Back in 1993, American Express launched its rupee cards in India. It was an operation similar to those it was running in other countries. Except for the curious fact that while the quality of the operations seemed to be better than elsewhere, the costs were much lower. Certain that something was wrong with the figures, the company's comptroller visited India, and found that the reports were indeed correct. That initial discovery would lead, shortly after, to the decision to locate the company's finance functions for the Asia-Pacific region in India. The Amex centre, in hindsight, might count as the precursor of the BPO revolution that has spawned close to 400 ITES (IT-enabled services)-BPO units in the country. The sector now employs around 300,000 people ranging from call centre staff selling credit cards to Americans - in an American accent - to analysts preparing research reports for Wall Street investment bankers, and generates an astounding $5 billion (Rs 22,500 crore) in revenue. That figure is slated to quadruple in the next two years, even as, piquantly, it is now people in the West who complain of loss of jobs as companies route work to India. In "The Backroom Brigade", Seetha, a Delhi-based economic journalist, tells the story of this entire phenomenon - how a group of people combining sophisticated technology with the improvisational skills of a street mechanic changed the way the world looked at India.

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.

WITH HUNDREDS OF MORTGAGES NOW AVAILABLE, HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE ONE THAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU?. .

Congratulations! Chances are you're buying a new home or refinancing an old one and are now in the process of applying for a mortgage loan. Before making any decisions that could affect the next 30 years of your life, arm yourself with this edition of "Tips And Traps When Mortgage Hunting," . .

There are so many loans now available for practically every situation. America's leading real estate authority, Robert Irwin, will help you cut through the confusion and find the mortgage that fits your needs and is right for your budget. If one of your biggest concerns is paying too high an interest rate, or shelling out excessive cash for closing costs, this book will save you money by showing you how to find the lowest rates available. In easy-to-understand language, Irwin explains.... . . When to use a mortgage broker and how to find the right one. How to use the latest technology to conduct a mortgage search online. How to shop for and lock in the lowest interest rate. How to avoid being denied a mortgage because of a credit problem. . .

This clear and comprehensive guide will provide you with the most up-to-date information and insider tips to help you avoid the traps of mortgage hunting and find the right mortgage at the right, /p>.

The work highlights th multi dimensional credit factors of agrarian economy in Indian socio-political spectrum. It attempts to give an objective view of the rationale and the necessity of agricultural institutionalized loan system in prolific developmental activities.

Due to the scarcity of reliable data, the existing literature on default risk still displays an imbalance between theoretical and empirical contributions. Consequently, the focus of this book is on empirical work. Within an intensity based modelling framework a broad range of promising specifications is tested using corporate bond data. The book provides one of the most comprehensive empirical studies in the field, from Kalman filtration of affine term structure models to the use of Efficient Method of Moments estimation of dynamic term structure models in a default risky context. Filling another gap in empirical research, the book devotes special attention to the identification factors that can explain credit default swap premia.

The Savings and Loan Crisis: Lessons from a Regulatory Failure sets the record straight about what actually happened to our banking institutions in the 1980s. As is documented by the highly respected and diverse group of former regulators, scholars and practitioners contributing to this book, the collapse of this industry was caused by a confluence of adverse economic conditions and misguided regulatory decisions. Poorly designed deposit insurance, faulty supervision, and restrictions on investments prevented savings and loans from adapting to a changing financial marketplace. Unable to use financial innovations, savings and loans could not hedge interest rate and credit risks. These factors blocked portfolio diversification and lay at the root of the crisis.
The savings and loan crisis was an accident, but it was an avoidable one. Most of the factors responsible for causing and exacerbating the industry's problems were preventable, as is made clear in this volume.

This book also provides an insider's view of the transformation of the financial services industry in the United States since the 1980s: how the managers and owners make decisions about product offerings and investments; how the regulators monitor performance and enforce the rules; and how Congress and the Administration influence and are influenced by the financial services industry.

Lastly, it focuses attention on the lessons that should have been learned from this difficult period in the history of U.S. banking, and that should help prevent future banking crises everywhere.

