Microfinance is a renowned albeit controversial solution for giving financial access to the unbanked, even if micro-transactions increase costs, limiting outreach potential. The economic and financial sustainability of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) is a prerequisite for widening a potentially unlimited client base. Automation decreases costs, expanding the outreach potential, and improving transparency and efficiency. Technological solutions range from branchless mobile banking to geo-localization of customers, digital/social networking for group lending, blockchain validation, big data, and artificial intelligence, up to "MicroFinTech" - FinTech applications adapted to microfinance. Of interest to both scholars, students, and professors of financial technology and microfinance, this book examines these trendy solutions comprehensively, going beyond the existing literature and showing potential applications to the traditional sustainability versus outreach trade-off.

This book offers an overview of the best-working strategies in the field of equity and fixed income mutual fund-based portfolio management. This timely research considers different market conditions, such as global financial crises, across various geographical regions such as the USA and Europe. Combining academic and practical findings, the author presents a practitioner perspective on mutual fund-based portfolio strategies, appealing not only to finance scholars but also professionals within the asset management industry. This book synthesizes a large part of the academic research to date on the mutual fund industry by drawing from the most widely cited academic journals. The author makes a systematic use of numerical examples to facilitate the understanding of Investment themes organized around several important topics: size, diversification, flows, active management, volatility, performance persistence and rating.

This book examines the case of nominal income targeting as a monetary policy rule. In recent years the most well-known nominal income targeting rule has been NGDP (level) Targeting, associated with a group of economists referred to as market monetarists (Scott Sumner, David Beckworth, and Lars Christensen among others). Nominal income targeting, though not new in monetary theory, was relegated in economic theory following the Keynesian revolution, up until the financial crisis of 2008, when it began to receive renewed attention. This book fills a gap in the literature available to researchers, academics, and policy makers on the benefits of nominal income targeting against alternative monetary rules. It starts with the theoretical foundations of monetary equilibrium. With this foundation laid, it then deals with nominal income targeting as a monetary policy rule. What are the differences between NGDP Targeting and Hayek's rule? How do these rules stand up against other monetary rules like inflation targeting, the Taylor rule, or Friedman's k-percent? Nominal income targeting is a rule which is better equipped to avoid monetary disequilibrium when there is no inflation. Therefore, a book that explores the theoretical foundation of nominal income targeting, comparing it with other monetary rules, using the 2008 crisis to assess it and laying out monetary policy reforms towards a nominal income targeting rule will be timely and of interest to both academics and policy makers.

This book explores how new and small ventures with comparatively fewer financial resources have been able to compete with big banks and financial institutions. It discusses entry, competition, and growth strategies based on new business models enacted by current FinTech ventures. An analysis of strategies for Fintech and of cases from banked as well as non-banked and underbanked customer segments produces a framework based on effectuation, resulting in a final discussion of the broad societal outcomes of FinTech related to financial inclusion, the digital divide, and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. This book, linking theory with practical application, offers scholars a comprehensive strategic view on FinTech from effectual, causal, and entrepreneurial innovation standpoints.

This second edition updates and extends the original foundations of the loanable funds model. It develops a new monetary model of inside money, which is created by the commercial (or retail) banks, drawing on the events of 2007/08 that led to the Great Recession and fragile economy of today. Coronavirus is likely to cause another downturn of economic activity, from the perspective of late 2020 as this is written. That will represent a long-period of subpar, anaemic growth, which has not been satisfactorily explained by the traditional theory in the form of neo-classical analysis. The reason may lie with the adoption of a body of theory based primarily on a barter system of exchange but sometimes with one commodity used as money to try to explain a dynamic, monetary economy of today. Money has evolved from a system of barter to become a medium of exchange based on fiat money and credit currency underpinned by legal tender, and therefore, a creature of law. If households and firms lose confidence in the banking system, they can withdraw their deposits in the form of cash as a medium of exchange, which must be accepted in exchange for goods and services as legal tender. This book highlights the importance of how money is created or destroyed endogenously and derives the loanable supply of funds in conjunction with the demand within a revised analysis of monetary theory, with a new emphasis on portfolio theory. It applies critical thinking and the realization of a more precise formulation of the loanable funds theory to final year and postgraduate students in particular, with various features systematically added such as the catastrophe framework and Minsky's theory of changing states in an attempt to derive a fully dynamic model. There is a new framework using aggregate demand and supply analysis to explain inflation. This will be reinforced at each stage by the inclusion of revised and updated case studies, graphs and figures to give an international setting and application

