We live in a culture of credit. As wages have stagnated, we've seen a dramatic surge in private borrowing across the western world; increasing numbers of households are sucked into a hopeless vortex of spiralling debt, fuelled by exploitative lending. In this book Johnna Montgomerie argues that the situation is chronically dysfunctional, both individually and collectively. She shows that abolishing household debts can put an end to austerity and to the unsustainable forward march of debt-dependent growth. She combines astute economic analysis with the elements of an accessible guide to practical policy solutions such as extending unconventional monetary policy to the household sector, providing pragmatic and affordable refinancing options, and writing off the most pernicious elements of household debt. This framework, she contends, can help us to make our economy fairer and to tackle both the housing crisis and accelerating inequality.

On most continents - from the USA to Africa and Asia - various forms of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) serve men and women of the community, often as their major - and sometimes their only - savings institution. ROSCAs are self-help associations with participants who agree to make regular contributions to a fund which is given, in whole or in part, to each contributor in rotation. All but the last member receives credit, and certain ROSCAs have elaborate systems to meet this. Some even make special provision for inflation and default. They are common in both rural and urban areas and among a range of occupational and income groups, from the poor to white-collar and professional. They are used by women who do not have collateral for other forms of credit, and as such often play an important part in household and business finance. In providing important social and welfare resources, they constitute valuable social capital. Because even women who use banks and building societies may continue to use ROSCAs extensively, formal financial institutions are developing schemes for them.

Maximize your bankruptcy filing benefits. If you have to file a personal bankruptcy case, you can find the accessible, authoritative guidance you’ll need to do it right in order to get the fresh start you deserve. One of America’s top bankruptcy lawyers, Henry J. Sommer, clearly and carefully takes you through the process of filing under chapter 7 and chapter 13…helps you determine which course is better…alerts you to the legal protections you enjoy under the sweeping Bankruptcy Code…assists you in getting the right legal counsel…and helps remove concern about the stigma associated with bankruptcy. This plain-English version of Sommer’s definitive manual, Consumer Bankruptcy Law and Practice, provides you with a lucid overview of how bankruptcy works, then helps you:

• Determine if bankruptcy is finally the best path for you to take
• Select an alternative means of financial restoration if it is not
• Understand the myriad forms involved when filing
• Prepare for the sometimes complex proceedings once the paperwork is done
• Effectively use such "shields" as automatic stays and exemption provisions
• Capitalize on the many advantages of using bankruptcy court as a forum
• Work more wisely with your attorney—and much, much more!

This book focuses on the importance for China to correct the present imbalance in the relationship between the financial sector and the real economy. The book looks at China's current financial system in terms of "extractive" and "inclusive". It asserts that the financial sector is producing huge "siphonic effects" that distort the overall development of the Chinese economy. Like a giant magnet, the financial sector attracts too many innovation factors, such as talents, capital and entrepreneurship away from the real economy and inhibits the development of the latter. Hence, the book argues that China's financial system must now be thoroughly reformed to become an inclusive financial system, where finance and the rest of the economy can co-exist and develop in support of each other.

The current degradation of sovereign balance sheets raises very real concerns about how sovereign creditworthiness is measured by credit rating agencies. Given the disastrous economic and social effects of any downgrade, the book offers an alternative and calls for more transparency about the quantitative measures used in calibrating the rating process and how sovereign ratings are validated. It argues that oversight is required and procedures improved, including subjecting methodologies of assessing default to more standardization and monitoring. Sovereign Credit Rating explains the process of sovereign creditworthiness assessment and explores the consequences of possible inaccuracies in the process. Developing an innovative new methodology to assess ratings accuracy, it shows that the announcement of each rating action by the major credit rating agencies show alarming inconsistencies. Written by an internationally recognized author and professor, this unique book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in corporate governance, accounting, public finance and regulation.