New developments in measuring, evaluating and managing credit risk are discussed in this volume. Addressing both practitioners in the banking sector and resesarch institutions, the book provides a manifold view on one of the most-discussed topics in finance. Among the subjects treated are important issues, such as: the consequences of the new Basel Capital Accord (Basel II), different applications of credit risk models, and new methodologies in rating and measuring credit portfolio risk. The volume provides an overview of recent developments as well as future trends: a state-of-the-art compendium in the area of credit risk.

This book explores the forms of credit which have historically been associated with the British working class. Taylor seeks to assess the effect of credit on working class communities, and relates this to the debate about community. This work is the first comprehensive examination of the history of these forms of credit to make comparisons between the periods before and after 1945. Based on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, this book combines lively individual accounts with theoretical arguments.

The completion of the European Single Market Programme (SMP) and the launch of "Euroland" are bold statements on the EU and its future. Within this economic process, the particular importance of the banking and financial services sectors is widely emphasized. This collection explores the strategic impact of the Single Market Programme and European Monetary Union on European banks and banking systems. The contributors examine 11 banking systems: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the UK. Thoroughly up-to-date and with a common thematic overview of major trends in European banking systems, this book covers key strategic developments, structural changes, performance trends, and strategies.

This book offers an advanced introduction to the models of credit risk valuation. It concentrates on firm-value and reduced-form approaches and their applications in practice. Additionally, the book includes new models for valuing derivative securities with credit risk, focussing on options and forward contracts subject to counterparty default risk, but also treating options on credit-risky bonds and credit derivatives. The text provides detailed descriptions of the state-of-the-art martingale methods and advanced numerical implementations based on multi-variate trees used to price derivative credit risk. Numerical examples illustrate the effects of credit risk on the prices of financial derivatives.

Microcredit is a grassroots development strategy that grants small-scale loans to poor borrowers for self-employment projects that generate income. Microcredit, along with other grassroots approaches, offers an alternative to the top-down macroeconomic approaches that have characterized policies in developing countries since World War II. Aside from a few high profile success stories, the top-down approach has failed. The vast majority of people living in developing countries still suffer from extreme poverty and underdevelopment. While effective macropolicies remain necessary for any successful development strategy, the need for complementary microstrategies at the grassroots level has become apparent. Among the various grassroots approaches, microcredit not only shows unique promise in alleviating poverty, but also offers the poor a better future through self-reliance. While positive microcredit benefits have begun to emerge in evaluations, scholars still debate the proper role of microcredit in overall development policy. The purpose of this book is to address the major policy issues surrounding the use of microcredit as a tool for economic and social development.

The Impact of Public Policy on Consumer Credit presents a collection of research papers and discussions commissioned to commemorate the silver anniversary of Georgetown University's Credit Research Center in 1999. Nine topics serve as focal points for the volume, with the general theme What do we know, what do we need to know?' about the functioning of consumer credit markets at the beginning of the 21st century. Because the growth of household debt and the consequences of household debt burden have dominated discussion in both the media and policy arenas for decades, Credit Growth and the Burden of Debt' is the theme for the first group of three papers. The papers address the cultural evolution of consumer credit in the U.S., the rise in consumer indebtedness and the alarming surge in personal bankruptcies. A second grouping of three papers takes a distinctly policy-oriented tack and examines questions regarding consumer access to credit (mortgage markets and evidence of discrimination), consumer protection through mandatory disclosure of information (Truth-in-Lending regulations), and the general state of financial literacy among the population of young consumers entering credit markets for the first time. The final three papers in this volume examine how technological innovations in risk management (through statistical risk scoring models), marketing (through use of personal information for targeted marketing) and finance (through securitization of consumer loans) have impacted the availability of credit products and sparked new public policy questions.

"..this book...gives us a history lesson and a guide on how to build commercial finance that fits the needs of the world's poorest majority. Policy makers, finance leaders, and anyone who wants to join this revolution in banking must read this book." Around the world, a revolution is occurring in finance for low-income people. The microfinance revolution is delivering financial services to the economically active poor on a large scale through competing, financially self-sufficient institutions. In a few countries this has already happened; in others it is under way. The emerging microfinance industry has profound implications for social and economic development. For the first time in history, capital is well on its way to being democratized. The Microfinance Revolution, in three volumes, is aimed at a diverse readership?economists, bankers, policymakers, donors, and social scientists; microfinance practitioners and specialists in local finance and rural and urban development; and members of the general public interested in development. This first volume, Sustainable Finance for the Poor, focuses on the shift from government- and donor-subsidized credit systems to self-sufficient microfinance institutions providing voluntary savings and credit services. "A magnificent work" Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO, Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) "A much-needed wake-up call for economists" David E. Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard University "A major work that will unquestionably lie at the very center of microfinance literature" Robert Peck Christen, Senior Adviser, CGAP Secretariat; Academic Director, Microfinance Training Program, Naropa University "A seminal work" Ira W. Lieberman, former CEO of CGAP; Senior Manager, World Bank

