.e. corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee) to TCFD-compliant disclosure. Design/methodology/approach Using content analysis and ordinary least squares regressions on a sample of 101 European banks, this study sought to investigate completeness, tone and forward-looking orientation of CC disclosure and explore the relationships between CSR committee and previous disclosure aspects. Findings This study shows that European banks have been able to reach an intermediate level of adequacy of compliance in terms of completeness of information but forward-looking orientation seems to be the aspect that needs the most improvement. The existence of a CSR committee dedicated to sustainability issues seems to constitute the difference between the banks in terms of disclosure. The results highlight vulnerabilities in disclosure and board characteristics relevant for improving CC disclosure. Practical implications Firms interested in strengthening stakeholder engagement and capturing strategic opportunities involved in CC should be encouraged to establish a CSR committee and appoint female directors in financial companies. This paper should be of interest to policymakers, governance bodies and boards of directors considering the initiative of corporate sustainable governance complementary to Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial reporting by the European Commission. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study has investigated the relationship between the CSR committee and the application of the TCFD’s recommendations in the European banking industry.

This paper aims at contributing to the debate on the relationships between the European financial sector and sustainable development. Using a non-financial disclosure analysis of 262 European banks, the research sought, first, to investigate the “scope” of the contribution of European banks to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, second, to explore the factors that seem to differentiate the SDGs approach among banks. The results show that country of origin, legal system, and adoption of an integrated report seem to differentiate banks in terms of contribution to the SDGs. The business model and stock exchange listing, conversely, do not seem to represent discriminatory factor in the contribution of banks toward the SDGs. The study can be useful for managers and decision makers to develop policies to support organizations in contributing to the SDGs.

According to Directive 2014/95/EU on disclosure of non-financial information from 2017 onwards, large companies (exceeding 500 employees) headquartered in Member States will be required to provide a series of social, environmental, and governance statements. The Directive was transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree 254 of 30 December 2016.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the information gap for Italian companies and,consequently,the adjustments required by the new Directive on non-financial information. In order to analyze the level of non-financial and diversity disclosure, we created an assessment model called “Non-financial information score”, which records the required information as a percentage. We apply it to a sample of 223 large companies.The results (with an average NFIscore of about 49%) show that, in spite of what has previously emerged in the European debate about the application of the Directive on the part of large companies, an information gap remains, although the implementation of the directive should help to fill it in the coming years.In this sense, the potential contribution of the EU directive to non-financial disclosure in Italy appears to be greater than we had expected. Thus, in accordance with the literature, this paper appears to confirm the role of regulation in improving the quality of disclosure of non-financial information.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed light an important limit of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) in pursuit of its substantial purpose, which is to achieve sustainability and contribute to achieving the objectives of United Nation (UN) Agenda 2030; the paper also suggests how to overcome those limits.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey of board members of listed and un-listed Italian companies. Data were analysed using an ordered probit model.FindingsThe results show that a greater involvement of a board member in the non-financial reporting process is associated with a stronger commitment towards sustainable development. Specifically, the involvement in materiality assessment is positively associated with more proactive behaviours towards sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of self-reported assessments on beliefs and behaviours and the application of an online survey are methodology limitations of the study. Regarding theory, the study contributes to the literature on corporate governance and sustainability, integrating upper echelons theory, which focuses on how individual attributes influence a firm's strategies and governance, with research on how leadership practices can have a positive impact on corporate sustainability goals.Practical implicationsThe paper underscores the opportunity for policymakers to increase the effectiveness of the NFRD through deeper involvement of the board members in the process of non-financial reporting. The results could also be of interest to governance bodies in terms of defining a board's tasks and practices to encourage the adoption of behaviours oriented towards a stronger engagement in sustainable issues.Originality/valueThis is the first study to provide evidence of the relationship between individual directors' tasks and behaviours, non-financial reporting and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study highlights some of the limits of the NFRD, even after the public consultation to revise it, and suggests how to overcome these limits.

