Over the recent years, financial (and banking) markets have undergone some of the most rapid and extensive changes in any markets. We have witnessed dramatic events in global financial markets, including the Asian crisis, the Russian crisis, and the near-collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), which was a highly leveraged hedge fund with enormous trading positions. More recently, we have seen remarkable developments in stock prices around the world, and in particular in stocks in the telecommunications and internet sectors. However, apart from market events, such as these, global financial markets have also undergone major structural changes in recent years. Therefore, the presenters in this session touch new approaches in banking, a new regulatory framework for the banking sector through recommended new stress tests, new quantitative approaches in forecasting those markets, volatility spillovers across specific real estate markets and the role of new market information, originated from credit ratings, to arrive at more accurate asset pricing.