The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement between the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 15 member countries account for about 30% of the world's population and 30% of global GDP as of 2020, making it the biggest trade bloc in history. It is expected to eliminate about 90% of the tariffs on imports between its signatories within 20 years of coming into force, and establish common rules for e-commerce, trade, and intellectual property. The unified rules of origin will help facilitate international supply chains and reduce export costs throughout the bloc. The emergence of Financial Technology (FinTech) related products are major disruptions in financial services including in RCEP that enables financial solutions and innovative business models resulting the fusion of finance and smart mobile technology. FinTech includes five major areas which are finance and investment, operations and risk management, payments and infrastructure, data security and monetization, and customer interface. Since RCEP will strengthen economic linkages and to enhance trade and investment the book will portray and assess FinTech's adoption, challenges, and its potentials to facilitate RCEP. The book will overcome solid knowledge dissemination of FinTech's development in RCEP featuring conceptual, case studies, recent development, best practices, comparative assessment, business processes, as well as strategies and outputs in studies of FinTech from multi-domains of knowledge. Therefore, the book seeks to move beyond the theoretical areas of FinTech to comprehensively explore the recent FinTech initiative in RCEP scenarios with respect to processes, strategies, challenges, lessons learned, as well as outcomes. In addition, the book highlights in new business models, applications, processes, products, or services with an associated material effect on financial markets and institutions and the provision of financial services.

With incisive critical ana lysis and historical examples, "The Great Crash Ahead "lays bare the traditional assumptions of economics, outlining why the next financial crash and crisis is inevitable, and just around the corner-- coming between mid-2012 and early 2015. Widely respected in the financial world for his accurate forecasts, Harry S. Dent, Jr., shows that the government doesn't drive our economy, consumers and businesses do; that the Fed does not create most of the money in our economy, the private banking system does. This necessary and illuminating book gives very clear strategies for prospering in the challenging decade ahead . . . a world turned upside down.

Introduction to financial derivatives is a concise introduction to the fundamentals and applications of financial derivatives. Introduction to financial derivatives provides a framework and reference guide that lays the foundation for more advanced studies and titles. The basics of the derivatives market and its four main classes - forwards, futures, options and swaps - are discussed, with the generic principles and applications of each being covered in relative detail but in a simplified format (omitting all derivation of formulae and underlying assumptions). Related concepts and terminology, often confusing to first-time users, are explained. Introduction to financial derivatives is primarily aimed at second-year students and short-course providers, but undergraduate and graduate students that specialise in related disciplines (e.g. accounting or MBA) should also find it useful.

Tettered Money: Managing Digital Currency Transactions presents a comprehensive discussion of financial transactions using digital currencies, with the author, Gideon Samid, making the case for their expansion in tethered money. Exploring the technical, legal, and historical aspects of digital money, the author discusses how the emerging technology of money specified for a specific need or to perform a particular task will affect society. The ability to dictate, Samid argues, how money is spent could increase control over our lives and resources, enabling us to practice a certain efficiency that would, in due time, become a pillar of civilization. Informative and thought-provoking, the book describes an evolving future that, in some quarters, has already arrived.

This is the fascinating, detailed account of the rise and fall of the largest banking house ever before established in the South, whose financial misfeasance during the prosperous twenties led to its eventual collapse and brought ruin to numerous innocent investors. Caldwell and Company was founded in Nashville in 1917 by Rogers Caldwell, the son of a leading local banker and businessman. Beginning as a small underwriter and distributor of Southern municipal bonds, the firm soon branched out into real estate bonds and industrial securities as well. Control of important banks in Tennessee and Arkansas was acquired; newspapers, and even Nashville's professional baseball team, came under the firm's ownership. Caldwell and Company was, truly, a pioneer conglomerate. Caldwell and Company also ventured into the realm of politics, supporting certain politicians (notably Colonel Luke Lea) with questionable benefits accruing to the firm, including substantial state deposits in Caldwells Bank of Tennessee. In November 1930 the firm went into receivership. Unethical practices, including overextension in the acquisition of banks, insurance companies, and other business, had already strain Caldwell and Company's assets. With the 1929 collapse of stock prices. Rogers Caldwell could not meet the company's obligations, and he began to squeeze all available cash from the various controlled firms. He also negotiated a merger between Caldwell and Company and Banco-Kentucky Company of Louisville-a transaction which must stand as one of the strangest deals in the annals of American business. Even the aforementioned State of Tennessee deposits, which helped float his empire for a while, could not prevent its collapse-a collapse which resulted in a multi-million dollar loss to Tennessee's Treasury, public hysteria, and clamor for the impeachment of the Governor of Tennessee. Originally Published in 1939, this edition includes a new introduction in which the author comments on the long-run implications of the Caldwell episode and reports the outcome of legal actions, both civil and criminal, still pending at the time the book was first published.