Bill Gates' quote, "Banking is necessary, but banks are not," showcases the opportunity for financial services digital transformation. The next transition from industry 4.0 to 5.0 will impact all sectors, including banking. It will combine information technology and automation, based on artificial intelligence, person-robot collaboration, and sustainability. It is time to analyze this transformation in banking deeply, so that the sector can adequately change to the 'New Normal' and a wholly modified banking model can be properly embedded in the business. This book presents a conceptual model of banking 5.0, detailing its implementation in processes, platforms, people, and partnerships of financial services organizations companies. The last part of the book is then dedicated to future developments. Of interest to academics, researchers, and professionals in banking, financial technology, and financial services, this book also includes business cases in financial services.

Financial services technology and its effect on the field of finance and banking has been of major importance within the last few years. The spread of these so-called disruptive technologies, including Blockchain, has radically changed financial markets and transformed the operation of the industry as a whole. This is the first multidisciplinary handbook of FinTech and Blockchain covering finance, economics, and legal aspects globally. With comprehensive coverage of the current landscape of financial technology alongside a forward-looking approach, the chapters are devoted to the spread of structured finance, ICT, distributed ledger technology (DLT), cybersecurity, data protection, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies. Given an unprecedented 2020, the contributions also address the consequences of the current emergency, and the pandemic stroke, which is revolutionizing social and economic paradigms and heavily affecting Fintech, Blockchain, and the banking sector as well, and would be of particular interest to finance academics and researchers alongside banking and financial services professionals.

This short monograph examines the tense relationship between central bank independence and democratic legitimation, which has changed as the European Central Bank (ECB) has been entrusted with new tasks and faced unprecedented challenges. The financial and sovereign debt crisis, in particular, has affected the ECB's position within the Economic and Monetary Union without substantial changes in the Union's legal framework. However, the evolution of an institution primarily obligated to maintain price stability into an actor involved in sustaining financial stability, performing banking supervision and supporting economic policy raises the question of whether the high level of autonomy granted to the ECB is justified with regard to the principle of democracy that demands adequate accountability and control. This book identifies requirements for the democratic legitimation of central bank action in relation to specific tasks. Further, it analyses other scales of independence encountered in EU law in order to allow readers to gain a better conceptual understanding of central bank independence.

This book details the difference between the two rating industries, but this difference is converging all the time. The concept of investing in a more responsible and sustainable manner is drawing in some of the world's leading investors and, with it, regulations and policies are developing at the highest levels. However, the market is not getting what it needs to fully submit to the concept of responsible investing. It has called for more to be done from those tasked with injecting information into their processes, and two industries in particular have been identified as being natural partners. It has been suggested that they are on a collision course to serve the mainstream investor, and in this book, that collision course is contextualised, explained, presented, and finally its outcome predicted.

This book sheds light on current issues in sustainable finance through an in-depth analysis and discussion of relevant sustainable products and sustainable initiatives of several financial institutions. This edited collection critically presents and discusses several relevant theoretical issues, case studies of innovative financial products and sustainable institutions, as well as empirically investigates issues related to both financial and social performance. The book focuses on several innovative products across the sustainable finance ecosystem, including social impact bonds, crowdfunding and green bonds. Similarly, the book spotlights the sustainable investment strategies of institutions ranging from family foundations to asset managers.

Advertisements are considered as stimuli which consumers will respond to. Banks can develop emotionally appealing advertisements, but they are not guaranteed a positive emotional reaction. The unprecedented turbulence and uncertainty experienced in the banking industry has increased the need to appear more appealing to consumers.Taking into consideration the global financial crisis, the current challenges of competition and open banking, and the looming threat of Brexit, this book explores how UK banks are pulling at consumers' heart strings with appeals that are often filtered through personal ideologies, life experiences and previous exposure to brands. It investigates consumers' perception of this strategy, as well as the wider implications of using emotional appeals in financial services advertising. Based on empirical data and research, this books will prove invaluable to students, researchers and managers alike.

