Search

After over a decade of crisis, the ECB's functions have expanded considerably, which in turn altered its relationship with other institutions. In particular, when the ECB assumed the role of Banking Supervisor under the Single Supervisory Mechanisms, it was generally accepted that this role would require more accountability than its traditional role in monetary policy. Yet, accountability requires transparency. However, there is a dearth of studies on the transparency of European banking supervision, and the few that exist are usually single case studies. This leaves us without a point of comparison that would help us understand what constitutes a 'transparent banking supervisor'. Therefore, the aim of this article is to situate the transparency of the ECB within the wider literature on the transparency of banking supervisors. This allows us to pinpoint more precisely its strengths and shortcomings and the potential for reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed at studying the recycling of shredded currency waste of The Egyptian Central Bank, ECB, in the form of good-quality products. The techniques used include soaking with chemicals, screening to separate the detached ink particles from the soaking step, pulping at high temperature, screening to separate large nylon pieces and small ink particles, flotation to separate large ink particles and small pieces of nylon and bleaching as the final step to increase the whiteness of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Saudi government's refusal to introduce paper currency until 1956 against the backdrop of two developments: First, the composition of a number of treatises written by Muslim scholars in the late Ottoman and early Saudi Hijaz and Najd permitting use of the medium; second, the unsuccessful effort by several Muslim entrepreneurs to create formal banking facilities in the Hijaz between the 1920s and 1950s. Throughout these decades, as the Saudi regime repeatedly claimed that paper currency violated Islamic orthodoxy because it was a bearer of interest, these scholars argued forcefully for the medium's legitimacy by mobilizing the legal sources of their particular school of law (madhhab). This contrast reflects how the religious politics of the kingdom departed from both Ottoman precedents and other contemporary Islamic contexts in which paper currency was widely assimilated via the assent of Muslim legal scholars. The regime's tepid support for, or outright obstruction of, the creation of formal banking facilities that issued paper currency further exacerbated this divergence. In the end, because of such inconsistency it required technocratic institutions like the IMF and ARAMCO to introduce paper currency and a formal banking system into the kingdom from the mid-1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objetivo: Identificar evidencia de la relevancia de la estructura de capital y de las principales estrategias bancarias para la maximización del valor en los bancos. Metodología: Se trata de una investigación empírica-analítica, descriptiva, con un enfoque cuantitativo. Los datos longitudinales se obtuvieron de la base de datos Economatica® entre el primer trimestre de 2008 y el cuarto trimestre de 2018. Se realizaron pruebas de regresión lineal con datos de panel (panel data). Principales resultados: Existe evidencia de la relevancia de la estructura de capital y la influencia de estrategias bancarias para la rentabilidad de los bancos medida con base en ROICAJUSTADO. Relevancia y originalidad: La actualidad, relevancia y la discusión crítica inevitable sobre el tema despiertan el interés del ámbito académico por la investigación dirigida al análisis crítico de la relevancia de la estructura de capital y las estrategias operativas para la maximización del valor. Contribuciones teóricas: Proporciona el inevitable debate académico sobre la relevancia de la estructura de capital y las principales estrategias bancarias para la maximización del valor en los principales bancos brasileños cotizados en la bolsa. Contribuciones sociales: Contribuye al processo de toma de decisiones de gestores, inversores, analistas financieros y organismos reguladores del sector al abordar la relevancia de la estructura de capital para los bancos, los riesgos y costos involucrados, los principales aspectos que incentivan niveles elevados de apalancamiento financiero y factores determinantes para la rentabilidad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archives in financial institutions can often appear detached from reality, less relevant in reporting political facts and the documents mostly reveal redundant financial details. Yet financial institutions hold reliable primary information and their files contain insights of international historical relevance. Through the analysis of documents kept at the historical archive of the the Italian Bank for China (now in Archivio Storico UniCredit) it is possible to contextualize the bank's activity in the first half of the twentieth century in relation to historical facts of the first republic, China. In this article, the author unveils how the Banca Italiana per la Cina was involved in financial and political events concerning the Chinese and Italian governments. In the documents and correspondence written by the bank's management the facts are described with real perception of the situations. They reveal, using reliable sources, significant aspects regarding Sino-Italian relations during that historical