As more and more emerging markets seek to compete in an ever-growing pool of global competitors, rapidly growing economies are consistently running into issues relating to the proper understanding of fiscal markets. The future of global economics depends on the wellbeing of sustainable economic growth and the expansion of banking systems. Emerging Research on Monetary Policy, Banking, and Financial Markets is an essential reference source that discusses the complex nature of financial markets and the growth of developing economies. Featuring research on topics such as international markets, transition economies, and financial instability, this book is ideally designed for academicians, students, researchers, policymakers, professionals, financial analysts, and economists interested in the future of reformed worldwide banking systems.

Using a framework of volatile markets Emerging Market Bank Lending and Credit Risk Control covers the theoretical and practical foundations of contemporary credit risk with implications for bank management. Drawing a direct connection between risk and its effects on credit analysis and decisions, the book discusses how credit risk should be correctly anticipated and its impact mitigated within framework of sound credit culture and process in line with the Basel Accords. This is the only practical book that specifically guides bankers through the analysis and management of the peculiar credit risks of counterparties in emerging economies. Each chapter features a one-page overview that introduces its subject and its outcomes. Chapters include summaries, review questions, references, and endnotes.

This book explores the system of financing local governments in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Using evidence from the last two decades, the authors, experts on their particular countries, describe the development of the current local government finance system in each nation, and the major challenges and policy options they face. The contributions in this book provide comprehensive coverage of a transitional Europe that encompasses both modern local public finance theory and specific applications in the target countries. The book is a recommended read not only for students of local government and local public finance, but also practitioners and all those who have to deal with the accountability and financial issues at local government level in Central and Eastern Europe.

As a leader in your organization, you will be very familiar with your organization’s key financial statements and monthly management reports. You may have spent countless hours discussing budgets and expenditures. But how much time have you spent reflecting on the fact that these revenues are generated by actual customers—the people who pull out their wallets and pay for your products and services? In The Customer-Base Audit: The First Step on the Journey to Customer Centricity, experts Peter Fader, Bruce Hardie, and Michael Ross start you on the path toward really getting to understand your customers’ buying behavior as well as the health of your overall customer base. A customer-base audit is a systematic review of the buying behavior of a firm’s customers using data captured by its transaction systems. It will help you answer questions such as: -- How healthy is your customer base? How realistic are your growth objectives? -- How do your customers differ in terms of their behavior and value? -- How has the quality of your customers changed over time? -- What changes in customer behavior lie behind period-to-period changes in firm performance? -- What is important to your high-value customers? Which products help you acquire and retain your best customers? Fader, Hardie, and Ross present five “lenses” through which an executive can address questions like those above. The answers are often lurking in various parts of the organization, but it is rare to find all the relevant analyses in one place, let alone performed on a regular basis (as an audit should be). Yet without such a basic, systematic understanding of the foundations of the firm’s primary source of cash flow, how can executives make informed decisions? Fader, a Wharton professor, is the author of Customer Centricity and coauthor of The Customer Centricity Playbook, both of which have helped businesses radically rethink how they relate to customers. In this first step of the journey, Fader, Hardie, and Ross assist leaders in gaining a fundamental understanding of their customers’ buying behavior—and thus their company as a whole.

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought enormous political, economic, and social challenges. Since 1991 fiscal reform has been a pillar of Russia's reform agenda. This book analyzes the effort to adopt a modern tax code where previously there were few recognizable taxes, establish an efficient tax administration where taxpayers had never paid taxes directly, and decentralize the system of governance where power had been centralized and dictatorial. Despite the remarkable achievements, many old and new challenges remain. The authors bring an analytical approach to fiscal reform in Russia, providing a detailed analysis of the tax system and estimates of tax compliance and evasion. The book offers a careful examination of the fiscal architecture of Russia and concludes with a presentation of remaining reform needs and options for Russia. Based on Russia's reform experience, the authors also draw lessons for fiscal reform in other developing and transitional countries. Given the dynamic nature of Russia's economic development, this book will prove a timely and informative resource for academics in economics, public finance, political science and public administration as well as for policy makers. Its lessons will also be useful for officials involved with finance in transition and developing countries.

In response to demographic change many countries in the European Union have reformed their pension systems. During the last two decades personal pensions have been introduced in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK. This book is a critical examination of the objectives of personal pensions in these countries and the use of tax incentives to encourage individuals to save for their retirement. It also includes discussion on personal pensions in the United States. The volume focuses on issues such as risk, administrative expense, and the role of tax allowances in encouraging personal pension provision. Based on the evidence from these countries it is concluded that expectations relating to the take up of personal pensions have not been met and that EU countries should not rely on personal pensions to improve income adequacy at the lower end of the income distribution. Academics and researchers teaching and studying employee benefits and pension costs - particularly in countries that have recently reformed their pension systems - will warmly welcome this book. Government bodies involved in pension reform and European Commission institutions concerned with the evolution and problems with pension policy within the EU will also find this book an informative and invaluable read.