This book addresses the puzzle of why the World Bank was unable to effect sweeping neoliberal health reforms in Latin America from the 1980s onward. Through the use of quantitative regional data together with interview and archival data collected during fieldwork in Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, and Washington DC, this book argues that the answer to this puzzle is twofold. First, the World Bank has not promoted a uniformly neoliberal, monolithic agenda in health. Second, countries' autonomy and capacity in this sector shape how the World Bank is involved in reforms. Finally, the book distinguishes neoliberal ends from means in health sector reform and traces changes in "banking on health" over time.

Arnaboldi highlights the importance of one of the three pillars of the Banking Union, the common mechanism for insuring deposits. She claims that integrated financial markets require a European solution with regard to deposit insurance and that the establishment of a pan-European scheme could address the problems for large cross-border banks.

As the United States banking system enters the 1990s, the industry and its regulators face a crisis of major proportions. Successive problems have plagued various lending markets, bank failure rates have increased, and traditional regulatory techniques of risk control have proved unsuccessful. In this work, Helen A. Garten examines the current crisis in bank regulation and the regulatory response. In addition, she provides a series of recommendations for reforming the system so that regulatory failure will not occur again.

Garten begins her study with a strategic view of bank regulation as a response to financial crises in the banking business. Just as the bank failures of the 1930s led to a radical shift in bank regulatory technique, recent competitive pressures and technological innovations that have lessened the profitability of the deposit-lending business are leading to a shift in regulatory strategy today. Although some deregulation has taken place, Garten contends that more significant changes are occurring in the regulation that remains. Regulators are experimenting with a new approach to risk control that will create economic incentives for banks to adopt more successful investment strategies. Garten compares these new regulatory initiatives to the disciplinary techniques of the typical corporate equityholder and shows how they differ from the debtholder's techniques of traditional post-Depression bank regulation. She concludes that the new regulatory strategy may not be enough to help the banking industry emerge from its current difficulties. This work will be an essential resource for lawyers and bankers involved with regulatory policy, as well as for economists and scholars of finance and administrative law.

Smuggling people into industrialized countries has become a growing industry globally, and Chinese human smuggling represents a significant source of illegal immigration. The financing of the illegal immigration process, however, is a vastly under explored area. This book provides an in-depth understanding of the relationship between informal financial systems, illegal migration and human smuggling, tracing a trajectory of the evolution of Chinese underground banks in the US over the past two decades. With a focus on a border-spanning informal financial system from the perspective of their clients, this book elicits firsthand information from an extremely understudied population illustrating the motivation, patterns, and tendencies of their use of illegal fund transfer systems. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this study illuminates the varied experiences of the undocumented Chinese immigrant population, providing revealing insights into the financial element of the migration and settlement process. Alongside discussion of policy implications for law enforcement in the US and China, Zhao explores whether Chinese underground banks represent a key mechanism in the larger social problem of illegal migration aided through human smuggling. Moreover, the book addresses the important question: is the Chinese underground banking system an integral part of organized crime, or is it a new type of ethnic-specific illegal enterprise?

This book presents China's wealth management market to the public, institutions and research groups. As the money base of Renminbi (RMB or Chinese Yuan) from the central bank increases exponentially in recent years, the overall leverage ratio rises in an alarming rate and the shadow banking issues stick out. Where this massive amount goes has raised huge interest all over the world. This book answers this question in three aspects: What is the money made up? Who is managing the money and how are they doing? The author studied six types of financial institutions that are responsible for channeling the money to industries and individuals. Banks although still the main vehicle for money flows, other financial organizations have taken more and more important roles in the money management market. Insurance, trust, security and mutual funds are the main non-banking business participants. New money management products are innovated, as are the regulations. The money management business in China has experience from starting chaos to a regulated market and the evolution is still going on. Professionals and researchers around the world are watching China's money market closely, studying the mechanisms, looking for business opportunities and trying to theorizing economic rules. This book is a well presented and professionally structured for the above purposes.

The European experience suggests that the efforts made to achieve an efficient trade-off between monetary policy and prudential supervision ultimately failed. The severity of the global crisis have pushed central banks to explore innovative tools-within or beyond their statutory constraints-capable of restoring the smooth functioning of the financial cycle, including setting macroprudential policy instruments in the regulatory toolkit. But macroprudential and monetary policies, by sharing multiple transmission channels, may interact-and conflict-with each other. Such conflicts may represent not only an economic challenge in the pursuit of price and financial stability, but also a legal uncertainty characterizing the regulatory developments of the EU macroprudential and monetary frameworks. In analyzing the "legal interaction" between the two frameworks in the EU, this book seeks to provide evidence of the inconsistencies associated with the structural separation of macroprudential and monetary frameworks, shedding light upon the legal instruments that could reconcile any potential policy inconsistency.