period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study provides a bibliometric analysis of bank efficiency and competition over the past years (from 1993 to 2022) to (1) discover the past and current state of knowledge on bank competition and efficiency, (2) identify leading and authoritative journals and scholars who made significant contributions to the distribution of knowledge and impact, (3) identify nations that made a significant contribution and impact to the literature and (4) identify the structure of collaboration that exists between scholars in the areas of bank competition and efficiency and key thematic areas. Design/methodology/approach: A total number of 868 documents made up of articles, reviews, book chapters, book and conference papers from the Scopus database were gathered. This study used a bibliometric analytic approach. Findings: The number of documents on bank competitiveness and efficiency has increased significantly, as have their total publications, citations and national output. Additionally, the most esteemed and prestigious academic journals of eminent academics who have had a significant impact on the dissemination of knowledge on bank efficiency and competition literature champion papers on banking efficiency and competition. In terms of citation performance and collaborative efforts, the United States tops the developed countries, led by China, which is also the most productive. Additionally, single-country publications predominate in the literature, with China ranking first among the top five countries with corresponding authors. While the Lerner index, H-statistic, concentration index and market power were used to measure bank competitive behaviour, the data envelopment analysis approach predominates efficiency estimation techniques that are linked to cost, profit or revenue, scale, technical and productivity indexes. Originality/value: This study is one of the first to offer bibliometric evidence of both bank competition and efficiency. It also offers proof of the distribution of knowledge and intellectual structure of the concepts and concerns in bank competition and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central banks and finance ministries have been faced with growing calls for better monetary-fiscal coordination in recent years as the solution to an array of macroeconomic policy problems, promoted by an ever-wider range of stakeholders. Yet, how can the silver-bullet solution of coordination be expected to play out across very different political-economic contexts? This paper sheds light on this question by introducing a novel typology of monetary-fiscal coordination that can help us make sense of formal and informal coordination efforts in the post-2008 era. It zooms in on a peculiar but key aspect which monetary and fiscal authorities have sought to achieve coordination on: The fiscal backing of central banks' balance sheets to insure monetary policy against losses and 'insolvency'. To understand central bankers' aversion towards loss-making despite their ability to create currency, the paper develops a political economy account which emphasizes policy-makers' interpretations of their own independence and their desire for fiscal protection, in contrast to traditional accounts of delegation that treat independent agents as discretion-seekers and power-maximizers. The typology is illustrated with case studies of the European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan between 2008 and 2023, each representing a different type of monetary-fiscal coordination post-crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic and international risk shocks have greatly increased the demand for systemic risk management in China. This paper estimates China's multi-layer financial network based on multiple financial relationships among banks, assets, and firms, using China's banking system data in 2021. An improved PageRank algorithm is proposed to identify systemically important banks and other economic sectors, and a stress test is conducted. This study finds that China's multi-layer financial network is sparse, and the distribution of transactions across financial markets is uneven. Regulatory authorities should support economic recovery and adjust the money supply, while banks should differentiate competition and manage risks better. Based on the PageRank index, this paper assesses the systemic importance of large commercial banks from the perspective of network structure, emphasizing the role of banks' transaction behavior and market participation. Different industries and asset classes are also assessed, suggesting that increased attention should be paid to industry risks and regulatory oversight of bank investments. Finally, stress tests confirm that the improved PageRank algorithm is applicable within the multi-layer financial network, reinforcing the need for prudential supervision of the banking system and revealing that the degree of transaction concentration will affect the systemic importance of financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paying activity, regardless of its form, is part of a separate chapter, which we consider to be very interesting, because it always leads to something constructive, because it always leads to something constructive, because it induces satisfying some needs, finalizing some steps, have found the solution but also (sometimes) the redemption of mistakes. Every man or business representative, when making a payment has some particular feelings, because the feeling of resource