Philip Molyneux is Professor of Banking and Finance in the School of Accounting, Banking and Economics at the University of Wales, Banner and Professor of Financial Services and Financial Conglomerates at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His main research interests relate to the structure, efficiency and performance of banking markets and financial systems, areas in which he has written widely. He has acted as a consultant to many international banks and organisations, including the New York Federal Reserve Bank, World Bank and European Commission. He is currently a member of the UK's National Institute's Advisory Panel on the European Financial Markets Programme. Nidal Shamroukh is a financial engineer at Algorithmics UK, an enterprise-wide risk management software provider. He is a graduate of Bilkent University, Turkey and obtained his MA and PhD degrees from University of Wales, Bangor. Currently he advises major banks on modelling their portfolios and managing their risks.