With diminishing profits in traditional areas of banking, security houses are turning to other means in order to remain competitive. This book examines the changes in the world of international security lending as European financial markets move towards a more global perspective, and the market for international securities lending continues to develop. New opportunities are appearing for institutions to increase their yields on international equity and debt securities by lending out securities for a fee. Securities lending enables institutions to offset settlement costs as well as custodian fees. In this manner, a back office operation can be transformed into a profit generating concern.;Borrowers, lenders and intermediaries should be aware of the implications of these cross-border transactions. Important issues include the tax treatment of international lending transactions, what type of transactions are available and most importantly, what the financial risks involved are and the profitable opportunities for arbitrage.

A history of US involvement in late twentieth-century campaigns against global poverty and how they came to focus on women A War on Global Poverty provides a fresh account of US involvement in campaigns to end global poverty in the 1970s and 1980s. From the decline of modernization programs to the rise of microcredit, Joanne Meyerowitz looks beyond familiar histories of development and explains why antipoverty programs increasingly focused on women as the deserving poor. When the United States joined the war on global poverty, economists, policymakers, and activists asked how to change a world in which millions lived in need. Moved to the left by socialists, social democrats, and religious humanists, they rejected the notion that economic growth would trickle down to the poor, and they proposed programs to redress inequities between and within nations. In an emerging “women in development� movement, they positioned women as economic actors who could help lift families and nations out of destitution. In the more conservative 1980s, the war on global poverty turned decisively toward market-based projects in the private sector. Development experts and antipoverty advocates recast women as entrepreneurs and imagined microcredit—with its tiny loans—as a grassroots solution. Meyerowitz shows that at the very moment when the overextension of credit left poorer nations bankrupt, loans to impoverished women came to replace more ambitious proposals that aimed at redistribution. Based on a wealth of sources, A War on Global Poverty looks at a critical transformation in antipoverty efforts in the late twentieth century and points to its legacies today.

The book introduces how we can manage currency options with the Vanna-Volga method. It describes the underlying theories and applications of the Vanna-Volga method in managing currency options of a financial institution, conforming to the Basel III regulatory requirements which demand a high consistency between the valuation and market risk calculation methodologies of financial instruments. The book illustrates with technical details to shed understanding on the major applications, including valuation, volatility recovery, dynamic portfolio replication and value-at-risk. Those who study finance, risk management, quantitative finance or similar areas, as well as practitioners who wish to learn how to valuate, hedge and manage the market risk of currency options with more advanced models and techniques will find the book of invaluable use.

European Banking and Financial Law Statutes presents all the key legislation for European banking and financial law in one student-friendly volume. This book is: * up-to-date with the law: based on the official consolidated texts of all relevant European instruments, this book provides a fully current collection of legislation * tailored to course outlines: content has been curated to align with European banking and financial law courses * exam friendly: conforming to regulations, this is an un-annotated text that is suitable for exam use * easy to use: a clear and attractive text design, detailed table of contents and multiple indices provides ease of reference and navigation. Ideal for course and exam use, as well as for reference, this book is a perfect companion resource for student learning and exam success, which is especially tailored for use in combination with the European Banking and Financial Law textbook.

An easy to read by "state of the art" text containing a comprehensive review and analysis of existing corporate bankruptcy models, and their applications to real life data Covers a broad range of statistical learning models, ranging from relatively linear techniques (e.g. linear discriminant analysis) to state-of the art machine learning methods (e.g. random forests, deep learning). Explains the purpose, strength and limitations of respective models and frameworks, highlighting their major points of similarity and difference and would make this book a useful reference Much of the corporate bankruptcy literature has relied on quite simplistic classification models but this book introduces a wide range of innovative corporate bankruptcy prediction models

Secured transactions reform, also known as collateral or pledge law reform, is increasingly seen as an important building block for economic development. The commonly held view is that the availability and cost of credit, as well as the efficiency of the market for secured credit, are directly influenced by the laws affecting secured transactions and their implementation. However, there is still a lot of confusion about this relatively complex and technical area of the law and its role in promoting access to credit and economic growth. The chapters presented here provide, for the first time, a comprehensive and cutting-edge view of the subject - from both a legal and economic perspective. They start at the macro level of financial systems, moving towards the behaviours of lenders (commercial banks and micro-lenders), policy options for government and the mechanisms of collateral law reform. By approaching the subject from different angles and experiences, the work advocates an inclusive approach to the subject where all stakeholders' interests can be taken into account. It addresses the question of what role laws and institutions can play to encourage access to credit. This book will be of primary interest to those involved in economic development and the interaction between law and economics, either for practical reasons (for example, working on reform or providing advice on investment in transition economies) or for research purposes.