shrinking appears, and the human being is sensitive by nature to such facts. At the same time, payments are very serious, and the higher the amounts spent, the more they reach the most distant places on the planet, the more it involve the intervention of several different factors of management, financial accounting, banking, taxesauthorities, IT, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective allocation of limited resources and the establishment of targeted goals play a pivotal role in enhancing the overall efficiency of large enterprises and organizations. To achieve optimal organizational efficiency, managers seek dynamic strategies that adapt to the constraints of limited and uncertain historical data. This paper introduces an evaluation of organizational efficiency through a stochastic framework, employing a bilevel data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. This decision-making process is centralized within a decision-making unit (DMU) overseeing subordinate decision-making units (subDMUs). Discrete scenarios, each associated with a realization probability, define the uncertain parameters in the bilevel DEA-based model. This stochastic approach allows for recourse actions upon scenario realization leading to an enhanced overall organizational strategy. Decision-makers acting within uncertain and dynamic environments can benefit from this research since it allows the investigation of efficiency assessment under alternative scenarios in the presence of volatility and risk. The potential impact of applying this methodology varies depending on the specific domain. Although, the context of this paper focuses on banking, in general, enhancing resource allocation and target setting under stochasticity, contributes to advancing sustainability across all its three dimensions (economic, environmental, social). As mentioned earlier, the practical application of our approach is demonstrated via a case study in the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the digital economy continues to deepen its development, and it has become a consensus among all sectors as the direction of global future development. Digital finance, as a fleet in the wave of digital economy, is rapidly heading towards the sunny shore of benefiting the public and serving entities driven by the digital technology engine. Xinwang Bank is a fast boat in the digital finance fleet, always adhering to the principle of technology, building an open platform, and actively promoting the construction of an open, shared, and secure digital credit ecosystem from three levels: institutional, industry, and ecological, to assist in the development of the digital economy. The digital commercial bank security evaluation is a classical multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems. Recently, the Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method has been employed to manage MAGDM issues. The intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) are used as a tool for portraying uncertain information during the digital commercial bank security evaluation. In this paper, the intuitionistic fuzzy nunmber EDAS (IFN-EDAS) method is cultivated to manage the MAGDM based on Hamming distance and Euclidean distance under IFSs. In the end, a numerical case study for digital commercial bank security evaluation is supplied to validate the proposed method. The main contributions of this paper are outlined: (1) the EDAS method has been extended to IFSs based on Hamming distance and Euclidean distance; (2) the CRITIC method is used to derive weight based on Hamming distance and Euclidean distance under IFSs. (3) the IFN-EDAS method based on Hamming distance and Euclidean distance is founded to manage the MAGDM based on the Hamming distance and Euclidean distance under IFSs; (4) a numerical case study for digital commercial bank security evaluation and some comparative analysis is supplied to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green credit is changing industrial structure and corporate behavior, but little attention has been paid to the relationship between green credit and corporate cash management behavior. Based on the typical fact that the allocation of traditional bank credit funds is biased towards heavily polluting industries and the exogenous impact event of green credit policy, this paper takes A-share listed companies in China's capital market from 2008 to 2015 as samples, and uses the DID model to investigate the impact of green credit policy on excess cash holdings of heavily polluting enterprises. The findings indicate that the green credit policy has reduced the excessive cash holdings of heavily polluting enterprises, suggesting that it can correct the issue and align their cash holdings with the requirements of normal production and operations. The mechanism test demonstrates that the green credit policy can alleviate agency conflicts and influence enterprise cash holdings. Moreover, a cross-sectional investigation reveals that the inhibitory effect of the green credit policy on cash holdings is more pronounced in large-scale and state-owned enterprises compared to small-scale and non-state-owned enterprises. Finally, an analysis of the economic consequences reveals that the green credit policy indirectly enhances corporate value by reducing excessive cash holdings. Based on this, banks and financial institutions continue to treat the credit granting of heavily polluting enterprises cautiously, optimize the structure of green financial