Catherine Gwin examines the evolution of U.S. policy toward the World Bank and the impact of the United States on the institution's policies and operations. Beginning with the U.S. role in the start-up of the Bank, Gwin describes the ebb and flow of the U.S. support: the increasing activism of Congress in U.S.-World Bank policy starting in the 1970s, the breakdown in the bipartisan character of support for the Bank in the early 1980s, followed by renewed U.S. attention in response to the debt crisis, and the later entry of Russia and other transforming economies into the Bank. Gwin disputes both those who see the Bank as under the thumb of the United States and those who see it as unresponsive to U.S. concerns. She suggests that the U.S. policy toward the World Bank has always reflected an underlying ambivalence toward both development assistance and multilateral cooperation. As a result, U.S. policy in the Bank has been erraticoften reflecting the swings in U.S. politics and foreign policy rather than presenting a coherent view of the development financing role of the World Bank and a rigorous concern for the effectiveness of Bank operations.

The purpose of this book is to examine the significant and increasing problem of state bank non-performing loans (NPLs) in China, which have undermined the stability of the banking system and the efficient operation of markets. The accumulation of NPLs in China has been caused by the dominant role of State banks in China's financial markets, weak internal controls within State banks, policy loans to state owned enterprises, unnecessary administrative controls on banks' lending activities, and inappropriate banking regulation and supervision. The author draws on experiences at national, regional and international level to make recommendations for the development of better workout procedures for existing NPLs. He also examines the role of banking regulation and supervision in preventing accumulation of NPLs and in avoiding the impact of NPLs on the stability of the banking system and the conditions of market discipline.

In this volume the authors provide a survey and an examination of the roots of Swiss banking in order to explain the phenomenal success of Switzerland's banks. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Swiss banking did not originate with the exiled Hugenot bankers of Geneva. Centuries before Louis XIV, Basle had become a principal banking centre although it was not yet part of the Swiss Confederation. From historical beginnings to contemporary comparative analysis, the book offers an authoritative explanation and analysis of the success of the Swiss banks.

This book, first published in 1985, is a study of the functioning of one sector of American capital markets - non-reserve city national banks - between 1870 and 1900. The unusually wide and deep expansion of the American economy in this period was impelled in part by the growth and development of agriculture, and this study examines the role of one source of loanable funds - banks chartered under the National Banking Acts - in providing American farmers with loans to expand and capitalize.

Whatever happened to the money supply? This book explains how the analysis of monetary and credit aggregates is undertaken at the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and (as an example of a developing country) the Bank of Tanzania. The book also explores how this analysis relates to these central banks' monetary policy strategies and how it feeds into policymaking. An editorial introduction provides the intellectual and historical background - from the contributions of key economists such as Milton Friedman and Jacques Polak, to monetary targeting and inflation targeting - and argues that central banks and policy analysts would be foolish to neglect the insights monetary analysis can offer. The papers compiled in Monetary Analysis at Central Banks demonstrate just how useful and varied those insights are.

Equal treatment in access to credit has long been a fundamental social goal in the United States. However, despite the passage of several laws in the U.S. prohibiting discrimination in the provision of financial services on the basis of race, gender, and marital status, among other factors, questions concerning the existence of racial discrimination in such areas as home mortgage loans and small business credit continue, and confound public policy makers. This book is composed of nine articles and a panel discussion, originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Financial Services Research. These contributions explore the complex issue of discrimination in financial services.

Market volatility and competition have each played a significant role in altering the state of banking over the last twenty years. During the 1980s and 1990s banks have been exposed to new types of risks with far different characteristics and magnitudes than those dealt with in the early days of banking. Erik Banks seeks to explore the qualitative and quantitative aspects of risks attributable to financial instruments in today's markets, which are so much a part of banking business throughout the world. Banks describes the credit risks encountered in dealing with financial instruments and establishes a framework for quantifying the risks and applies framework and concepts on a product-by-product basis.

