Despite the huge expansion in consumer credit in the last 25 years there are very few texts describing the operation of consumer credit markets. Consumer Credit Fundamentals is the first book to provide a broad cross-disciplinary introduction to the subject. It covers the history of credit, the types of consumer credit available, how credit is granted and managed, the legal framework within which commercial lenders must operate, as well as consumer and ethical issues. A complete, well-rounded and practical introduction to consumer credit.

The New Global Regulatory Landscape provides a benchmark tool for financial intermediaries and Institutional Investors. Covering 24 international regulations across the UK, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the USA, the authors provide practical compliance tips for financial intermediaries and guidance on best practice for investors. The book highlights eight areas of critical overlap where regulatory requirements conflict and give rise to potential risk and liability. The authors use the historical perspective of some regulations to paint a picture of the future convergence of international regulation on data protection, corporate governance and tax.

This text is concerned with the increasingly important and problematic area of financial exclusion, broadly defined as the inability and/or reluctance of particular societal groups to access mainstream financial services. This has emerged as a major international policy issue. There is growing evidence that deregulation in developed financial sectors improves financial inclusion for some societal groups (more products become available to a bigger customer base), but may at the same time exacerbate it for others (for example, by emphasizing greater customer segmentation and more emphasis on risk-based pricing and 'value added'). In developing countries access to financial services is typically limited and therefore providing wider access to such services can aid financial and economic development. This is the first text to analyze financial exclusion issues in different parts of the world and it covers the various public and private sector mechanisms that have been advanced to help eradicate this problem.

In the management of business activity by companies operating in more than one country, the complex array of issues and practices that characterize their movements of assets between constituent company units centres around what has become known as international transfer payments. This new book, based on extensive research, explains the nature of the subject, presents the latest data on the practice on transfer payments in three Asia Pacific countries, the regulations, attitudes and conditions which form the context in which they take place, and the events which are most likely to precipitate the intervention of the authorities and lead to investigation and audit.

This book is a revised and updated guide to some of the most important issues in the capital markets today, with an emphasis on fixed-income instruments such as index-linked bonds, asset backed securities, mortgage backed securities and related products such as credit derivatives. However, fundamental concepts in equity market analysis, foreign exchange and money markets are also covered to provide a comprehensive overview. The focus is on analysis and valuation techniques, presented for the purposes of practical application. The book includes an accompanying CD-ROM with RATE software, designed to introduce readers to yield curve modelling. It also includes calculators for vanilla interest rate swaps and caps.

This text explains how Islamic banking works and what it offers as an alternative model of financial intermediation. Important questions addressed include: Why Islamic banking started and where it is going? Who are the main players at present and whom it will attract in future? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Will Islamic banks survive in highly competitive and globalized financial markets? What are their prospects and potentials? How does the relative performance and efficiency of Islamic banks compare to conventional banks?

This book provides state-of-the art analysis of banking and financial systems in the Arab world. The early chapters of the text present an overview of Arab economies linking banking and financial sector trends in the Arab world over the last twenty years. The rest of the text examines in detail the financial systems of the major Arab countries, focusing on banking sector and capital market developments. This text will be the first to provide a rigorous analytical evaluation of banking sector developments in the Arab world.

The origins of this book lie in the Second Oxford Law Colloquium held in September 1992 and organized by the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford and Allen & Overy. The subject of this volume, corporate governance, is one that is currently highly topical but which has a long intellectual pedigree. Ever since the formation of the first joint stock company there has been a continuing debate about the structure of corporate governance and the controls, both legal and institutional, that are, or should be, exercised over corporate management. The essays contained in the volume explore the debate from a variety of perspectives, but each keeps in mind that a clear understanding of the wider commercial and financial context is necessary before examining the relevant legal structures and rules. This wider picture is examined at both a national and comparative level, and the attitudes and practices of managers and investors are considered as part of the backdrop to competing theories on corporate governance. The contributors, drawn from the practising and the academic worlds, bring their own specialist knowledge to bear in a volume which will be required reading for all those interested in the subject. Contributors: Robin Leigh-Pemberton, Eddy Wymeersch, Sir Adrian Cadbury, Paul Rutteman, Paul Davies, Lord Alexander of Weedon, Paddy Linaker, Martin Lipton, Alan Paul, Theodor Baums, Geoff Stapledon