This fascinating study follows the fortunes of the Hoechstetter family, merchant-manufacturers and financiers of Augsburg, Germany, in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries, and sheds light on the economic and social history of failure and resilience in early modern Europe. Carefully tracing the chronology of the family's rise, fall and transformation, it moves from the micro- to the macro-level, making comparisons with other mercantile families of the time to draw conclusions and suggest insights into such issues as social mobility, capitalist organization, business techniques, market practices and economic institutions. The result is a microhistory that offers macro-conclusions about the lived experience of early capitalism and capitalistic practices. This book will be valuable reading for advanced students and researchers of economic, financial and business history, legal history and early modern European history.

Modelling credit risk accurately is central to the practice of mathematical finance. The majority of available texts are aimed at an advanced level, and are more suitable for PhD students and researchers. This volume of the Mastering Mathematical Finance series addresses the need for a course intended for master's students, final-year undergraduates, and practitioners. The book focuses on the two mainstream modelling approaches to credit risk, namely structural models and reduced-form models, and on pricing selected credit risk derivatives. Balancing rigorous theory with examples, it takes readers through a natural development of mathematical ideas and financial intuition.

This special edition of Contemporary Studies in Economic and Financial Analysis offers seventeen chapters from invited participants in the International Applied Social Science Congress, held in Turkey between the 19th and 21st April 2018. The chapters included tackle a range of issues, including risk and control in consumer behavior; augmented reality applications in brand trust; foreign exchange rates; and brand reputation influence, among many more. Covering concepts such as retirement planning, the stock market, and herd behavior, Contemporary Issues in Behavioral Finance is a fundamental text for any researcher or student of behavioral finance, with a cast of expert contributors and editors.

Credit risk is one of the most important contemporary problems for banks and insurance companies. Indeed, for banks, more than forty percent of the equities are necessary to cover this risk. Though this problem is studied by large rating agencies with substantial economic, social and financial tools, building stochastic models is nevertheless necessary to complete this descriptive orientation. This book presents a complete presentation of such a category of models using homogeneous and non-homogeneous semi-Markov processes developed by the authors in several recent papers. This approach provides a good method of evaluating the default risk and the classical VaR indicators used for Solvency II and Basel III governance rules. This book is the first to present a complete semi-Markov treatment of credit risk while also insisting on the practical use of the models presented here, including numerical aspects, so that this book is not only useful for scientific research but also to managers working in this field for banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other financial institutions.

The book introduces how we can manage currency options with the Vanna-Volga method. It describes the underlying theories and applications of the Vanna-Volga method in managing currency options of a financial institution, conforming to the Basel III regulatory requirements which demand a high consistency between the valuation and market risk calculation methodologies of financial instruments. The book illustrates with technical details to shed understanding on the major applications, including valuation, volatility recovery, dynamic portfolio replication and value-at-risk. Those who study finance, risk management, quantitative finance or similar areas, as well as practitioners who wish to learn how to valuate, hedge and manage the market risk of currency options with more advanced models and techniques will find the book of invaluable use.

Credit rating agencies play an essential role in the modern financial system and are relied on by creditors and investors on the market. In the recent financial crisis, their power and reliability were often questioned, yet a simple rating downgrade could threaten to bankrupt a whole country. This book examines the governance of credit rating agencies, as expressed by their ability to fairly, ethically and consistently assign higher rates to issuers having lesser default risks. However, factors such as the drive for increased revenue and market share, the inadequate business model, the inadequate methodology of assessing risk, opacity and inadequate internal monitoring have all been identified as critical governance failures for credit agencies. This book explores these issues, and proposes some potential solutions and improvements. This will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of corporate finance, finance, financial economics, risk management, investment management, and banking.

