1. Global banking regulation & supervision : what are the issues and what are the practices? / James R. Barth, Jie Gan and Daniel E. Nolle -- 2. Retail deposits by banks and thrift institutions : evidence from urban and rural markets / Timothy H. Hannan -- 3. A perspective on bank mergers and the role of antitakeover defense mechanisms / Hemantha S. B. Herath, John S. Jahera, Jr. and Raafat R. Roubi -- 4. Bank size, liquidity and default risk : a model of bank lending / Paul Woodburne -- 5. Minimizing post-resolution costs in bank failures / George G. Kaufman and Steven Seelig