products, fully consider the different types and nature of customers, and develop differentiated lending conditions and diversified evaluation mechanisms. This paper has enriched the research on the economic consequences of green credit and the influencing factors of corporate cash holdings, and provided policy enlightenment for regulators and listed companies to correctly understand and make full use of green credit policies to keep corporate cash stable through the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enhance market share and competitiveness, large banks are increasingly focusing on promoting marketing strategies. However, the traditional bank marketing strategy often leads to the homogenization of customer demand, making it challenging to distinguish among various products. To address this issue, this paper presents a customer demand learning model based on financial datasets and optimizes the distribution model of bank big data channels through induction to rectify the imbalance in bank customer transaction data. By comparing the prediction models of random forest model and support vector machine (SVM), this paper analyzes the ability of the prediction model based on ensemble learning to significantly enhance the market segmentation of e-commerce banks. The empirical results reveal that the accuracy of random forest model reaches 92%, while the accuracy of SVM model reaches 87%. This indicates that the ensemble learning model has higher accuracy and forecasting ability than the single model. It enables the bank marketing system to implement targeted marketing, effectively maintain the relationship between customers and banks, and significantly improve the success probability of product marketing. Meanwhile, the marketing model based on ensemble learning has achieved a sales growth rate of 20% and improved customer satisfaction by 30%. This demonstrates that the implementation of the ensemble learning model has also significantly elevated the overall marketing level of bank e-commerce services. Therefore, this paper offers valuable academic guidance for bank marketing decision-making and holds important academic and practical significance in predicting bank customer demand and optimizing product marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper sheds light on the impact of market risk measures on systemic risk. Market risk, which is captured by the volatility of stock market returns, is also decomposed into systematic and idiosyncratic risks. Design/methodology/approach: The author uses the five-factor asset pricing model and systemic risk methodologies to derive market and systemic risk measures, respectively. Using a sample of 2,667 US banks for over 30 years and employing panel data estimation techniques, the author tests the said relationship. Findings: It is shown that idiosyncratic risk can surge systemic risk, while systematic risk plays a less important role. Results survive a battery of tests, including different systemic risk measures, controlling causality and interacting with bank size, market fear and crisis periods. Practical implications: These findings call for regulatory intervention, especially for large banks with high idiosyncratic risk. Originality/value: This is the first paper that provides a more granular picture of the relationship between market and systemic risk from the US banking industry for more than 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate commercial bank branches' performance in dynamic and competitive conditions where decision-making units (DMUs) seek a greater proportion of shared resources as it happens in the real world. By introducing the concepts of cross-shared and serial-shared resources, the authors have emphasized the role of evaluation results of past periods on branches' total efficiency. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, a new mixed-integer data envelopment analysis (MI-DEA) model has been proposed to evaluate the performance of a dynamic network in the presence of cross-shared and serial-shared resources. Findings: The proposed model helps bank managers to find the source of inefficiencies and establish a connection between the results of the periodic performance of the DMUs and the distribution of serial and cross-shared resources. The results show that the weighting coefficients of the periods do not significantly affect the overall efficiency of commercial bank branches, unlike desirable and undesirable intermediates. Originality/value: This paper presents the following factors: (1) A new mixed-integer network data envelopment analysis model is developed under dynamic competitive conditions. (2) For the first time in DEA models, the concept of cross-shared resources is proposed to consider shared resources between DMUs. (3) All controllable, uncontrollable, desirable and undesirable outputs in the model are considered with the possibility to transfer to the next periods. (4) A case study is given for the performance evaluation of 38 branches of an Iranian commercial bank from 2016 to 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the assessment method based on machine learning, especially the ensemble learning method, has attracted more and more attention in the field of credit assessment. However, most of the ensemble assessment models are complex in structure and costly in time for parameter tuning, few of them break through the limitations of lightweight, universal and efficient. This paper present a new ensemble model for personal credit assessment. First, considering the conflicts and differences among multiple sources of information, a new method is proposed to correct the category prior information by using the difference measure. Then, the revised prior information is fused with the current sample information with the help of Bayesian data fusion theory. The model can integrate the advantages of multiple benchmark classifiers to reduce the interference of uncertain information. