This revised and fully expanded edition of Understanding Investments continues to incorporate the elements of traditional textbooks on investments, but goes further in that the material is presented from an intuitive, practical point of view, and the supplementary material included in each chapter lends itself to both class discussion and further reading by students. It provides the essential tools to navigate complex, global financial markets and instruments including relevant (and classic) academic research and market perspectives. The author has developed a number of key innovative features. One unique feature is its economic angle, whereby each chapter includes a section dedicated to the economic analysis of that chapter's material. Additionally, all chapters contain sections on strategies that investors can apply in specific situations and the pros and cons of each are also discussed. The book provides further clarification of some of the concepts discussed in the previous edition, thereby offering a more detailed analysis and discussion, with more real-world examples. The author has added new, shorter text boxes, labeled "Market Flash" to highlight the use of, or changes in current practices in the field; updates on strategies as applied by professionals; provision of useful information for an investor; updates on regulations; and anything else that might be relevant in discussing and applying a concept. This second edition also includes new sections on core issues in the field of investments, such as alternative investments, disruptive technologies, and future trends in investment management. This textbook is intended for undergraduate students majoring or minoring in finance and also for students in economics and related disciplines who wish to take an elective course in finance or investments.

Financial institutions, private and public companies and governments can lose vast amounts of money from even minor changes in interest rates. Because of this, complex financial instruments have been developed to mitigate these exposures. But what happens when organisations hedge themselves to ill-advised and ill-formulated financial management strategies? Based on a proven analytical method, Mastering Interest Rate Risk Strategy explains, step-by-step, how to set up and run a sound interest rate risk strategy. Influenced by the author's work with leading companies and tested with banks, the book will help readers bring risk under control, raise profits and ensure healthy cash flows. Mastering Interest Rate Risk Strategy: Shows you how to mitigate interest rate risk using the most advanced risk management techniques Provides you with an analytical method that is proven both academically and in practice Uses examples and real life cases to support the transfer of knowledge and skills Interest rate changes will affect most firms because they will have interest bearing assets or liabilities. As a result, interest rate movements have an unfavourable impact and managing interest rate risk can be highly beneficial for the firm. But high-profile derivative blunders show that this is no easy task. In Mastering Interest Rate Risk Strategy, Victor Macrae shows you how to avoid the mis-selling of derivatives and derivatives blunders and how to set up an optimal interest rate risk strategy. Mastering Interest Rate Risk Strategy includes: Past derivatives blunders and how you can learn from them A proven analytical method for strategy formulation Hedging theory Bank financing for non-financial firms How movements in the financial markets may affect the firm Financial statement impact of interest rate risk The working and risks of using swaps, FRA's, caps, floors, collars and swaptions 'This is a wonderful and easy to read tour of interest rate risk and its management, and mismanagement. Anyone who wants to better understand why and how non-financial firms should be dealing with interest rate risk should read this book.' Gordon M. Bodnar, Professor on International Finance, Johns Hopkins University 'Macrae's guide is an excellent cookbook for financial managers. With many cases and examples, this book offers guidance in robust risk management techniques.' Abe de Jong, Professor of Corporate Finance and Corporate Governance at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

Land reform has been the most challenging social issue for China, which is in transition from an agricultural society to an industrialized country. As the initiator of "common-ownership trust", the author introduces trust theory into China's land reform, trying to settle the issues of land right verification and land circulation. Firstly, this book reflects on land circulation and common ownership theoretically. Then it reviews China's rural land system transition in history as well as its current circumstances and problems. Based on theoretical thinking and practice, this book proposes land trust and expounds on its nature and content. Lastly, it interprets the "cloud trust + land trust" model which combines science, technology, knowledge and capital with land to realize the intensive and overall development of land. This book attempts to solve China's land problems with financial tools, which provide significant implications for not only land reform but also trust theory study.

