Maria Grazia Starita is Lecturer in Financial Markets and Institutions in the Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, University of Naples 'Parthenope', Italy, where she teaches Management of Insurance Companies and Corporate Finance. Her main research interests are insurance companies, pension funds, bank-firm relationship, disclosure, and Islamic finance.Irma Malafronte holds a PhD in Banking and Finance from the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Italy. She conducts research in Financial Markets and Institutions in the Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, University of Naples 'Parthenope', Italy. Her main research interests are insurance companies, disclosure, bank-firm relationship, and market discipline.