Sotirios Kokas is a Professor in Finance at the Essex Business School of the University of Essex. His research interests span the area of financial intermediation, with a specific interest in the empirical analysis of the financial sector and its regulation. He analyzes issues related to gender diversity; monetary policy; political economy of central banks; bank competition and financial regulation; and financial networks. Also, he was a visiting scholar at Banco de Portugal, Bank of Finland (Suomen Paki), BIS, Michigan State University and Imperial Business School.