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 delves into the essential concepts and technologies of acquiring systems. It fills the gap left by manuals and standards and provides practical knowledge and insight that allow engineers to navigate systems as well as the massive tomes containing standards and manuals. Dedicated to card acquiring exclusively, the book covers: Payment cards and protocols EMV contact chip and contactless transactions Disputes, arbitration, and compliance Data security standards in the payment card industry Validation algorithms Code tables Basic cryptography Pin block formats and algorithms When necessary the book discusses issuer-side features or standards insomuch as they are required for the sake of completeness. For example, protocols such as EMV 3-D Secure are not covered to the last exhaustive detail. Instead, this book provides an overview, justification, and logic behind each message of the protocol and leaves the task of listing all fields and their formats to the standard document itself. The chapter on EMV contact transactions is comprehensive to fully explain this complex topic in order to provide a basis for understanding EMV contactless transaction. A guide to behind-the-scenes business processes, relevant industry standards, best practices, and cryptographic algorithms, Acquiring Card Payments covers the essentials so readers can master the standards and latest developments of card payment systems and technology

From the late nineties, the spectacular growth of a secondary market for credit through derivatives has been matched by the emergence of mathematical modelling analysing the credit risk embedded in these contracts. This book aims to provide a broad and deep overview of this modelling, covering statistical analysis and techniques, modelling of default of both single and multiple entities, counterparty risk, Gaussian and non-Gaussian modelling, and securitisation. Both reduced-form and firm-value models for the default of single entities are considered in detail, with extensive discussion of both their theoretical underpinnings and practical usage in pricing and risk. For multiple entity modelling, the now notorious Gaussian copula is discussed with analysis of its shortcomings, as well as a wide range of alternative approaches including multivariate extensions to both firm-value and reduced form models, and continuous-time Markov chains. One important case of multiple entities modelling - counterparty risk in credit derivatives - is further explored in two dedicated chapters. Alternative non-Gaussian approaches to modelling are also discussed, including extreme-value theory and saddle-point approximations to deal with tail risk. Finally, the recent growth in securitisation is covered, including house price modelling and pricing models for asset-backed CDOs. The current credit crisis has brought modelling of the previously arcane credit markets into the public arena. Lipton and Rennie with their excellent team of contributors, provide a timely discussion of the mathematical modelling that underpins both credit derivatives and securitisation. Though technical in nature, the pros and cons of various approaches attempt to provide a balanced view of the role that mathematical modelling plays in the modern credit markets. This book will appeal to students and researchers in statistics, economics, and finance, as well as practitioners, credit traders, and quantitative analysts.

With the banking industry in flux and the credit business at its core, Credit Portfolio Management is a timely and practical guide on how to successfully manage a credit portfolio in light of a challenging market environment and increased regulatory scrutiny.
Structured in line with a credit value chain, part I deals with the framework in which credit risk is originated and managed. It comprises of three chapters: a brief description of the role that credit risk played in the financial crisis and thereafter; the credit risk strategies which aim at optimizing the risk/return profile of the portfolio under the condition of adequate capital; and finally an introduction to stress tests which support a proactive and forward looking approach to portfolio management by allowing the quantification of improbable but plausible outcomes.
In Part II, conceptual aspects of an Active Credit Portfolio Management (ACPM) are discussed. It ranges from the description of the value proposition to a full credit cycle approach to portfolio management. Since in most organizations a loan transfer pricing scheme underpins the internal role of ACPM to optimize the risk and the return side of credit portfolio, it is given due consideration. Part II also reviews practical aspects of the implementation of ACPM, and dedicates a chapter to the accounting symmetry of credit derivative hedges and loans. It concludes with an overview of regulatory capital relief.
Part III focuses on the back end management of a credit portfolio where corrective actions are usually carried out by use of controversial credit default swaps. Michael provides a non technical, detailed description of CDS as a hedging tool for credit portfolio managers whilst also introducing other hedge instruments such as Loan CDS and sub-participations.
A number of case studies are used throughout the book to illustrate the various topics in a real world setting.

Why did America embrace consumer credit over the course of the twentieth century, when most other countries did not? How did American policy makers by the late twentieth century come to believe that more credit would make even poor families better off? This book traces the historical emergence of modern consumer lending in America and France. If Americans were profligate in their borrowing, the French were correspondingly frugal. Comparison of the two countries reveals that America's love affair with credit was not primarily the consequence of its culture of consumption, as many writers have observed, nor directly a consequences of its less generous welfare state. It emerged instead from evolving coalitions between fledgling consumer lenders seeking to make their business socially acceptable and a range of non-governmental groups working to promote public welfare, labor, and minority rights. In France, where a similar coalition did not emerge, consumer credit continued to be perceived as economically regressive and socially risky.