Pricing of export credit is a challenge in the globalised world trade. Annual premia represent billions of euros or dollars and may determine competition. This book develops a rigorous new framework for pricing export credit products, e.g. buyer and supplier credit insurance and performance and working capital guarantees , based on well-known financial and actuarial theories. It introduces the products, the theories and the different data sources in order to apply the mathematical and financial ideas, e.g. discounting, risk-neutral valuation and Merton type defaults. It shows the differences of historical experience and implicit market pricing assumptions. The well-known OECD Arrangement is used as a benchmark for some part of the framework. Short code snippets in R are given in order to re-perform the results and have a basis to try own ideas. Many unprecedented exhibits give new insights into the subject matter. The book is targeted at practitioners and actuaries in the field with a good quantitative background.

The book explains the impact of bank business models on company business models by discussing the relationship among banks decision-making processes, sustainable values creation in company business models, and ESG risk. The monograph provides a combination of financial and management-related activities, in the context of bank business models, taking into account the concept of sustainability, and will be of particular interest to both in-house practitioners, giving them innovative knowledge about the models presented and used, and to students and young researchers. The project is financed within the framework of the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name "Regional Excellence Initiative" in the years 2019 - 2022; project number 001/RID/2018/19; the amount of financing PLN 10,684,000.00.

This book describes various approaches in modelling financial risks and compiling ratings. Focusing on emerging markets, it illustrates how risk assessment is performed and analyses the use of machine learning methods for financial risk assessment and measurement. It not only offers readers insights into the differences between emerging and developed markets, but also helps them understand the development of risk management approaches for banks. Highlighting current problems connected with the evaluation and modelling of financial risks in the banking sector of emerging markets, the book presents the methodologies applied to credit and market financial risks and integrated and payment risks, and discusses the outcomes. In addition it explores the systemic risks and innovations in banking and risk management by analyzing the features of risk measurement in emerging countries. Lastly, it demonstrates the aggregation of approaches to financial risk for emerging financial markets, comparing the experiences of various countries, including Russia, Belarus, China and Brazil.

Over the last decade, socially responsible investments (SRIs) have become paramount to both professionals and academics. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-8, practitioners have become much more involved in new financial models that integrate returns and positive social and environmental impacts. The authors argue that previous irresponsible financial models are anachronistic, and propose a new relationship between stakeholder and shareholder. Starting from the mainstreaming of SRI, this book recovers the social function of banks and the innovative role of crowdfunding and venture capital models. The book offers a unified perspective for firm and funder, making it a timely and invaluable read for scholars and practitioners interested in sustainable development and social impact finance.

With organic growth becoming more and more elusive, Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) activity within the RIA industry is at an all-time high. In 2019, RIA merger and acquisition activity accelerated its momentum compared to the halfway point last year, with a strong second quarter that saw 33 deals for a total of 65 for the first six months, according to the DeVoe & Co. Deal Book. While M&As may seem like "easy" growth for firms, the only easy part may be signing on the dotted line. Maintaining success by merging two firms hinges on a handful of key factors, and one of them is the careful integration of culture. In Integrating Culture in Successful RIA Mergers and Acquisitions, Greg Friedman, a veteran financial advisor, and Cynthia Greenfield, a leadership and change management coach, share their blueprint for achieving and maintaining a successful, positive work culture, tackling head-on the obstacles that may appear during an M&A event, and offering solutions based on real-world experiences. This book will show the evolution of a $2B RIA over the course of 10 years, and pull back the covers with real stories of obstacles, adjustments, and victories along the way.