Chinese state banks, which were considered technically insolvent in the 1990s, are at present among the largest and most important banks in the world. This book, based on the author's research and also on his extensive experience of working in Chinese banks, explores how Chinese banks' technical efficiency and organisational flexibility have been achieved whilst ownership and control by the Chinese Communist Party have continued. The author reveals a distinctly non-Western approach to corporate governance, but one that has nevertheless worked very well.

Marking the 30th anniversary of the formation of Orion Bank in 1970, financial historian Richard Roberts has written a history of Orion and the rise and decline of the consortium banking movement. Consortium banks were formed as joint ventures to enable banks to operate in the booming Euromarkets, with virtually every major international bank participating in a consortium bank during their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. Orion Bank was one of the leading players in the Euromarkets in those decades: its shareholders were six of the biggest banks in the world from the three major trading blocks: Chase Manhattan, Royal Bank of Canada, NatWest, Westdeutsche Landesbank, Credito Italiano and Mitsubishi Bank. Like other consortiums banks, Orion Bank was prominent in Eurocurrency syndicated lending, but more unusually, it was also a top Eurobond lead manager. The story of Orion exemplifies the tensions inherent in the joint venture approach to business development and the strategic dilemmas facing consortium bank managements and shareholders. Richard Roberts uses primary archival papers and interviews with former Orion executives and other bankers prominent in consortium and investment banking to present an authoritative case study with great topical relevance as today's European banking industry continues to integrate across borders. Take Your Partners is also an invaluable source of reference for anyone with an interest in the Euromarkets and the development of international banking.

The increasing trend towards the securitization of retail and wholesale financial assets is examined with various chapters devoted to the characteristics and significance of the different securitized assets and securitization techniques. Against this backdrop, the author offers an insightful scenario for the future of commercial and investment banking over the next 20 years and provides a new mindset within which senior bankers can make their strategic banking decisions for the 21st century.;This book thus develops and provides evidence for a new theory of financial system development: the "systemic theory". It is a theory of how the financial system develops, not on a singular line of evolution towards greater efficiency as generally accepted, but through the parallel development and co-operation of its various subsystems. This type of development can increase both efficiencies and inefficiencies in the financial system.

Service activities such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, business auditing, distribution, trading, and other services have been at the forefront of the transformation process in East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. These reforms, though far from complete, are now sufficiently advanced to draw lessons and to identify strategic options for foreign service firms expanding in the region. In this volume, leading analysts and practitioners offer an appraisal of the service markets and the challenges related to foreign entry into the services sector in Central and Eastern Europe during the "second wave" of transformation. What is the emerging pattern of change? What is the outlook for promising business in the area of services? Which entry strategies have proven particularly successful? How do the leading service providers from the West deal with the challenges confronting them in service markets of the region?

This collective volume used case studies, field research and industry studies to consider strategic options for foreign service firms in East Central and Eastern Europe for the late nineties and beyond.

This book analyses the connections between the banking industry in Europe and the companies it finances. Ferretti specifically studies how these bonds have evolved over time and questions whether now is the time for a change in the relationship's dynamics. Chapters discuss the role of bank lending in firms' financing during the recent financial crisis, as well as issues in credit risk management. The discussion also examines regulatory requirements impacting banks and firms (Basel III) and how they intersect with banks' internal purposes. Moreover, the book explores how the financial crisis has impacted the relationship between banks and businesses, and seeks to identify the strengths and weaknesses inherent to it. Through this timely discussion, Ferretti looks to the future of the relationship between banks and non-financial organizations to see how they can be revitalised, adapted and reimagined in a post-crisis economy.