This book addresses the impact of the vast international debt on the position and volatility of the Eurodollar and provides a unique insight into the economics surrounding the Eurodollar. It is intended for those working or studying in the fields of business and economics.

These important essays, first published in 1918, consider the various economic aspects of the reign of Edward III. They support George Unwin's contention that the measures of the king and parliament were mainly opportunist rather than the expression of a definite financial policy.

First published in 1992, The New York Stock Exchange is an informative library resource. The book begins with a history of the stock exchange, and offers a series of annotated bibliographies devoted to dictionaries and general guides, directories, bibliographies, general histories, and statistical sources. The book provides important coverage of the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 and the appendices offer a useful collection of data, including a directory of serial publications, listings of abstracts and indexes, online databases, and CD-ROM products. This book will be of interest to libraries and to researchers working in the field of economics and business.

The Bill is one of the oldest instruments of credit in the world, and this book, first published in 1952 and revised in 1976, provides an in-depth analysis of this financial instrument which has stood the test of centuries. No other book gives more than a part of the information here set out.

Originally published in 1995, Beyond Capital Labor is a comprehensive empirical study about how and how much technology and regional contextual factors may influence company production and productivity growth. The book constitutes a conceptually consistent and empirically efficient study and provides a consolidated model and an analytical framework to examine the contributions of technology and regional factors to company production and productivity growth. This work goes beyond the current state and brings many scattered theoretical components together to establish an integrated model.

Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. They are the biggest job creators and offer a path to the American Dream. But for many, it is difficult to get the capital they need to operate and succeed. In the Great Recession, access to capital for small businesses froze, and in the aftermath, many community banks shuttered their doors and other lenders that had weathered the storm turned to more profitable avenues. For years after the financial crisis, the outlook for many small businesses was bleak. But then a new dawn of financial technology, or "fintech," emerged. Beginning in 2010, new fintech entrepreneurs recognized the gaps in the small business lending market and revolutionized the customer experience for small business owners. Instead of Xeroxing a pile of paperwork and waiting weeks for an answer, small businesses filled out applications online and heard back within hours, sometimes even minutes. Banks scrambled to catch up. Technology companies like Amazon, PayPal, and Square entered the market, and new possibilities for even more transformative products and services began to appear. In Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, former U.S. Small Business Administrator and Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, Karen G. Mills, focuses on the needs of small businesses for capital and how technology will transform the small business lending market. This is a market that has been plagued by frictions: it is hard for a lender to figure out which small businesses are creditworthy, and borrowers often don't know how much money or what kind of loan they need. New streams of data have the power to illuminate the opaque nature of a small business's finances, making it easier for them to weather bumpy cash flows and providing more transparency to potential lenders. Mills charts how fintech has changed and will continue to change small business lending, and how financial innovation and wise regulation can restore a path to the American Dream. An ambitious book grappling with the broad significance of small business to the economy, the historical role of credit markets, the dynamics of innovation cycles, and the policy implications for regulation, Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream is relevant to bankers, fintech investors, and regulators; in fact, to anyone who is interested in the future of small business in America.

Financial markets across the Arabian Peninsula have gone from being small, quasi-medieval structures in the 1960s to large world-class groupings of financial institutions. This evolution has been fueled by vast increases in income from oil and natural gas. The Financial Markets of the Arab Gulf presents and analyzes the banks, stock markets, investment companies, money changers and sovereign wealth funds that have grown from this oil wealth and how this income has acted as a buffer between Gulf society at large and the newfound cash reserves of Gulf Cooperation Council states (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain) over the last fifty years. By assessing the development of institutions like the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, the Public Investment Fund and the National Bank of Kuwait, The Financial Markets of the Arab Gulf evaluates the growth of the markets and provides a detailed, critical, snapshot of the current form and function of the Gulf's financial markets. It argues that the markets have been controlled by various state institutions for socio-political reasons. In particular, the Saudi state has used its sophisticated regulatory regime to push for industrialization and diversification, which culminated in the Vision 2030 plan. The UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman have also been strongly involved in establishing modern markets for similar purposes but have done so through different means, with varying results, and each in line with what has been considered their respective comparative advantages. Along with critically surveying these institutions and their role in global finance, the book also presents case studies depicting transactions typical to the region, including the highly profitable documentary credits of commercial banks, the financial scandal of certain financiers and their regulatory arbitrage between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, a review of the Dubai's trade miracle, and an assessment of the value and importance of the privatization of Saudi Aramco.