Business as usual simply will not work in today's banking environment. In fact, many of the problems facing the commercial banking industry have resulted from current bank management practices. The Value Driven Bank clearly articulates a blueprint for change - a change that will enable your bank to leverage superior customer value into greater profitability and market leadership. Becoming the outstanding value deliverer begins with a vision of value excellence that transcends the entire organization. This vision becomes a critical component in the value infrastructure focusing the bank on three key strategies: the identification, creation, and maintenance of a value advantage. The value quiz tests your bank's value quotient and its capacity to become a deliverer of outstanding financial services value. An easy to read, step-by-step model discusses the various value tools and takes you to a final compelling chapter on one of the most difficult issues facing bank management today - how to change to survive.

This volume investigates different aspects of monetary policy and prevention of financial crises. It discusses some recently suggested measures for central banks' responses to liquidity shortages and to the liquidity trap, methods for assessing the potential of crisis contagion via the interbank network, and the interaction between micro- and macro-prudential regulation. It compares different approaches for solving the Eurozone sovereign-debt problem and provides a new and intriguing explanation for rising income inequality. The authors are experts on monetary policy, financial crises, and contract theory from different European universities and central banks.

Upton examines the U.S. policy process toward the five multilateral development banks-the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development-as a case study in how the United States manages its participation in multilateral institutions. The management of the U.S. role in these institutions is significant primarily because these institutions play an increasingly important role in the U.S. relationship with the developing world and because, for the most part, they are mature institutions being called upon to adapt their roles and operating styles to new financial and political realities. After examining the evolving role of the MDBs from the U.S. perspective, Upon describes the U.S. policy process toward the banks and assesses its strengths and weaknesses. She then sets out recommendations for improving the process and looks at the broader, more general lessons for U.S. policy formulation on multilateral institutions. An important assessment for scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with international relations and economic policy.

This book provides a historical evaluation of banking reforms and structural changes in India over the past 25 years. Chapters cover issues in consolidation and restructuring, competition and concentration, performance evaluation in terms of cost efficiency and productivity, profitability, non-performing assets and technology use. The authors use specific regression models to measure the impact of these reforms on bank performance during this period and assess whether or not the consolidation phase is now complete. This volume will be of interest to researchers and academicians interested in the financial history of Indian Banking reforms.

In the wake of the Asian financial crisis that erupted in 1997, an intense scrutiny of the principles and standards of the world's financial system was inevitable. This book presents the insight and practical proposals of 25 experts, including economists, lawyers, bankers, academics and officials from international financial institutions. The contributions offered here were originally presented at a series of conferences sponsored in 1999 and 2000 by the Asian Institute of International Financial Law of the University of Hong Kong in collaboration with leading law faculties from five continents. The issues confronted in this book include the following: reform of domestic securities regulation; investment insurance and risk management; the role of pension funds; accounting standards; financing real estate and construction projects; global competitiveness in the financial sector; responsibility of private lenders; effective anti-money laundering measures; protection of emerging market economies; corporate governance; and institutional investors.

The "Handbook of Asset & Liability Management: From Models to Optimal Return Strategies" is a Comprehensive resource for Asset and Liability Management (ALM) Professionals, providing the very latest global coverage of the topic.

Starting with a look at the history of Asset and Liability Management and the current climate, the book then examines a range of accounting and auditing obligations, including IFRS and balance sheet presentation. Balance sheet items and products modelling are then explained in detail as well as the entire associated range of financial and non-financial risks. As well as the practical issues encountered by ALM managers, the "Handbook of Asset Liability Management" also considers the growing quantitative aspects of the role, looking at a range of technical tools and applications including market simulations, stochastic calculations, delta equivalent computations, and traditional and non-traditional statistical tools.

The book then discusses capital requirements within the ALM context, notably the impacts of Basel II and solvency II and economic capital indicators. The final section of the book explains optimal return strategies, looking at risk perfect hedging, limits policies, income smoothing strategies and economic value management.

The accompanying CD ROM features demonstrations of some basic ALM problems such as ALM Delta Equivalent computation; FTP computation and ALM risk indicators computation. It also includes modelling examples such as demand deposits, savings and prepayment modelling; and practical examples taken from a simplified retail Banking ALM framework.

An account of the history, structure, and operation of the First and Second Banks of the United States, this study examines how the banks performed as national and central institutions, and what happened to the economy when the charter of the Second Bank was allowed to expire in 1836. Historians have paid little recent attention to the early history of central banking in the United States, and many Americans believe that the Federal Reserve, created in 1913, was our first central bank. The economic crisis during the American Revolution actually led to the founding of a national bank, called the Bank of North America, during the period of Confederation. Although it became a private bank before the Constitution was ratified in 1788, it proved to be such a success that in 1791 Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, was able to convince President Washington that a similar bank should be established.