This book seeks to provide a coherent explanation as to why the policies of financial liberalization and financial intervention have been unable to achieve the goal of improving the access of borrowers to the loan market, irrespective of size. This is one of the prime criteria for achieving efficiency in the operation of the loan market and its failure has resulted in increased uncertainty and financial fragility. Santonu Basu develops an original theory of credit rationing which provides a theoretical explanation as to why neither policy has worked. He introduces two new concepts, namely credit standard and credit risk, in order to explain why bankers ration credit to some, while quite willingly offer loans to others. He then uses these two concepts to show why the implementation of either policy involves forcing or inducing the banking sector to relax its credit standard requirements. This in turn increases credit risk to an unprecedented level, thereby engendering either financial crisis or financial fragility. The author employs empirical evidence from both India and South Korea to demonstrate how these scenarios can unfold. Financial Liberalization and Intervention provides a comprehensive analysis of the uncertainty that prevails in the operation of the loan market. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of economics, policymakers, banking regulators and the financial sector as a whole.

WINNER of the BISA IPEG Book Prize 2015 http://www.bisa-ipeg.org/ipeg-book-prize-2015-winner-announced/ Under the rubric of 'financial inclusion', lending to the poor -in both the global North and global South -has become a highly lucrative and rapidly expanding industry since the 1990s. A key inquiry of this book is what is 'the financial' in which the poor are asked to join. Instead of embracing the mainstream position that financial inclusion is a natural, inevitable and mutually beneficial arrangement, Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry suggests that the structural violence inherent to neoliberalism and credit-led accumulation have created and normalized a reality in which the working poor can no longer afford to live without expensive credit. The book further transcends economic treatments of credit and debt by revealing how the poverty industry is extricably linked to the social power of money, the paradoxes in credit-led accumulation, and 'debtfarism'. The latter refers to rhetorical and regulatory forms of governance that mediate and facilitate the expansion of the poverty industry and the reliance of the poor on credit to augment/replace their wages. Through a historically grounded analysis, the author examines various dimensions of the poverty industry ranging from the credit card, payday loan, and student loan industries in the United States to micro-lending and low-income housing finance industries in Mexico. Providing a much-needed theorization of the politics of debt, Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry has wider implications of the increasing dependence of the poor on consumer credit across the globe, this book will be of very strong interest to students and scholars of Global Political Economy, Finance, Development Studies, Geography, Law, History, and Sociology. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315761954, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lU6PHjyOzU

Praise for

Fair Lending ComplianceIntelligence and Implications for Credit Risk Management

"Brilliant and informative. An in-depth look at innovative approaches to credit risk management written by industry practitioners. This publication will serve as an essential reference text for those who wish to make credit accessible to underserved consumers. It is comprehensive and clearly written."
--The Honorable Rodney E. Hood

"Abrahams and Zhang's timely treatise is a must-read for all those interested in the critical role of credit in the economy. They ably explore the intersection of credit access and credit risk, suggesting a hybrid approach of human judgment and computer models as the necessary path to balanced and fair lending. In an environment of rapidly changing consumer demographics, as well as regulatory reform initiatives, this book suggests new analytical models by which to provide credit to ensure compliance and to manage enterprise risk."
--Frank A. Hirsch Jr., Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP Financial Services Attorney and former general counsel for Centura Banks, Inc.

"This book tackles head on the market failures that our current risk management systems need to address. Not only do Abrahams and Zhang adeptly articulate why we can and should improve our systems, they provide the analytic evidence, and the steps toward implementations. Fair Lending Compliance fills a much-needed gap in the field. If implemented systematically, this thought leadership will lead to improvements in fair lending practices for all Americans."
--Alyssa Stewart Lee, Deputy Director, Urban Markets Initiative The Brookings Institution

"[Fair LendingCompliance]...provides a unique blend of qualitative and quantitative guidance to two kinds of financial institutions: those that just need a little help in staying on the right side of complex fair housing regulations; and those that aspire to industry leadership in profitably and responsibly serving the unmet credit needs of diverse businesses and consumers in America's emerging domestic markets."
--Michael A. Stegman, PhD, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Duncan MacRae '09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The internet is dramatically transforming the way business is done, particularly for financial services. Digital Finance takes a thoughtful look at how the industry is evolving, and it explains how to integrate concepts of digital finance into existing traditional finance platforms. This book explores what successful companies are doing to maximize their opportunities in this context and offers suggestions on how to introduce digital finance into a firm's structure. Specific strategies for a digital future are presented, alongside numerous case studies that explore key attributes of success. In recognition of the rapidly evolving nature of finance today, Digital Finance is accompanied by a website maintained by the author (PerryBeaumont.com), as well as links to other content with insightful articles, analyses, and opinions. For both practitioners and students of finance, Digital Finance provides a rich context for a better understanding of the landscape of finance today, and lays the foundation for us to process and create the financial innovations of tomorrow.