"Into the Red" explores the emergence of a credit card market in post-Soviet Russia during the formative period from 1988 to 2007. In her analysis, Alya Guseva locates the dynamics of market building in the social structure, specifically the creative use of social networks.
Until now, network scholars have overlooked the role that networks play in facilitating exchange in mass markets because they have exclusively focused on firm-to-firm or person-to-person ties. "Into the Red" demonstrates how networks that combine individuals and organizations help to build markets for mass consumption. The book is situated on the cutting edge of emerging interdisciplinary research, linking multiple layers of analysis with institutional evolution. Using an intricate framework, Guseva chronicles both the creation of a credit card market and the making of a mass consumer. These processes are placed in the context of the ongoing restructuring in postcommunist Russia and the expansion of Western markets and ideologies through the rest of the world.

A clear and accessible guide to finance, which provides the ideal introduction for the non-specialist. Packed with examples and case studies, the book features numerous real-world demonstrations of key concepts and ideas. This new edition includes coverage of ESG investing, a brand new chapter on digital currencies and electronic payments, and new case studies on sustainability versus profit maximization, environmental financing, socially responsible investing, the rise of fintech, the perils of cryptocurrency, global debt pressures and 'the rise of the South' in finance. The fourth edition will be supplemented by useful digital resources in the form of instructor PowerPoint slides and a testbank of questions for students.

This annual publication provides an overview of the most important developments in global credit markets and the regulatory landscape. It covers theoretical and empirical research on credit ratings and credit risk, and reports on recent findings and evolutions of the Risk Management Institute's Credit Research Initiative. The ultimate objective of this publication is to advance the state of research and development in the critical area of credit risk and rating systems. With a distinctive focus on topics related to credit markets and credit risk, this publication will be useful to finance professionals, policy makers and academics with an interest in credit markets.

Published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, the 1992 and 2002 ISDA(R) Master Agreements are the main contracts used in the over the counter global derivatives market. "Mastering the ISDA Master Agreements" provides a practical, clear and useful guide to help understand and negotiate these Master Agreements.

This revised and updated edition is an essential handbook for anyone involved in negotiating agreements, from financial institutions through to fund managers, law firms, credit officers, regulators and business students. The new edition includes:

• Increased focus on the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement Schedule
• Expanded sections on hedge fund and loan-linked Schedules
• The introduction of covered bonds
• The effect of the credit crunch, the role of derivatives and how this has affected the market

The ISDA Mater Agreements are complex documents and it can take up to two years to become proficient in negotiating and understanding their key elements. "Mastering the ISDA Master Agreements" provides a detailed overview of the legal, credit and operational issues inherent in the ISDA Master Agreements.

The book includes:

• The evolution of ISDA documentation including general and product definitions and confirmations
• A clear and detailed commentary on the individual sections and provisions of the 1992 and 2002 ISDA Master Agreements
• The main legal issues surrounding the Agreement and OTC derivatives from UK and US legal perspectives
• Special Schedule terms including those for building societies, insurance companies, hedge funds and sovereign entities
• Provisions seen in US Schedules which often face non-US negotiators
• The background to the credit crunch, the effect on the OTC derivatives market and some suggestions about possible changes to the market
• Annexes including reproductions of the ISDA Master Agreements and useful information
• Simplified glossaries of terms used in the Agreements

Originally published in 1973, Stock Exchange and Investment Analysis provides a detailed description of the London Stock Exchange and outlines both the principles and practice of finance, investment, and investment analysis. Split into four sections, the book provides critical analysis of the Stock Exchange and its functions, and the securities available to investors. It also addresses the latest developments in the field of investments and provides a detailed discussion on taxation and portfolio analysis. This book will be of interest to academics working in the field of finance and economics.