While the First Bank of the United States performed well during its tenure, its charter was allowed to lapse in 1811. A Second Bank of the United States was created five years later in 1816, and it prospered under the leadership of its third president, Nicholas Biddle, from 1823 to 1830, when central banking was practiced. This success ended with the 1828 election of Andrew Jackson, who refused to recharter the bank and withdrew the government's funds in 1833. Severely weakened, the Bank continued, but its charter finally expired in 1836, much to Biddle's dismay.

With almost 6,300 commercial banks, significantly more than in any other country, the world of US banking is unique, fascinating, and always in flux. Two principal pieces of legislation have shaped the banking structure in this country: The McFadden Act of 1927, which prohibited banks from branching into other states, and The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which separated commercial and investment banking activities. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 was one of the main contributing factors behind the global financial crisis of 2008. This measure resulted in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which once again prohibited commercial banks from making certain types of speculative investments. The Changing Face of American Banking analyzes the impact of both these acts - as well as that of their subsequent repeal - in depth, examining the real effects of government regulations on the US commercial banking sector. Ray Chaudhuri pinpoints the evolving nature of US commercial banks and banking regulations and explores their impact on the economy. Instead of just focusing on banks and regulations, this work considers the correlations and causality between banking performance and economic growth and productivity. It also brings the banking literature up to date with the 2008-2009 financial crisis and its aftermath, including the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and its effect on American banking.

This book is designed to help the reader understand the environment and practices of multinational banks. Topics have been selected for their continuing relevance, despite changing events and issues. This comprehensive, up-to-date presentation provides both theory and practical information relating to international banking centers, regulation in international banking, foreign exchange management, financial engineering, country risk assessment, multinational banking services, syndicated loans, and international institutions in multinational banking.

This book presents the growth and development of international banking and the role of large multinational banks in financial markets. It also presents the numerous types of foreign banking presence a bank can choose when it decides to go international. A description of the important banking centers is also covered. Issues pertaining to the regulation of international banking are elucidated in detail along with the impact of numerous U.S. laws on the operation of U.S. multinational banks. Specific operational issues such as foreign exchange management, the use of standard derivatives such as swaps and options, along with numerous financial engineering and risk management techniques are presented.

Among other things the book covers country risk assessment, other multinational banking services, project financing, syndicated loans, and is part of the activities of many multinational banks. Furthermore, international institutions such as the Export-Import Bank, The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund, and the Bank for International Settlements, are described and their role in international finance and banking is explained. Finally, the book looks at likely future issues that will affect and influence the field of international banking. In particular, the advent of new competition, legislation, and financial instruments are analyzed.

The 2012-2013 economic crisis in the Republic of Cyprus is commonly attributed to a number of factors, including the exposure of Cypriot banks to over leveraged local property companies; the knock-on effect of the Greek government debt crisis; and international credit rating agencies downgrading the Cypriot government's bond credit status. What followed was unexpected and controversial: a bailout on condition of a one-time bank deposit levy on all uninsured deposits in the country's second-largest bank, the Cyprus Popular Bank; and on the uninsured deposits of large proportion of the island's largest commercial bank, the Bank of Cyprus. Many have questioned the implications of Cyprus' ties with the Russian financial system, as well as the draconian and unprecedented bailout terms imposed on the Cypriot population by the Eurozone. There has been little written from the Cypriot perspective on these events. This book presents a study of the events surrounding the recent Cypriot Financial Crisis and its impact on the Eurozone. It incorporates insights from leading protagonists in the Cypriot government and banking sectors and focuses on qualitative research to assess the events that formed the backdrop of the crisis. The book analyzes the policies of many public and private institutions and presents the crisis alongside other Eurozone bailouts to compare and contextualize the ongoing issues. Cyprus and the Financial Crisis also explains the political and historical backdrop of the events, including the wider Cypriot experience since the 1974 invasion, and the unravelling financial relationship between Cyprus, Greece and Russia. It incorporates the views of Cypriots from a wide and diverse spectrum, and presents the resilience of the island in fighting back to beat forecasts for recovery, helped by the Eldorado of gas finds off its southern shores.

Hybrid capital securities or 'hybrids' offer various benefits. They offer flexibility equity without shareholder dilution, provide protection to senior creditors, are a stable source of long-term funding for healthy companies, and help insurers and banks meet regulatory and rating agency capital requirements. Risks and features of hybrid securities are expressed in the credit spread of some relatively new financial instruments, but no structural fundamentals exist for to price hybrids precisely. This book proposes a model for the pricing of hybrids. It begins by explaining the concept of hybrids as well as their equity- and debt-like characteristics. Different types of hybrids are presented, including preference shares, convertible bonds, contingent convertibles (CoCos) and bail-in bonds. The authors then present analysis of regulatory regimes' impact on hybrids. They discuss the types of hybrid bonds that are contemplated in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Banking Union mechanism. They then present an in-depth examination of hybrids pricing and risk assessment techniques. The book provides a comprehensive analysis from mathematical, legal and financial perspectives in order to look at relatively new financial instruments and address problems with the pricing models of hybrids which are as yet unsolved.