Already in just a decade of existence, cryptocurrencies have been the world's best-performing financial asset, outperforming stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies. This comprehensive yet concise book will enable the reader to learn about the nuts and bolts of cryptocurrencies, including their history, technology, regulations and economics. Additionally, this book teaches sound investment strategies that already work along with the spectrum of risks and returns. This book provides a plain-language primer for beginners worldwide on how to confidently navigate the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrencies. Beginning by cutting to the chase, the author lists the common burning questions about cryptocurrency and provides succinct answers. Next, he gives an overview of cryptocurrency's underlying technology: blockchain. He then explores the history of cryptocurrency and why it's attracted so much attention. With that foundation, readers will be ready to understand how to invest in cryptocurrency: how cryptocurrency differs from traditional investments such as stocks, how to decide which cryptocurrency to invest in, how to acquire it, how to send and receive it, along with investment strategies. Additionally, legal issues, social implications, cybersecurity risks and the vocabulary of cryptocurrency are also covered, including Bitcoin and the many alternative cryptocurrencies. Written by a journalist-turned-professor, this book's appeal lies in its succinct, informative and easy-to-understand style. It will be of great interest to anyone looking to further their understanding of what cryptocurrency is, why it's a big deal, how to acquire it, how to send and receive it, and investment strategies.

The Trade and Receivables Finance Companion: A Collection of Case Studies and Solutions is based on the author's personal experience gained through more than 40 years in the field of trade finance. This Companion applies the techniques described in his first volume, Trade and Receivables Finance: A Practical Guide to Risk Evaluation and Structuring to an extensive range of international trade scenarios. Practical solutions are discussed and presented through a specially selected collection of more than 20 case studies. These books provide an unrivalled and highly practical set of manuals for the trade and receivables financier. The reader is taken on a journey from the structuring of trade products including collections, import and export letters of credit, back to back credits, guarantees and standby credits to fully and partially structured financing solutions for the importer, manufacturer, distributor, middle-party and exporter. Each funding technique provides a compelling alternative to an overdraft. The case studies include the risk assessment and financing of open account payables, stock and receivables transactions and the evaluation and use of credit insurance as a supporting tool. The structuring of commodity finance across the trade cycle, to include warehousing, and call-off is also described. Many of the chapters contain a summary 'keynote' overview and comprehensive 'deal sheet' extracts of the chosen solution detailing facility and operational requirements.

Financial stability is one of the key tenets of a central bank's functions. Since the financial crisis of 2007-2009, an area of hot debate is the extent to which the central bank should be involved with prudential regulation. This book examines the macro and micro-prudential regulatory frameworks and systems of the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Canada and Germany. Drawing on the regulator frameworks of these regions, this book examines the central banks' roles of crisis management, resolution and prudential regulation. Alison Lui compares the institutional structure of the new 'twin-peaks' model in the UK to the Australian model, and the multi-regulatory US model and the single regulatory Canadian model. The book also discusses the extent the central bank in these countries, as well as the ECB, are involved with financial stability, and argues that the institutional architecture and geographical closeness of the Bank of England and Financial Policy Committee give rise to the fear that the UK central bank may become another single super-regulator, which may provide the Bank of England with too much power. As a multi-regional, comparative study on the importance and effectiveness of prudential regulation, this book will be of great use and interest to students and researchers in finance and bank law, economics and banking.

This classic study of German creditbanks was first published in 1930 and even now deserves its place as a fundamental text on banking in Germany. It is a valuable comparative study of one important type of financial institution and represents a detailed survey of Joint Stock Banking in Germany in the pre-war, war and post-war periods upt o 1928.