This book provides a comprehensive and practical guide to Islamic finance. It covers a broad range of important topics including Islamic banking, capital markets, Takaful, wealth management, Fintech in Islamic finance, compliance and governance issues. It begins by introducing Islamic banking, covering its objectives, principles and evolution, before moving on to discuss the religious foundations of Islamic finance. The prohibition of Riba and Gharar and Islamic contracts are explored, before Islamic deposits, and financing are discussed in practice. A comparative analysis is provided between Islamic banking products and services in a range of counties throughout the world. Information technology including fintech, payment and settlement networks, opportunities and challenges are also addressed. Corporate governance, Islamic capital markets, and Islamic insurance (Takaful) are all explored, before concluding with a chapter on wealth management and Islamic investment funds. It features case studies based on the authors' own experiences consulting with Islamic financial institutions. Ideal for those looking to improve their understanding of practical Islamic financing models, contracts, product structures and product features, this book will appeal to both students and practitioners in Islamic finance and banking, those based in Islamic financial institutions, and those based in conventional financial institutions who may be looking to enter the Islamic financial market.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Waqf management and its impact on socio-economic development, specifically financial inclusion and sustainable development as well as of the legal issues in Waqf management in IsDB member countries and jurisdictions. It explores various aspects of Waqf management in IsDB member countries/jurisdictions as well as in non-Muslim majority countries such as Waqf regulation, its modernization, and relationship to Maqasid Al-Shari'ah; performance of Waqf activities; time and activity-wise distribution of Waqf resource management; the antecedents and consequences of Waqf assets (both physical and cash); the strategies and models to promote Waqf related activities for greater socio-economic development; good governance practices through the formulation of informed policies for Waqf projects, among others. Comprising different issues and perspectives adopted by various researchers, the work is specifically designed to meet the needs of academics and industry practitioners in the field of Islamic finance.

Our planet faces a systemic threat from climate change, which the world community of nations is ill-prepared to address, and this book argues that a new form of ecologically conscious capitalism is needed in order to tackle this serious and rising threat. While the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 has finally implemented a global climate policy regime, its modest means belie its ambitious goals. Our institutional financial organizations are not equipped to deal with the problems that any credible commitment to a low-carbon economy will have to confront. We will have to go beyond cap-and-trade schemes and limited carbon taxes to cut greenhouse gas emissions substantially in due time. This book offers a way forward toward that goal, with a conceptual framework that brings environmental preservation back into our macro-economic growth and forecasting models. This framework obliges firms to consider other goals beyond shareholder value maximization, outlining the principal tenets of a climate-friendly finance and introducing a new type of money linked to climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Introduction to the Theories and Varieties of Modern Crime in Financial Markets explores statistical methods and data mining techniques that, if used correctly, can help with crime detection and prevention. The three sections of the book present the methods, techniques, and approaches for recognizing, analyzing, and ultimately detecting and preventing financial frauds, especially complex and sophisticated crimes that characterize modern financial markets. The first two sections appeal to readers with technical backgrounds, describing data analysis and ways to manipulate markets and commit crimes. The third section gives life to the information through a series of interviews with bankers, regulators, lawyers, investigators, rogue traders, and others. The book is sharply focused on analyzing the origin of a crime from an economic perspective, showing Big Data in action, noting both the pros and cons of this approach.

The growth of Islamic finance today is significant, making it timely to meet the market demand across the world and particularly for Muslim countries by producing a cryptocurrency model under the Shari'ah ethical principles. This book addresses core components of cryptocurrency within the Maqasid al-Shari'ah in enabling students, academics, users, traders, issuers, promoters, facilitators, managers, regulators, decision makers, blockchain technology providers, financial authorities, and other relevant professionals to understand Shari'ah cryptocurrency and its practical mechanisms. Among the issues covered are corporate understanding, global phenomena and world view, the Shari'ah model, SWOT analysis, innovation, conventional practices and the Halaldichotomy, regulatory standards, blockchain and its technological paradigm, practicality, establishment, and operational mechanisms, Zakat and Waqf through cryptocurrency, risk factors, and takaful solution. This book establishes a Halal alternative model of cryptocurrency management within the Maqasid al-Shari'ah to meet the contemporary global market demand.