This book analyses the World Bank's provision of technical assistance from 1946 to the present day. It argues that the relational dynamics between technical assistance provider and recipient affects the legitimacy of policy norms travelling from the 'international' to the 'domestic'. Beginning from the constructivist position that 'development' is a social construct, the author contends that successful policy movement via technical assistance depends on the recipient's perception of the validity of policy reforms, with perception being influenced by the way those ideas and practices are presented, packaged, and transferred. In advancing this argument, Bazbauers analyses four pillars of World Bank technical assistance: technical assistance components (advisory services incorporated within lending operations), stand-alone technical assistance projects (projects designed to solely deliver technical assistance), survey missions (activities involved in measuring the development status of developing countries), and training institutes (the courses of the Economic Development Institute and World Bank Institute).

Much of what we consider modern economics is the work of British journalist and economist Walter Bagehot, one of the first editors of the influential newspaper The Economist and an early proponent of business cycles. Here, he develops his theory of central banking, much of which continues to impact financial thinking today. First published in 1873, this replica of the updated 1910 edition explores the history of London's Lombard Street, from how it came to be the traditional home of banks and moneylenders to how the value of money was determined by the institutions there. Joint stocks, private banking, and the regulation of the banking reserve: Bagehot's discussion of these fundamental economic issues makes this a vital resource for anyone wishing to understand financial history. WALTER BAGEHOT (1826-1877) also wrote The English Constitution (1867), Physics and Politics (1872), and The Postulates of English Political Economy (1885), among other works.

A core text for one semester courses in Financial Institutions and Markets. A comprehensive exploration of the world's financial markets and institutions. Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions, offers a comprehensive exploration of the revolutionary developments occurring in the world's financial markets and institutions -i.e., innovation, globalization, and deregulation-with a focus on the actual practices of financial institutions, investors, and financial instruments. This edition incorporates and addresses the vast amount of changes that have recently occurred in financial institutions and markets around the world.

DANNY SCHECHTER, "The News Dissector" has spent decades as a truth teller in the media, with leading media companies and as an independent filmmaker with the award-winning independent company Globalvision. A graduate of Cornell and the London School of Economics, Schechter was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and a multiple Emmy Award winner at ABC News, where he was among the first to cover the S&L crisis. In 2007, his film IN DEBT WE TRUST was the first to expose Wall Street's connection to subprime loans, predicting the economic crisis that this book investigates. Schechter is a blogger, editor of Mediachannel.org, and author of nine books. He has reported from 53 countries, and lives in Gotham. He owns no derivatives or tranches.

This book explores how the global financial and European sovereign debt crises have forced small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to reassess and adapt their funding strategies. At the heart of the matter is the worsening access to bank credit for such enterprises. Through this discussion we learn how crucial an understanding of SME-financing is to policy makers, in light of the fact that SMEs dominate the business landscape in Europe and are the main drivers of employment, growth and innovation in the European economy. Contributing chapters present expert analysis and investigate many topics including the problems faced by SMEs in accessing bank credit and the cost of funding and its determinants. Particular attention is also given to how credit-constrained enterprises may reformulate their funding strategies by employing alternative, non-bank, financial resources, and how regulators could support SMEs in broadening and improving their funding opportunities.

Bridging a gap between economic theory and observed reality, this book examines the most visible central banks, the move to monetary union in Europe, the IMF's new role, the rise of managed market economies, and the elevated importance of central banks. In central banking, attention has often turned to the management of liquidity crises and the attainment of economic stability. In the global economy, the respective market economies are more interconnected, and information regarding crises in one part of the industrialized world is rapidly communicated to other nations, giving the crises themselves a more immediate impact. The Asian debt and liquidity crises of 1997-98 were seen as having an impact on the United States, the European Union countries, and even China. In the effort to attain international stability, the information emanating from central banks at a policy level is crucial. This book aims to depict an ideal central bank for a globally connected country.

Two developments heighten the need for such an operations/policy-based ideal: the lessons learned from the European moves to monetary union and the establishment of the European Central Bank, and the increased awareness of banking problems in Asia during the 1997-98 debt and liquidity crises. This timely work will be of interest to economists, bank officials, government policy makers and political scientists.

The 2007-2009 financial crisis has had a worldwide impact on banks and financial systems. It has also brought about major changes in Europe's financial regulatory framework which could lead to financing problems for SMEs. The book explores the restructuring process of banking and financial systems to its impact on the financing of SMEs.