After the 2008 global financial crisis and corporate scandals, assessing and improving corporate governance quality (CGQ) is essential. This paper proposes a different approach to evaluate CGQ, to overcome the conceptual and methodological limits of the previous rating systems. It tries to go beyond the objectives of the existing models by suggesting an alternative operating model, (aligned with the new CG guidelines) that provides a concise index for monitoring and decision-making. Using a Fuzzy Expert System (FES), the authors propose a formalized model that: (1) represents all the factors (structural and behavioral) that affect the quality of corporate governance in terms of practical and objective decision-making procedure; (2) is a flexible and useful management tool for supporting the “Board review” and assessing the increase in CGQ associated with particular decisions; (3) supervisors can use to assess CG adequacy by replacing or integrating the experts’ opinions with interviews/questionnaires filled in by directors and managers or through direct observation, as recently suggested by EBA/ESMA. This paper highlights the importance of behavioral features and group dynamics in corporate governance and represents them in an integrated model together with other structural and organizational elements.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight opportunities for the banking sector arising from the population’s aging and the expected reduction in pension incomes. Home equity conversion (HEC) instruments are a potentially useful way of restoring households’ finances and satisfying their needs, with implications for the demand for financial services. Design/methodology/approach By using an ordered probit regression model, the paper analyzes data obtained from a survey of 2,000 Italian households. Findings The main finding of this paper is that individuals with greater familiarity with consumer credit, a cognitive and decision-making approach favorable to use of credit, and an internal locus of control show greater interest in various forms of equity conversion. Originality/value This paper extends the analysis of the determinants of individuals’ interest in HEC products. It focuses more closely than the existing literature on households’ credit behaviors, attitudes toward credit and locus of control. The paper helps identify the potential targets of marketing campaigns and commercial proposals, and highlights the levers that the banks can focus on in communicating with customers and future prospects. Moreover, this paper suggests that there is a need to develop greater awareness on the part of people who could be interested in these products. Therefore, appropriate financial education projects should be implemented to develop a better “credit” culture, with due appreciation of the usefulness of credit as a means of supporting household budgets.

The banking industry is heavily regulated because of the nature and role it plays in the financial and economic system. If on the one hand the enormous legislative activity that has characterized the banking system in recent years - the evolution of which is still ongoing - has focused on strengthening the protection of 'weak contractors' as well as the overall stability and the development of competitive conditions that are the same for international banks in different countries, on the other hand, it has forced banks to bear substantial costs to ensure regulatory compliance. The significance of these costs is highlighted in many researches that show, respectively, the incidence of unatantum and ongoing costs on bank operational expenditures. As clearly emerged in the 2008 investigations carried out by the Center for the Study of Financial Innovation, there is concern regarding the increased costs of compliance that regulated entities and supervisory authorities sustain. This is demonstrated by the increasing importance that is assigned to the analyses of cost-benefit and quantitative impact or by definite initiatives carried out to streamline the regulatory framework started up by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). From a broader perspective, the evaluation of the cost of regulatory compliance compared to the generated benefits is being examined by the European Community under 'better regulation approach'. According to Italian laws n.229/2003 and n.262/2005, for each regulatory act even the Bank of Italy has to carry out an impact assessment on the markets, on the activities of enterprises, on the operators and on the interests of the consumers/savers. The first pilot case of impact analysis has focused on the legislation of banking and financial transparency (Bank of Italy, 2009). The regulatory attention to costs of compliance and the criticality of these for the banking industry have brought awareness to understanding the magnitude of these costs and what determines these costs and the possible effects on banks of different sizes. An excessive increase in the cost of compliance could result in an increase in the cost of banking services to end-users. Should there be economies of scale, smaller banks would have higher mean costs for compliance than the larger ones: the economies of scale, in fact, arise from the existence of input factors that are undividable, i.e. that may not be used in smaller units. The existence of economies of scale in the activity of regulatory compliance could result in: a distortion of the level playing field as a result of possible entrance barriers linked to a initial physiologically low output, or the possible inhibition of competition, in specific sectors and on specific products if the economies of scale concern specific regulations; a change in the market structure by stimulating the process of consolidation in a few large banks. Although in the past several studies have tried to quantify the cost of regulatory compliance and to verify the existence of economies of scale in this activity, this study is the first attempt to analyse the extent and the determinants of the costs of regulatory compliance for Italy. This study focuses, in particular, on the costs of compliance since legislation on banking and financial transparency came into force because it represents the first pilot case of timely recognition by the Italian Banking Association (ABI, 2009) of costs incurred by the Italian banks to comply with the new legislation. The research questions to which this work will try to provide an answer are the following: What are the mean incremental costs incurred by Italian banks as a result of new legislation on transparency? For the purposes of regulatory compliance, which activities take up the greater percentage of the costs? Are there economies of scale in the activity of regulatory compliance? To what extent does the size of the bank affect the incremental costs incurred?