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed model, several typical ensemble classification models are selected and empirically studied using real customer credit data from a commercial bank in China, and the results show that among various assessment criteria: the proposed model not only effectively improves the multi-class classification performance, but also outperforms other advanced multi-class classification credit assessment models in terms of parameter tuning and generalizability. This paper supports commercial banks and other financial institutions examination and approval work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the technology acceptance model (TAM) and structural equation modeling (SEM) might be used to assess customer acceptance of financial apps aiming at paving the road for enabling a cashless society in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Design/methodology/approach: Using a convenience sample of 600 users of the BenefitPay app in the Kingdom of Bahrain, this study used the quantitative research approach to obtain 427 usable responses. Following a descriptive study to establish a framework for the data and a subsequent inferential analysis using SEM with confirmatory factor analysis, the research hypotheses were tested. Findings: The results of this study back up what is claimed in the TAM theory literature, which shows that banking customers in the Kingdom of Bahrain who use e-payment methods are more likely to use BenefitPay if it is both easy to use and useful. BenefitPay systems behavioral intention to use was also highly influenced by aspects like ease of use and usefulness, which enable the development of cashless societies. Research limitations/implications: This research work contribution is described through exploring how a cashless society is developed using electronic apps by studying the case of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Kingdom of Bahrain is unique, and hence the knowledge obtained from studying it cannot be applied mechanically to any other nation. Instead, the paper seeks to explain the motivations behind Bahrain's move toward a cashless society, to analyze the difficulties and potential benefits of this transition and to spark much-needed conversations on how having less cash or none would affect the economies. Bahrain's BenefitPay systems can be seen as a current pushing force toward cashless society; thus, understanding how people in the Kingdom of Bahrain adopt e-payment techniques is vital. Originality/value: The TAM conceptual model is experimentally validated in this study using cutting-edge methods like SEM with value creation for banking sector management, making it stand out from similar research. This research may prove useful in laying the groundwork for a cashless society in the Kingdom of Bahrain by analyzing the key elements that affect the BenefitPay app. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

14 Wayne Brough, "In the Race over Digital Money, China Is Leaving US in the Dust", RealClearPolicy, October 28, 2020, https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2020/10/28/in the race over digital money china is leaving us in the dust 582153.html. 15 I Inclusive Banking During a Pandemic: Using FedAccounts and Digital Tools to Improve Delivery of Stimulus Payments i : Hearing before the US I House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Task Force on Financial Technology i , 116th Cong. (June 11, 2020) (statement of J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission), https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-116-ba00-wstate-giancarloj-20200611.pdf. While digital currencies may be new to actors in the global economy, the evolution from paper money to digital currencies is part and parcel of the longer-term history in how currencies have evolved to address the changing needs of human society. Governments now appear to be catching up in the digital currency revolution Governments now appear to be catching up in the digital currency revolution, albeit slowly. As governments build digital money for these domestic reasons, they also act in response to digital money projects in counterpart governments. [Extracted from the article]

At the intersection of culture, ethnicity, gender, and religion, this paper offers insights into the lived experiences of Nigerian women by adopting Nkomo and Ngambi’s multilevel framework on African women’s leadership to understand their work-family experiences in the Nigerian banking sector. Employing data from interviews with eleven Northern women and ten Southern women who live in the following states: Kano, Kaduna; Akure, Lagos, Ibadan; and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, the findings confirm the existence of patriarchal systems at the macro (social), meso (organizational), and micro (individual) levels of social action that shape Nigerian women’s work-family experiences. Nevertheless, as tradition and modernity interact to provide a hybrid social space within which these women negotiate the different levels, they