Taming the Fringe analyses the regulation and evolution of two credit products that were, and remain, vital to the working poor. Policymakers have struggled with pawnbroking and moneylending because they raise broader issues pertaining to poverty, capitalism and financial regulation. The values of easily accessible credit and financial independence compete with society's desire to protect people from predatory loans. Policymakers have pondered whether regulation can lower costs without reducing access for those most in need of small cash loans. Can government policy protect borrowers while also providing sufficient profit for lenders? The many attempts at doing so reveal the difficulty of safeguarding the needs of people who have experienced financial trouble before seeking a loan. Taming the Fringe is the first extended study of the payday lending and pawnbroking markets in Britain, and the only one to examine over 160 years of financial results and market data. This work explains why small-value lenders have generated such passionate debate, even being described as the devil incarnate. It adds to our knowledge of fringe banking and the evolving role of financial regulation to protect the working poor. Since 1870, pawnbrokers and moneylenders have actively shaped regulation - a viewpoint the existing literature does not address adequately. This work contributes to the scholarly and policy dialogue on financial inclusion, working-class poverty and the development and legitimacy of fringe lending. This book analyses the motivation, content and outcome of critical regulatory episodes that have shaped fringe banking. While historians have written volumes about consumer credit, few have analysed why elite policymakers have sought to protect the working poor from some credit markets. This work demonstrates that, across time, conflicting views on poverty and liberal economic theory have, to varying degrees, influenced how the government has protected the working poor, and will be of interest to financial and economic historians.

If America's tangible cash could be transformed into federal electronic currency (FEDEC), the social and economic benefits would be profound. Warwick argues eloquently why government should mandate cashlessness, then demonstrates not only why it can be done, but how to go about doing it. He shows that because the private sector will not and can not replace cash, government must do it; indeed, government FEDEC is superior to a system of private currencies. Cash handling costs the nation between one and two percent of the GDP, and cash is the lubricant for most of America's crime. By eliminating cash the saving from crime reduction alone would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars yearly. But naturally there would be issues of special concern if a FEDEC system were to become a hot public debate. Privacy, security, practicality, convenience are just some. Warwick tackles them here and, as no other books attempts to do, offers a practical plan for creating cashlessness. Well reasoned, meticulously documented, "Ending Cash" is a major contribution to what could soon become an important social debate--a debate that should, in the author's judgment, be started now.

"Ending Cash" argues that America's tangible cash should be transformed into a new federal electronic currency (FEDEC). Although Warwick admits that private bank card systems and/or the Internet may some day supplant cash, he explains why this will not happen soon, certainly not in our lifetime. Warwick emphasizes that the unrealized benefits of cashlessness far exceed the mere convenience that citizens generally look for and enjoy in bank card usage. While stressing the relative inefficiency of cash, said to run $60 billion a year just in handling costs, he illustrates the profound role cash plays in most crimes, including tax evasion, all of which could be prevented with a resultant public savings in the hundreds of billions of dollars each year if a federal system were created.

Against the background of consumer-oriented EFT systems, including credit-, debit-, and smart-card systems, Warwick explains the disinterest of industry in achieving cashlessness, as well as its organizational incapacity to carry it out. He thus argues the need for government involvement. Among the many facets he covers are privacy, security, technical requirements, and operational costs. He also explains the issue of employing private currencies as a replacement for cash, and how federal e-currency might impact the banking and bank card industries.

This contribution applies the cointegrated vector autoregressive (CVAR) model to analyze the long-run behavior and short-run dynamics of stock markets across five developed and three emerging economies. The main objective is to check whether liquidity conditions play an important role in stock market developments. As an innovation, liquidity conditions enter the analysis from three angles: in the form of a broad monetary aggregate, the interbank overnight rate and net capital flows, which represent the share of global liquidity that arrives in the respective country. A second aim is to understand whether central banks are able to influence the stock market.

An inside view of the forces which shaped SEPA and the PSD written from the unique perspective of someone closely involved throughout the process. It uncovers the strategic, legal and practical implications of the full harmonization agenda and provides an assessment of where these initiatives stand today, including key lessons learned.