The financial markets have undergone a significant development process, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and partly induced by major pushes for globalization and deregulation. In this context, finance has taken on an increasingly central role for companies and is now on par with production and sales, which have always been the cornerstones of business management. The effects of these structural and functional changes are not limited to the way companies operate, but also imply a change in corporate cultures; one consequence of this phenomenon is the large percentage of managers from the world of finance at the top tiers of corporate organizations. Moreover, environmental turbulence has forced companies to increasingly face negative situations characterized by economic and financial imbalances that may require far-reaching strategic changes. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to investigate the possible financial strategies that companies in distress can adopt; in this regard, it approaches financial strategies as opportunities to resolve and prevent difficult situations for the company. After having systematized the financial strategies and policies used in the governance of companies, the book analyzes both crises and turnaround processes, describing the path until the financial balance is restored. Finally, the authors analyze essential tools for the financial management of companies in trouble, focusing in particular on operational tools for managing the crisis, the recovery plan, and its monitoring.

This book is a collection of academic lectures given on fintech, a topic that has been written about extensively but only from a business or technological point of view. In contrast to other publications on the subject, this book shows the reader how fintech should be understood in relation to economics, financial theory, policy, and law. It provides introductory explanations on fintech-related concepts and instruments such as blockchains, crypto assets, machine learning, high-frequency trading, and AI. The collected lectures also point to surrounding issues including start-ups, monetary policy, asset management, cyber and other security, and stability of financial systems. The authors include professors, a former central bank official, current officials at Japan's Financial Services Authority, a lawyer, the former dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute, and private sector professionals at the frontline of fintech. The book is most suitable for those both within and outside of academia who are beginning to learn about fintech and wish to successfully take part in the revolution that is certain to have wide-ranging effects on our economy and society.

For many academics, students, and professionals, the field of commodities is a black box. This book explores commodities in a holistic manner, presenting concepts from a multidisciplinary business and financial perspective, and offering a panoramic view of the global commodity business and markets. In this book, the author presents core issues related to global commodities with recent data including COVID-19. The book introduces the key physical commodities traded globally and some related issues such as the global supply chain, global trading, transportation, storage, and how to finance global commodity trades. Then, it discusses how global commodity businesses and traders manage global risks related to commodity production (generation or extraction), transportation, storage, the final delivery, and currency exchange. Additionally, the book discusses financial commodities, the origins of global commodity derivatives and exchanges, the rationale behind the birth of commodity futures and trading, hedging, speculation, financialization, and manipulation of commodity markets, and how financial trading is executed in real life. In the last section, the author also discusses sustainability issues related to global commodities and the financial valuation aspects of the global commodity businesses supported by examples from real cases with recent data.

This timely book addresses the effects and implications of rapid technological changes within the financial services industry on Islamic finance and Islamic banks. Exploring current challenges, opportunities and threats, the authors provide an overview of how FinTech can operate within an Islamic context, under the Shari'ah principles or the Halal framework, for example. Examining the potential opportunities of Islamic FinTech from a socio-economic perspective, this edited collection will be of use to anyone researching FinTech or Islamic Finance as well as practitioners and policy-makers involved in banking and financial services.

This book presents new methodologies for rating non-financial issuers and project ratings based on the BFO (Brusov-Filatova-Orekhova) theory of capital cost and structure, and its perpetuity limit (Modigliani-Miller theory), as well as modern investment models created by the authors. It first provides a critical analysis of the methodological and systemic shortcomings of the current credit ratings of non-financial issuers and project ratings. In order to increase the objectivity and accuracy of rating assessments, it then modifies the BFO theory for companies of arbitrary age as well as and the perpetuity limit (Modigliani-Miller theory) for rating needs. The authors also incorporate the financial indicators used in the rating methodology into both the BFO theory and the Modigliani-Miller theory. Within the framework of the modified BFO theory for rating needs, they then present a detailed study of the dependence of the weighted average cost of capital of WACC, used as the discount rate for discounting financial flows, on the financial ratios used in the rating, on the age of the company, on the leverage level and on the level of taxation for a wide range of values of equity cost and debt cost for companies of arbitrary age. This makes it possible to correctly assess of the discount rate, taking into account the values of financial ratios. The use of well-established corporate finance theories (BFO theory and its perpetuity limit) opens up new horizons in the rating industry, providing an opportunity to switch from mainly qualitative methods for determining the creditworthiness of issuers to mainly quantitative methods in rating, and as such improving the quality and accuracy of rating scores.

