Creating the Future with All Finance and Financial Conglomerates provides an academic search for an understanding of all finance and financial conglomerates. It presents a strategic and economic analysis of the diversification strategies and the growing interface between different types of financial firms. On the basic of a solid analysis of theoretical fundaments and practical value the book develops basic concepts of creating the future, especially the solutions in managing risks and the fresh ideas for the development of integrated financial services. The structure of the book is logical: starting on theoretical fundaments (section , part A) and examining the economic value of All Finance and Financial Conglomerates (part B) leads to creating a concept for the future (part C). Case studies add additional practical value to this research. The review of the subject is completed by aspects of risk management in this sector and by political guidelines for the EU-single market (section 2). The book builds further on professor Van den Berghe's first publication, entitled Financial Conglomerates - New rules for new Players (published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in October 1995) and broadens the scope in the direction of strategic and managerial aspects.

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, as well as alarming the supervisory authorities and the European Commission. This study analyzes different sets of definitions of financial conglomerates, groups, consolidation criteria, and tests the practical effects of these definitions on the basis of a detailed relational database. It also examines the benefits of financial conglomerates as well as the differences in regulation of the solvency requirements for banks, insurance companies and investment firms in order to look for a possible approach for calculating the necessary level of solvency for financial conglomerates.