Climate Trading provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging greenhouse gas emissions trading markets. The book covers events in the UN climate negotiations and the development of the international emissions trading system under the Kyoto Protocol. The key focus of the book is the emerging domestic and international emissions trading schemes, project based trading programmes, and the developing greenhouse gas markets. As governments implement regulations to meet domestic and international greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, it is crucial for capital market practitioners and industry to understand risks and opportunities posed by these regulations. The book offers the reader insight into the climate change problem, the concept of emissions trading, design of emerging trading schemes and the practical functioning of the greenhouse gas markets.

Much critical attention has been given in recent years to market and credit risks, which have a significant effect on corporate and financial operations and must be understood and managed with care. While these areas have rightly received considerable scrutiny, another critical dimension of financial risk - based on corporate liquidity - has been largely overlooked. Liquidity risk is the risk of loss arising from an inability to quickly realise asset value or obtain funding and can be damaging if not properly considered or actively managed. Lack of liquidity can lead to large losses in asset/liability portfolios and off balance sheet activities and in extreme cases can trigger financial distress and insolvency. Liquidity Risk is a comprehensive treatment of the topic focusing on the nature of the risk, problems that arise in asset and funding liquidity and mechanisms that can be developed to monitor, measure and control such risks.

Financial Lexicon is intended as a comprehensive financial reference book that explains the formal and informal terminology of finance. Structured as a dictionary, the book will contain clear and detailed explanations of common banking, finance and investment terms. Unlike other textbooks, which focus solely on standard definitions, Financial Lexicon will include formal corporate business terms alongside the jargon that has entered business life. Terms defined in TFL will be drawn from all of the major sectors in the international capital markets and the financial industry.

This book reports on foreign investments in transitional economies and the corporate governance of international strategic alliances in China. It throws new light on the relationship between ownership, corporate governance, international technology transfer, organizational learning and the performance of such alliances. The book reviews the problems encountered by these international strategic alliances, provides significant empirical evidence of foreign investment decisions and profiles corporate governance and organizational learning in strategic alliances. Based on research into 1000 firms in China, it draws important conclusions for theory and practice.

The purpose of this book is to introduce the field of bioinformatics to financial modelling. It focuses on the way information informs price, and constructs a framework to explain information generation and the agglomeration process, enabling the reader to make more effective financial decisions. Based on all aspects of applied finance, this book uses informational analysis to help the reader understand the similarities between biomathematics and financial mathematics.

A major exploration of venture financing, from its origins in the whaling industry to Silicon Valley, that shows how venture capital created an epicenter for the development of high-tech innovation. VC tells the riveting story of how the industry arose from the United States' long-running orientation toward entrepreneurship. Venture capital has been driven from the start by the pull of outsized returns through a skewed distribution of payoffs-a faith in low-probability but substantial financial rewards that rarely materialize. Whether the gamble is a whaling voyage setting sail from New Bedford or the newest startup in Silicon Valley, VC is not just a model of finance that has proven difficult to replicate in other countries. It is a state of mind exemplified by an appetite for risk-taking, a bold spirit of adventure, and an unbridled quest for improbable wealth through investment in innovation. Tom Nicholas's history of the venture capital industry offers readers a ride on the roller coaster of setbacks and success in America's pursuit of financial gain.

The purpose of this book is to introduce the field of bioinformatics to financial modelling. It focuses on the way information informs price, and constructs a framework to explain information generation and the agglomeration process, enabling the reader to make more effective financial decisions. Based on all aspects of applied finance, this book uses informational analysis to help the reader understand the similarities between biomathematics and financial mathematics.

In the management of business activity by companies operating in more than one country, the complex array of issues and practices that characterize their movements of assets between constituent company units centres around what has become known as international transfer payments. This book, based on extensive research, explains the nature of the subject, presents the latest data on the practice of transfer payments in three Asia Pacific countries; the regulations, attitudes and conditions which form the context in which they take place; and the events which are most likely to precipitate the intervention of the authorities and lead to investigation and audit.