The banking and financial landscape has been inundated with technology over the last decade, with FinTech, InsurTech and RegTech being just some of the new applications within finance. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), FinTech is yet to find its feet despite several digital transformation drives initiated by the regional governments in the UAE and Bahrain. In comparison to conventional finance, the use of FinTech within Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) in GCC countries is still in its very early stages. However, the potential disruption that technology may cause for the Islamic finance sector within this region cannot be underestimated. Aiming to highlight, examine and address key strategic, operational and regulatory issues facing IFIs as they make an effort to keep up with the FinTech revolution, this book explores the market positioning, product structure and placement, delivery channels and customer requirements within the GCC market. The authors evaluate the current situation and look forward to future regulation surrounding technology and financial institutions within the GCC. Scholars and students researching Islamic finance and financial technology will find this book an insightful and valuable read, as well as those interested in international finance more generally.

This book provides a digestible step-by-step guide to reading corporate financial reports, drawing upon real-life case studies and examples of corporate collapses and accounting scandals, and applying practical tools to financial statement analysis. Appealing to a range of practitioners within corporate finance including investors, managers, and business analysts, this book is the first to specifically address the challenges facing those who are not professional accountants and auditors when examining corporate financial reports. Corporate financial reports are used widely by managers, investors, creditors, and government agencies to examine company performance and evaluate potential risks. However, although seemingly an invaluable source of information for managerial decision-making, financial reports are often based on rough simplifications of a very complex reality. With no way of avoiding deliberate manipulations and fraudulent activity, these statements cannot be relied on completely when selecting stocks or evaluating credit risk, and therefore poor analysis can lead to potentially disastrous investment decisions. The author suggests that in order to effectively interpret corporate financial reports, we must 'read between the lines' to accurately assess a company's economic performance and predict its long-term viability.

This open access volume of the AIDA Europe Research Series on Insurance Law and Regulation offers the first comprehensive legal and regulatory analysis of the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD). The IDD came into force on 1 October 2018 and regulates the distribution of insurance products in the EU. The book examines the main changes accompanying the IDD and analyses its impact on insurance distributors, i.e., insurance intermediaries and insurance undertakings, as well as the market. Drawing on interrelations between the rules of the Directive and other fields that are relevant to the distribution of insurance products, it explores various topics related to the interpretation of the IDD - e.g. the harmonization achieved under it; its role as a benchmark for national legislators; and its interplay with other regulations and sciences - while also providing an empirical analysis of the standardised pre-contractual information document. Accordingly, the book offers a wealth of valuable insights for academics, regulators, practitioners and students who are interested in issues concerning insurance distribution.

This book tells the untold story of how JPMorgan became a universal bank in the 1980s-1990s and the events leading to it being acquired by Chase in 2000. It depicts the challenges Morgan's leaders - Lew Preston and Dennis Weatherstone - confronted when the firm's business model was disrupted by the developing country debt crisis and premier corporate borrowers increasingly accessing capital markets, up to its current management with Jamie Dimon. It depicts what happened to Morgan in the larger story of U.S. banking consolidation. As Morgan sought to re-enter the world of securities and navigate around Glass-Steagall barriers, their overriding goal was to ensure it would remain a pre-eminent wholesale bank serving multinational corporations. Opportunities to grow through acquisition were presented and considered, including purchasing a stake in Citibank in the early 1990s. However, Preston and Weatherstone were reluctant to integrate areas unfamiliar to Morgan such as retail banking or to assimilate cultures that were disparate from the firm's. This first-hand account explores whether Morgan could have stayed independent had its leaders pursued the strategic plan that called for it to make targeted acquisitions in areas where it had well-established businesses. Instead, in the mid-1990s, it went from being the hunter to the hunted. Rival banks that had been burdened by bad loans to developing countries and commercial real estate capitalized on rising share prices during the tech boom to acquire other institutions. Meanwhile, Morgan's profits and share price lagged, which left it vulnerable. During this time, all of the leading financial institutions struggled to change their business models. In the end, no U.S. money center bank was able to become a universal bank on its own. What ensued was a growing concentration of financial assets in a handful of institutions that was the precursor to the 2008 financial crisis, which is explored further using Morgan as a lens, in a book that is sure to interest banking and Wall Street professionals and business readers alike.