Anthony Saunders is the John M. Schiff Professor of Finance and Chair of the Department of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Professor Saunders received his PhD from the London School of Economics and has taught both undergraduate- and graduate-level courses at NYU since 1978. Throughout his academic career, his teaching and research have specialized in financial institutions and international banking. He has served as a visiting professor all over the world, including INSEAD, the Stockholm School of Economics, and the University of Melbourne. He is currently on the Executive Committee of the Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions, NYU.

Professor Saunders holds positions on the Board of Academic Consultants of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as well as the Council of Research Advisors for the Federal National Mortgage Association. In addition, Dr. Saunders has acted as a visiting scholar at the Comptroller of the Currency and at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He also held a visiting position in the research department of the International Monetary Fund. He is an editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance and the Journal of Financial Markets, Instruments and Institutions, as well as the associate editor of eight other journals, including Financial Management and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. His research has been published in all the major money and banking and finance journals and in several books. In addition, he has authored or coauthored several professional books, the most recent of which is Credit Risk Measurement: New Approaches to Value at Risk and Other Paradigms, 2^nd edition, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 2002.

Marcia Millon Cornett is the Rehn Professor of Business at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She received her BS degree in Economics from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and her MBA and PhD degrees in Finance from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Dr. Cornett has written and published several articles in the areas of bank performance, bank regulation, and corporate finance. Articles authored by Dr. Cornett have appeared in such academic journals as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, the Journal of Financial Economics, Financial Management, and the Journal of Banking and Finance. She served as an Associate Editor of Financial Management and is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Services Research, FMA Online, the Multinational Finance Journal and the Review of Financial Economics. Dr. Cornett is currently a member of the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, and the Finance Committee of the SIU Credit Union. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Southern Trust Bank. Dr. Cornett has also taught at the University of Colorado, Boston College, and Southern Methodist University. She is a member of the Financial Management Association, the American Finance Association, and the Western Finance Association.