This book reports on foreign investments in transitional economies and the corporate governance of international strategic alliances in China. It throws new light on the relationship between ownership, corporate governance, international technology transfer, organizational learning and the performance of such alliances. The book reviews the problems encountered by these international strategic alliances, provides significant empirical evidence of foreign investment decisions and profiles corporate governance and organizational learning in strategic alliances. Based on research into 1000 firms in China, it draws important conclusions for theory and practice.

The sequel to two in-depth studies of the management of excellent banks written in the 1980s, this new volume addresses the key issues that preoccupy the leadership of today's most admired banking institutions. After reviewing the lessons learned from the previous studies, the author examines best practice in addressing issues such as culture, leadership, risk management, managing size and complexity, and sustaining revenue growth. The book concludes with the views expressed by the interview sample on the future evolution of the banking sector, following by the author's own forecasts based on 20 years of study of the world of financial services.

Since the publication of the second edition of The Credit Risk of Complex Derivatives in 1997, the world of derivatives has gone through a period of dramatic change - in the external operating environment, product and market characteristic and risk management techniques. In the light of these changes, the text has been substantially reorganized, updated and expanded. Several new chapters have been added including: * Derivative losses * Risk governance and risk management efforts * Regulatory initiatives and advances * Credit risk portfolio models Aimed at clients, intermediaries and regulators, this edition will be focused clearly on risk education, risk management and risk disclosure in order to make participation in derivatives more secure, transparent, efficient and beneficial.

This book arises from an event on the future of banking which included leading figures in the industry. It addresses current trends influencing competition including globalization, market structure, technology and demographics and how these will impact upon companies and their organization, business opportunities, revenue streams, branding and customer behaviour. It will also show banks how to develop strategic initiatives for future competition. This will represent essential thinking for the banking and financial services industry.

Corporate accountability must be examined within the perspective of a company's business challenges. There is a synergy between shareholder value and the responsibilities of management. This book is based on an extensive research project done by the author in the 2001 to 2003 timeframe in the United States, England, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland. It includes a great deal of case studies in corporate accountability and governance, particularly among financial institutions. Significant attention is also paid to good governance of pension funds.

Corporate accountability must be examined within the perspective of a company's business challenges. There is a synergy between shareholder value and the responsibilities of management. This book is based on an extensive research project done by the author in the 2001 to 2003 timeframe in the United States, England, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland. It includes a great deal of case studies in corporate accountability and governance, particularly among financial institutions. Significant attention is also paid to good governance of pension funds. MARKET 1: Academics, Researcher, and post-graduate students in Universities and Business Schools, particularly on finance programmes; Professionals in Finance interested in corporate accountability and governance MARKET 2: Supplementary reading on finance programmes in Universities and Business and Management Schools

This book has been written as a practical guide for finance markets professionals to explain US monetary policy and to make forecasts of future interest rate levels. Aimed at market players, familiar with US policy instruments, Explaining and Forecasting the US Federal Funds Rates will provide a means of making independent interest rate forecasts as well as explaining current rate levels.

Growth in the derivatives market has brought with it a greater volume and range of interest rate dependent products. These products have become increasingly innovative and complex to price, requiring sophisticated market models that capture the full dynamics of the yield curve. A study of the evolution of interest rate modelling theory places these models in the correct mathematical context, allowing appreciation of their key assumptions, concepts and implications. The book guides the practitioner through the derivation and implementation of a variety of models that account for the characteristics and irregularities of observed term structures.

Gorrod examines the many challenges for the next generation risk management system. Dramatic changes in market conditions, budgetary constraints, the evolving nature of risk within the financial organization, as well as the requirements of increasing regulation in the global market place have resulted in a totally different environment for risk systems. These applications must be functionally richer, have greater performance, provide seamless and improved integration, as well as being quick to deploy and cheaper to deliver and support. Recent advances in technology have provided a number of tools to help the risk technologist. This book summarizes these new trends and also arms the reader with the knowledge, tools and approaches required to survive in this new environment. Covering the requirements of the trader and risk manager, to how to decide whether and how to out-source or develop in-house, this book acts as the handbook for risk technologists to survive these challenges.