This book explores the formation, development, and characteristics of modern China's finance, focusing especially on Guangdong province as a case study to illustrate both the macro-level trends and the micro-level reality. The chronological range of this book is mainly from the late Qing period to the early Republican Era ending in 1937, when the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. After the concept of modern finance was introduced to China for the first time in the late Qing period, the efforts to build modern finance continued in the Republican Era both nationally and locally. But this process was interrupted by the outbreak of the war against Japan in 1937 and, having been derailed, did not subsequently recover due to the subsequent civil war between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. This interrupted process of financial modernization was resumed with Reform and Opening-up, launched in 1978. Therefore, in order to illustrate the structural transformation and persistent characteristics of China's fiscal system, this book also includes discussions of the early Qing period and current Chinese finance.

This book is the first of two volumes that aim to provide an up-to-date overview of the key data and techniques necessary for analysing the historical behaviour of business and financial cycles in the United Kingdom. Drawing on an extensive secondary literature and the considerable body of historical macroeconomic and financial time series data that exist for the United Kingdom, the two volumes will review the key features of historical recessions and recoveries over the course of three and a half centuries. Volume 1 provides an overview of UK business cycles since 1660. The first part of the book considers old and new theories of the business cycle, looking at the impulses that generate business cycles and the propagation mechanisms that determine their duration and amplitude. The second part of the book uses the latest historical estimates of GDP to look at different ways of measuring and estimating business cycle fluctuations within a simple univariate framework. Finally, the book provides a narrative of UK economic fluctuations since 1660 using a whole range of economic data to shed light on the main drivers of cyclical behaviour. It concludes by highlighting areas for future research especially with regard to the link between business and financial cycles, some of which will be explored in Volume 2.

Learn how to create and profit from NFTs The NFT Handbook is a detailed guide on how to create, sell and buy non-fungible tokens without the need for a technical background. Learn exactly what NFTs are, how they evolved, and why they have value. We'll delve into the different types and aspects of NFTs and discuss the different NFT marketplaces and the pros and cons of each. Create Your Own NFTs Step by step instructions on all aspects of NFT creation, including what types of content to use, where to source content, adding artistic design, writing the NFT's description, adding optional unlockable content and setting an optional ongoing royalty. Mint Your NFTs You'll learn the process of how to get your NFTs on the blockchain. Sell Your NFTs We'll go through the whole process including creating a collection, and the different options such as setting a price or starting an auction. Buy NFTs What you'll need to bid on and purchase NFTs, and how to avoid getting scammed. You'll also get a primer on blockchain, particularly the Ethereum cryptocurrency and "gas" fees. You'll also be shown step by step how to create, secure and fund your own cryptocurrency wallet, where you'll store your NFTs and cryptocurrency. Whether you're experienced with the blockchain and crypto or a complete noob (beginner), The NFT Handbook will guide you in the process of creating, minting, selling and buying NFTs.

This Palgrave Pivot innovatively combines new methods and approaches to building dynamic trading systems to forecast future price direction in today's increasingly difficult and volatile financial markets. The primary purpose of this book is to provide a structured course for building robust algorithmic trading models that forecast future price direction. Chan provides insider information and insights on trading strategies; her knowledge and experience has been gained over two decades as a trader in foreign exchange, stock and derivatives markets. She guides the reader to build, evaluate, and test the predictive ability and the profitability of abnormal returns of new hybrid forecasting models.

This book discusses the relationship between financial liberalization, financial deepening and economic performance from both a theoretical and a policy perspective, comparing several 'big' emerging countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and India, amongst others.

Incorporating currencies, payment methods, and protocols that computers use to talk to each other, digital currencies are poised to grow in use and importance. The Handbook of Digital Currency gives readers a way to learn about subjects outside their specialties and provides authoritative background and tools for those whose primary source of information is journal articles. Taking a cross-country perspective, its comprehensive view of the field includes history, technicality, IT, finance, economics, legal, tax and regulatory environment. For those who come from different backgrounds with different questions in mind, The Handbook of Digital Currency is an essential starting point.