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) was one of the first great economists to have laid down the foundations of economic science. Author of the famous Treatise on Political Economy in 1803, which was revised and re-edited on several occasions, he published numerous other works including a voluminous Complete Course in Practical Political Economy in 1828-9. He also taught political economy successively from 1815 until his death in three Parisian establishments: the Athenee, the Conservatory of Arts and Trades, and the College de France. The texts in which Say exposes his approach to political economy have not been available in the English language until now except for the fourth edition of the 'Preliminary Discourse' which serves as an introduction to the Treatise. This book presents a translation which renders his works accessible to the English speaking world. For the first time, English readers will be able to become directly immersed in Say's principal texts, where he develops his conception of political economy. Jean-Baptiste Say and Political Economy proposes a translation of a selection of eleven of Say's texts. The first three are versions of the 'Preliminary Discourse' from the Treatise's editions of 1803, 1814 and 1826 with the variations of the editions of 1817, 1819 and 1841. The following four texts are the opening discourses pronounced at the Conservatory in 1820 and 1828 and the College de France in 1831 and 1832. The eighth text is the 'General Considerations' which open the Complete Course in Practical Political Economy of 1828, with the variations of the 1840 re-edition. The final three texts are those Say devotes to 'the progress of political economy' in what is akin to a history of economic thought. This volume is of great importance to economic historians and people studying Jean-Baptiste Say, as well as those who are interested in economic theory and philosophy and political economy.

'Elegantly analyses the key questions of cost, efficiency and risk. Mandatory reading for anyone with responsibilities in an RTGS system.' - Alfred Steinherr;The payment system is one of the mechanisms essential to the working of an exchange economy. Over the last decade, central banks have been determined to improve their payment systems to harmonise and reduce risk, and in Europe to anticipate their future interconnection in the TARGET system. This book provides the analytic framework for an informed policy debate on the implications for monetary policy.

Operational risk is one of the oldest risks in the banking sector, and yet regulatory bodies including the Basle Committee are still working on a regulatory framework. Damage control measures introduced by banks have often proved ineffective. The successful management of operational risk will be a significant competitive advantage for banks in the future. This book is a practical guide to achieving control of operational risk. Using qualitative analysis, the author suggests risk identification procedures and provides tools for the analysis, quantification, and management of risk. He goes on to discuss future developments in both the regulatory and insurance sectors, including the most recent Basle Committee proposals.

In a time of global banking and financial services, globalized money and capital markets, this is a study of German banking law and practice. The articles are designed to cover the subject and take a systematic approach. They are written by experts from authorities, banks and universities. The idea for the book was born in a conference on German and Chinese banking law, held in Beijing/China on October 6th-8th, 1997, and co-sponsored by the Law Centre for European and International Cooperation, Cologne, and the China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing. Inspired by this conference, the authors wrote their contributions in 1998 with due regard to the comparative and international legal perspective of the subject.

This is the first book to collect academic studies examining issues related to the potential internationalization of the remninbi. It considers polisy implications, documents the rising regional importance of the renminbi and discusses key issues in the increasing use of the renminbi in international trade and finance.

Creating Value in Financial Services is a compilation of state-of-the-art views of leading academics and practitioners on how financial service firms can succeed in today's competitive environment. The book is based on two conferences held at New York University: the first, Creating Value in Financial Services', held in March 1997, and the second, Operations and Productivity in Financial Services', in April 1998. The book is essentially designed to be a compendium of leading edge thinking and practice in the management of financial services firms. There is no book today that has this focus. It contains ideas that can apply to other service industries. Topics addressed are increasingly important worldwide as the financial services industries consolidate and search for innovative new directions and ways to create value in a fiercely competitive environment.

Capital flows from Asia into the US challenge many assumptions of international financial analysis. This book presents a novel geography of these flows, revealing their driving forces and assessing the market mechanisms necessary for a smooth global flow of funds. It is essential for all those interested in international finance.