Vera Palea, ‘The effects of the IAS/IFRS adoption in the European Union on the financial industry’, looks at changes in the cost of equity capital for EU banks following mandatory adoption of IFRS. The sample covers 35 banks from seven EU countries, including 18 from Italy and seven from Spain and none from Germany or the UK, and uses quarterly reports for the first three quarters of 2004 and for the first three quarters of 2005. The author finds that the cost of equity is lower in the post-IFRS period.