The COVID-19 global health pandemic, which started in late December 2019, forced many countries to adopt unusual measures such as social distancing and strict lockdowns. It changed many of our certainties and practices, including the foundations of the market-led version of capitalism, by bringing social and health considerations back to the forefront of firms' considerations, investors' strategies and governments' priorities. Under the effects of this unprecedented crisis, all sectors of finance and real economy have been seriously affected.Health uncertainties and their increasing consequences for human life and activities require stronger and faster actions to shape pathways towards sustainability and better resilience. The COVID-19 health crisis is a visible part of a greater iceberg: the World Health Organization has tracked, over recent years, a large number of epidemic events around the world, suggesting that many other similar diseases could appear and evolve in the future from epidemic to pandemic in a globalized world.Financial Transformations Beyond the COVID-19 Health Crisis was specifically designed to provide the readers with new results, recent findings and future outlook on the impacts of COVID-19 on financial markets, firm behaviors, and finance and investment strategies. It favors multidimensional perspectives and brings together conceptual, empirical and policy-oriented chapters, using quantitative and qualitative methods alike. This is a timely and comprehensive collection of theoretical, empirical and policy contributions from renowned scholars around the world, and provides the thoughts and insights required to rethink the financial sector in the event of new shocks of the same nature.

This self-contained module for independent study covers the subjects most often needed by non-mathematics graduates, such as fundamental calculus, linear algebra, probability, and basic numerical methods. The easily-understandable text of Introduction to Actuarial and Mathematical Methods features examples, motivations, and lots of practice from a large number of end-of-chapter questions. For readers with diverse backgrounds entering programs of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries, and the CFA Institute, Introduction to Actuarial and Mathematical Methods can provide a consistency of mathematical knowledge from the outset.

Among international financial centres (IFCs), London is known as the 'Western hub of Islamic Finance', on account of its well-developed legal infrastructure. However, Brexit has threatened London's status and consequently, the financial services industry is moving to Dublin to continue operating in the Euro region. Similarly, Islamic finance (IF) service providers in the UK are also looking to Dublin for expansion of this niche area in euro member states. This is the first book to be written about Islamic finance operations in the Eurozone. The book offers an in-depth description of International Financial Centres and the growth of Islamic Finance, compares the growth of Islamic finance in London, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, outlines the implications of Brexit for financial service providers in London in general and Islamic investors in particular and also presents a case study of Ireland to establish the latter as the most appropriate country to promote IF in the Eurozone. The time is particularly right for a book exploring the potential of Ireland to emerge as a Eurozone hub of Islamic finance, as a result of Britain's exit from Europe. The book will cater to the needs of readers studying IF in the disciplines of economics, business, law, and religion. A secondary market includes practitioners, such as policymakers, lawyers, fund managers, accountants, regulators and international investors, who will be interested in exploring the benefits that the UK and Ireland have to offer the Islamic finance industry.

The Anti-Bubbles is a contrarian framework that challenges the status quo and complacency of Global Markets towards the false belief/misconception that central banks and governments are infallible and in full control. A forward-looking analysis of the opportunities, risks, and unintended consequences associated with testing the limits of monetary policy, testing the limits of credit markets, and testing the limits of fiat currencies. This book presents both sides of the story, including Larry Summer's "prudent imprudence for fiscal expansion", George Soros' "reflexivity theory applied to monetary policy", Mohamed El-Erians "T-juction and diplomatic neutrality", along the "Lehman Squared" and "Golds Perfect Storm" investment theses, and coins innovative ideas such as "anti-bubbles", "the acronyms", or "monetary supercycle", which join a series of innovative concepts such as "The Flattening of the Energy World", "The Energy Broadband", or "The Battle for Supply", from Diegos first book.