The Development of International Monetary Policy traces the development of international monetary policy from mercantilism to quantitative easing. It has been structured to present some of the pressing issues in international monetary relations involving currency valuation, inflation, exchange rates, and regional monetary policy. Additionally, it presents international monetary law as a basis for understanding the concept of monetary sovereignty and the limits of state autonomy in an interdependent world of legal arrangements. The book revisits some controversial arguments about stagflation and expansionary monetary policy, and it uses current time series data and empirical evidence to show why theories about the trade-off between inflation and unemployment are not extinct. Part of the concluding argument indicates that it is imperative for the international community to have a structure for monetary dispute resolutions involving autonomous states. Notably, the author further concludes that fiat money will continue to be a dominant unit of account, more so than crypto-currencies, into the distant future. An accessible and practical read, this is book is a valuable resource for postgraduates, academics and researchers of international trade, finance and economics.

The increasing capital flows in the emerging markets and developed countries have raised various concerns worldwide. One main concern is the impact of the sharp decline of capital flows - so-called sudden stops - on financial markets and the stability of banking systems and the economy. The sudden stops and banking crises have been identified as the two main features of most financial crises, including the recent Asian Financial Crisis and Global Financial Crisis. However, how capital flows and banking crises are connected still remains unanswered. Most current studies on capital flows are empirical work, which faces various challenges. The challenges include how data has been collected and measured in each country and how sensitive the results are to the data and the adopted methodologies. Moreover, the links between capital flows and banking systems have been neglected. This book helps provide some insight into the challenges faced by empirical studies and the lessons of the recent crises. The book develops theoretical analysis to deepen our understanding on how capital flows, banking systems and financial markets are linked with each other and provides constructive policy implications by overcoming the empirical challenges.

The biggest corporate failure ever in British history occurred in 2008 with very little forewarning. The management of HBOS, a major national bank with a long history of prudence prior to the merger in 2001, were allowed to act incompetently. Auditors and regulators failed to act, ignoring a key senior whistleblower, and the 'competitive' stock market failed to spot management failure in time. This book is the first academic study of this collapse, uncovering some surprising evidence on the power and politics of large financial institutions. It details the processes and degrees to which financial challenge and regulation are undermined by this power. The research exposes a pro-active process of regulatory risk management by these institutions; the ease with which auditors and regulators can be captured; and how politicians and investors can be all too happy to hop on the stock market and management spin ride - with other people's money. The study questions the ideology and politics which supported and encouraged the management hubris, raising profound questions about the 'politics' of the academic disciplines of banking, finance and accounting today, and the theories they underpin. This account of management gone wrong is essential reading for students, researchers and professionals involved in banking, finance, credit infrastructure, economics and management studies.

Land reform has been the most challenging social issue for China, which is in transition from an agricultural society to an industrialized country. As the initiator of "common-ownership trust", the author introduces trust theory into China's land reform, trying to settle the issues of land right verification and land circulation. Firstly, this book reflects on land circulation and common ownership theoretically. Then it reviews China's rural land system transition in history as well as its current circumstances and problems. Based on theoretical thinking and practice, this book proposes land trust and expounds on its nature and content. Lastly, it interprets the "cloud trust + land trust" model which combines science, technology, knowledge and capital with land to realize the intensive and overall development of land. This book attempts to solve China's land problems with financial tools, which provide significant implications for not only land reform but also trust theory study.

China's economy, which continues to grow rapidly, is having an ever greater impact on the rest of the world. This impact is likely to be felt increasingly in the financial sector where China's foreign currency reserves, fuelled by the huge trade surplus, are a very significant factor in world financial markets. This book, based on extensive original research by a range of leading experts, examines many key aspects of current reforms in China's financial sector and China's increasing integration into the international economy. Subjects covered amongst many others include: the derivatives market in China; stock market liberalisation; the internationalization of accounting standards in China; the impact of international foreign direct investment by Chinese firms; and a discussion of the likely long-term economic effects of the Beijing Olympic Games.