From the early forms of loans to farmers to present day credit cards, consumer credit has always been part of human life and economics. However, ever since the Bible, controversy has reigned as to its legitimacy. It is the history of this controversy that is presented here by the authors. Outlining significant developments in different aspects of consumer credit from the Hammurabi Code through to current questions such as household overindebtedness, they shed some historical light on modern debates.

Providing the poor with access to financial services is one of many ways to help increase their incomes and productivity. In many countries, however, traditional financial institutions have failed to provide this service. Microcredit and co-operative programmes have been developed to fill this gap. Their purpose is to help the poor become self-employed and thus escape poverty. Many of these programmes provide credit using social mechanisms, such as group-based lending, to reach the poor and other clients, including women, who lack access to formal financial institutions. With increasing assistance from the World Bank and other donors, microfinance is emerging as an instrument for reducing poverty and improving the poor's access to financial services in low-income countries. This book examines the experiences of the Grameen Bank and two other major microcredit programs in Bangladesh in order to quantify the potential and limitations of microcredit programmes as an instrument for reducing poverty and delivering financial sevices to the poor.

Provides an authoritative executive report on internal modelling and CAD II, with an overview of VAR methodologies and extreme value theory. An analysis is presented for CAD II guidelines for back testing.

Winner of the Harold Lasswell Award of the American Political Science AssociationThe FSFIC failed spectacularly during the 1980s, costing taxpayers an estimated $200 billion. In this award-winning analysis, Rom examines the political causes of this \u201cthrift tragedy.\u201d He directly confronts-and rejects-the dominant scholarly \u201cpublic choice\u201d view that public officials were motivated mainly be self-interest. Instead, Rom argues that politicians and bureaucrats generally acted in the \u201cpublic spirit\u201d by attempting to obtain the common interest as they saw it. Using new evidence and innovative methods, Rom demonstrates that FSLIC's failure unfolded because of commitments that officials had made in the past and their uncertainties about how to fulfill these obligations in the future.

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of credit risk assessment and credit risk rating that meets the Advanced Internal Risk-Based (AIRB) approach of Basel II. Credit risk analysis looks at many risks and this book covers all the critical areas that credit professionals need to know, including country analysis, industry analysis, financial analysis, business analysis, and management analysis. Organized under two methodological approaches to credit analysis-a criteria-based approach, which is a hybrid of expert judgement and purely mathematical methodologies, and a mathematical approach using regression analysis to model default probability-the book covers a cross-section of industries including passenger airline, commercial real estate, and commercial banking. In three parts, the sections focus on hybrid models, statistical models, and credit management. While the book provides theory and principles, its emphasis is on practical applications, and will appeal to credit practitioners in the banking and investment community alongside college and university students who are preparing for a career in lending.

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!

Along the way, Consumer Bankruptcy dispels many of the tired myths surrounding bankruptcy, highlights many of its hidden advantages, assists you in devising a workable fee arrangement with your lawyer, and even alerts you to the rights you have as a creditor if you choose to make a claim against a business in bankruptcy.

Building societies occupy an important position in the U.K. financial services sector and potentially in the Continental European market, too. This book provides an in-depth examination of their structure and performance within a deregulated and increasingly competitive business environment. The authors analyse how the societies have adapted to a period of unprecedented change, and consider the future options facing the societies as they develop in the 1990s. By analysing the sector in terms of national, regional and local societies, the authors are able to provide greater insights into the dynamics of the sector. Based on the themes of structure, performance and change consideration is given to key aspects of the strategic and operational features of U.K. building societies, for example, marketing, product diversification, information technology, legal reform, relocation and organisational change. The text also provides a perspective on future involvement of building societies in the Single European Market.

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.