In The Financial Crisis Reconsidered, Aronoff challenges the conventional view that reckless credit produced the US housing boom and the financial crisis, explaining how the large current account deficit, and its mercantilist origin, was a more fundamental cause. He also demonstrates that the decision to provide relief for bank creditors rather than underwater homeowners was responsible for the prolonged recession that followed the crisis. Aronoff proposes a novel theory to account for the ultimate origins of secular stagnation and economic volatility. He shows how accumulation, which occurs when a person or country earns more than it ever plans to spend, generates both an excess of saving and a deficiency in demand. While savings provide the funds to promote booms, under-consumption ensures that these booms will turn bust and that the economy will fall short of its potential growth rate. Aronoff argues that mercantilists and top income earners engage in accumulation, and that the influence of both types has grown in recent decades. Combining economic theory and historical narrative, this book offers a new perspective of the housing boom and the financial crisis, concluding with innovative policy proposals to reduce accumulation without compromising the benefits of a market economy.

The Funding Is Out There! Access the Cash You Need to Impact Your Business provides more than thirty in-depth yet succinct case study examples of what actual business owners have done to raise capital to grow their businesses-covering not just what is available but the "how to" to obtain it, what works best, and why for a particular business type. Including everything from pursuing business-friendly community banks and forming strategic alliances to tapping supplier financing and using crowd funding (both donation and equity-based), it shows business owners how to raise the capital they need to grow their businesses. Most small and medium businesses are unaware of the variety of financing sources that exist for their business types or they are unprepared to meet the requirements from a relationship and financial packaging perspective. The Funding Is Out There! shows business owners how to do just that. Owners of mom-and-pop businesses, small businesses, and growing businesses with millions in revenues will tap: * Information that increases their odds of obtaining the financing they need to grow their businesses * Step-by-step options based on their business type * Options for each stage of growth * Advice that enables them to optimize their banking relationships The Funding Is Out There! shows business owners how to get the capital they need to flourish in today's competitive operating environments. Learn how to lay the financial framework to create a viable, sustainable business to sell or pass on!

This book collects important contributions in behavioral economics and related topics, mainly by Japanese researchers, to provide new perspectives for the future development of economics and behavioral economics. The volume focuses especially on economic studies that examine interactions of multiple agents and/or market phenomena by using behavioral economics models. Reflecting the diverse fields of the editors, the book captures broad influences of behavioral economics on various topics in economics. Those subjects include parental altruism, economic growth and development, the relative and permanent income hypotheses, wealth distribution, asset price bubbles, auctions, search, contracts, personnel management and market efficiency and anomalies in financial markets. The chapter authors have added newly written addenda to the original articles in which they address their own subsequent works, supplementary analyses, detailed information on the underlying data and/or recent literature surveys. This will help readers to further understand recent developments in behavioral economics and related research.

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.

Focuses on the theoretical foundation of Islamic financial market instruments. Gives a detailed description of the different components of Islamic capital markets, namely Equity, Debt, and Derivatives. Assesses the path covered by Islamic finance to date but also its emerging dimensions and direction.

This book concentrates on one of the most important directions for research on banking and finance for the next decade: the problem of information and risk management. Recent theoretical and empirical contributions consider asymmetric information between investors and financiers as a major determinant of financial risk. In this framwork, financial and banking innovation may be regarded as policy and individual agents' response to the problem of asymmetric information and risk management and also as a self-generated innovation process posing new challenges to policymakers in terms of informational efficiency and risk control.

Recent years have witnessed massive development in both the venture capital market and in academic research relating to this market. The aims of this timely collection are to identify leading contributions to this developing area from the past two decades; to reflect the growing multi-disciplinarity of research on venture capital; and to highlight the need to recognize international differences in venture capital markets. The editors have written an authoritative overview, signaling where venture capital research has come and where it is going. This is a vital collection of writings for those wanting to become familiar with venture capital research.

Since the recent international crises, the role and significance of international financial institutions (IFI) have been challenged. Some have argued that global financial institutions are inadequate and inefficient in performing their missions, and may be replaced by modern institutions with inclusive governance and a goal-focused approach. International Financial Institutions and Their Challenges analyzes the claimed purposes of IFIs and their failures, and proposes solutions for the future. This comprehensive account is the first book of its kind to give readers an exhaustive overview of key IFI's from the International Monetary Fund to the Islamic Development Bank. By encouraging readers to think outside the box, Lessambo enhances the current and future debates on IFIs. The book brings readers to the real challenges of international finance, and appeals to scholars in economics, finance, international studies, government studies, law, and political science, as well as professionals in finance, development experts, and employees at NGOs.