Background and Objectives: Chronic low-grade inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its vascular complications. Hematological indices derived from routine blood counts, such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), and aggregate index of systemic inflammation (AISI), have been proposed as surrogate markers for systemic inflammation and predictors of cardiovascular risk. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of these inflammatory indices concerning the presence of micro- and macrovascular complications and cardiovascular mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study including 237 patients with T2DM. We assessed the association between hematological indices and cardiovascular mortality, followed by a ROC curve analysis to evaluate their predictive performance, and a multiple logistic regression. Results: Thirty patients (12.66%) died during the study period. ROC analysis showed that SIRI (AUC = 0.680 [95% CI 0.576–0.779]), LMR (AUC = 0.667 [95% CI 0.564–0.763]), AISI (AUC = 0.662 [95% CI 0.553–0.768]), and NLR (AUC = 0.657 [95% CI 0.545–0.764]) had the best discriminative capacity, all with specificity >70%. The relation remained significant even after adjustments for confounding variables in multiple logistic regression. For microvascular complications, Monocyte count (AUC = 0.611 [95% CI 0.532–0.69]) and LMR (AUC = 0.608 [95% CI 0.521–0.695]) showed minimal but notable predictive value. Conclusions: SIRI, LMR, AISI, and NLR were significantly associated with mortality and demonstrated modest discriminative ability. These markers, accessible and cost-effective, may be useful tools for risk stratification in T2DM patients. Further validation in prospective cohorts is warranted.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significance in agriculture, using remote sensing and machine learning to help farmers make high-precision management decisions. This technology can be applied in viticulture, making it possible to monitor disease occurrence and prevent them automatically. The study aims to achieve an intelligent grapevine disease detection method, using an IoT sensor network that collects environmental and plant-related data. The focus of this study is the identification of the main parameters which provide early information regarding the grapevine’s health. An overview of the sensor network, architecture, and components is provided in this paper. The IoT sensors system is deployed in the experimental plots located within the plantations of the Research Station for Viticulture and Enology (SDV) in Murfatlar, Romania. Classical methods for disease identification are applied in the field as well, in order to compare them with the sensor data, thus improving the algorithm for grapevine disease identification. The data from the sensors are analyzed using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and correlated with the results obtained using classical methods in order to identify and predict grapevine diseases. The results of the disease occurrence are presented along with the corresponding environmental parameters. The error of the classification system, which uses a feedforward neural network, is 0.05. This study will be continued with the results obtained from the IoT sensors tested in vineyards located in other regions.

Background and Clinical Significance: Synchronous gastrointestinal tumors are exceptionally rare, particularly when combining histologically distinct benign and malignant components. Schwannomas represent uncommon mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, most frequently arising in the stomach, while rectal localization is exceedingly unusual. Papillary adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder is an aggressive malignant entity derived from intracholecystic papillary–tubular neoplasms (ICPNs). The coexistence of these two unrelated neoplasms has not been previously reported, making this case of dual tumor pathogenesis clinically and academically significant. Case Presentation: A 68-year-old female was admitted for surgical management of grade IV uterovaginal prolapse. Preoperative imaging incidentally revealed a well-circumscribed rectal wall mass and gallstones. A combined abdominopelvic operation was performed, including total hysterectomy with bilateral adnexectomy (Wiart procedure), rectosigmoid resection with colorectal anastomosis, and bipolar cholecystectomy. Intraoperatively, a firm intramural rectal lesion and a friable papillary mass in the gallbladder fundus were identified. Histopathologic examination confirmed a benign rectal schwannoma (S-100 positive, CD117/DOG-1 negative) and a papillary adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder, pT3N0M0, with clear resection margins and no lymphovascular or perineural invasion. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient remained disease-free at six-month follow-up. Conclusions: This case represents an exceedingly rare benign–malignant synchronous tumor association. The simultaneous occurrence of rectal schwannoma and gallbladder papillary adenocarcinoma underscores the importance of thorough intraoperative exploration and histopathologic evaluation. Complete resection with negative margins and multidisciplinary follow-up remains crucial for optimal outcomes and contributes to understanding dual tumor pathogenesis within the gastrointestinal tract.