This book suggests how good loans can be made to individuals and firms at the 'frontier'. This frontier is not geographic, but market based. On one side are those parts of the legitimate economy that are not usually considered creditworthy by formal financial institutions, and on the other are the generally more prosperous entities that do have access to formal finance. Good loans are loans that are repaid according to the terms agreed on when they were issued. It examines how lending at the frontier can be remunerative to commercial banks, development banks and other development finance agencies that retail credit and assume credit risk. Remunerative lending is important because most lenders, regardless of their ownership and institutional form, tend to avoid activities that are not attractive. Unremunerative lending is transitory, unstable, and not robust in the face of adversity. Credit markets function poorly when lenders are not adequately rewarded. Experience at the frontier clearly indicates that weak financial institutions do not do a good job serving society in general and firms and individuals at the frontier in particular. This book is intended for readers interested in the relationship between finance and development at the firm and household levels and in the use of credit by individuals in low-income countries.

How the American government has long used financial credit programs to create economic opportunities Federal housing finance policy and mortgage-backed securities have gained widespread attention in recent years because of the 2008 financial crisis, but issues of government credit have been part of American life since the nation's founding. From the 1780s, when a watershed national land credit policy was established, to the postwar foundations of our current housing finance system, American Bonds examines the evolution of securitization and federal credit programs. Sarah Quinn shows that since the Westward expansion, the U.S. government has used financial markets to manage America's complex social divides, and politicians and officials across the political spectrum have turned to land sales, home ownership, and credit to provide economic opportunity without the appearance of market intervention or direct wealth redistribution. Highly technical systems, securitization, and credit programs have been fundamental to how Americans determined what they could and should owe one another. Over time, government officials embraced credit as a political tool that allowed them to navigate an increasingly complex and fractured political system, affirming the government's role as a consequential and creative market participant. Neither intermittent nor marginal, credit programs supported the growth of powerful industries, from railroads and farms to housing and finance; have been used for disaster relief, foreign policy, and military efforts; and were promoters of amortized mortgages, lending abroad, venture capital investment, and mortgage securitization. Illuminating America's market-heavy social policies, American Bonds illustrates how political institutions became involved in the nation's lending practices.

"Clark and Mingyuan start with an insightful and comprehensive description of how market participants contributed to the current crisis in the residential mortgage markets and the root causes of the crisis. They then proceed to develop a new residential mortgage lending system that can fix our broken markets because it addresses the root causes. The most impressive attributes of their new system is its commonsense return to the basics of traditional underwriting, combined with factors based on expert judgment and statistics and forward-looking attributes, all of which can be updated as markets change. The whole process is transparent to the borrower, lender, and investor." --Dean Schultz, President and CEO, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

"The credit market crisis of 2008 has deeply affected the economic lives of every American. Yet, its underlying causes and its surface features are so complex that many observers and even policymakers barely understand them. This timely book will help guide nonspecialists through the workings of financial markets, particularly how they value, price, and distribute risk." --Professor William Greene, Stern School of Business, New York University

"This book is a well-timed departure from much of what is being written today regarding the current foreclosure and credit crisis. Rather than attempting to blame lenders, borrowers, and/or federal regulators for the mortgage meltdown and the subsequent impacts on the financial markets, Clark and Mingyuan have proposed a groundbreaking new framework to revolutionize our current lending system. The book is built on the authors' deep understanding of risk and the models used for credit analysis, and reflects their commitment to solve the problem. What I find most profound is their passion to develop a system that will facilitate new and better investment, especially in underserved urban markets that have been disproportionately impacted in the current crisis. I applaud the authors for this important work, and urge practitioners and theorists alike to investigate this new approach." --John Talmage, President and CEO, Social Compact

"In the wake of the credit crisis, it is clear that transparency is the key to not repeating history. In Credit Risk Assessment: The New Lending System for Borrowers, Lenders and Investors, Clark Abrahams and Mingyuan Zhang describe a new lending framework that seeks to connect all the players in the lending chain and provide a more holistic view of customers' risk potential. As the financial services industry recovers from the mortgage meltdown, the Abrahams/Zhang lending model certainly offers some new food for thought to laymen and professionals alike." --Maria Bruno-Britz, Senior Editor, Bank Systems & Technology magazine

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.