demonstrated the ability to redefine femininity and womanhood and reject constraints that confine them. The women from both regions resisted conformity to the patriarchal systematic ideologies and cultural processes that placed them in a disadvantaged position. Despite social and cultural criticisms that restrict women’s movement and career options, their agency was evident in their narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct cash transfers to households during the COVID-19 pandemic, including relief checks and Child Tax Credit payments, were delayed by weeks for recipients without bank accounts and were not received by many non-filers who lacked the time or resources to complete necessary paperwork. A postal banking system has the potential to expand access to financial infrastructure and enable the rapid distribution of resources to households in need during economic downturns – often the same households that are currently excluded from the financial system. This paper examines the history of the US Postal Savings System and the feasibility of a return to postal banking using evidence on the socioeconomic and spatial patterns of financial exclusion. We find that postal banks would be well positioned to compete with both alternative and conventional financial institutions, address issues with physical branch access, and improve outreach to vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The banking sector serves as a nudge between increased financial investments and reduced environmental impacts in the modern era of sustainability thus, integrating the social, environmental, and economic dimensions. This paper aims to explore the practices and ongoing activities on account of sustainable banking which is being practised in the Pakistani Banking Sector. A mixed methods approach using a survey with a sample size of (n = 250) and in-depth interviews of (n = 25) provides significant evidence for the research. SmartPLS4.0 was used for hypotheses testing and to ascertain the path coefficient association within the constructs. This research fills the gap in existing literature by testing and implying the mediating role of Stakeholders' Influence on the relationship between Green Banking Practices and the Bank's Performance. The results of the quantitative analysis show a positive association between variables, highlighting the role of stakeholders and their need to partake efficiently, in the countrywide execution of green banking. The qualitative analysis portrays that; green banking is currently the partial focus of the banking sector in the developing economy of Pakistan whereas, approaches like financing green projects, investments in renewable energy, in-house greening of the banking sector, and provision of easy lending facilities to encourage and support environmental initiatives are some commonly practised accomplishments of the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates efficiency measures for the banking system in Chile for the period 2000-2019. In contrast to previous studies, we use input-distance functions, introduce the nonparametric slack-based model, and choose the intermediate inputs approach in determining inputs and outputs. Our results suggest that the Chilean system has achieved relatively high levels of efficiency, although with no significant variation over the sample period. Ownership (government, foreign and public) and size had a positive impact on efficiency. On average, mergers and acquisitions seem to have targeted highly efficient banks in order to improve the overall efficiency of the controlling institution in the short run. Other sources of efficiency gains could be an increase in bond funding or a reduction in expenses and capital holdings. The latter could be induced by deepening the local derivatives market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of institutional quality and banking competition on shadow economy for 127 economies for the period of 2005–2017. It further explores if institutional quality/competition shapes the relationship differently between banking competition/institutional quality and shadow economy. This paper uses the system GMM estimator to tackle potential omitted variable bias, endogeneity, and simultaneity issues. The findings suggest that overall, greater competition among banks and stricter institutions in the country reduce the size of shadow economy. Furthermore, impact of competition on shadow economy is even stronger in countries with weak institutions and the impact of institutional quality is greater in lower competitive environment. Only severe competition matters for shadow economy in case of developed countries. To sum up the novel findings of this research, competition and institutions complement each other in reducing the size of shadow economy. These findings are robust to different econometric estimators. The findings carry vital policy implications for the governments and regulators to play their part in reducing the shadow economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'Great Recession' of 2008 exposed banks and banking systems as frail economic entities, posing a threat to the real economy and society at large. This context of near economic collapse made clear the societal responsibility of banks to conform to business ethics respectful of both individual and collective interests. We argue that banks are primarily institutions of capitalism that must rely on resilient systems of reasonable values. The paper focuses on three Swiss banks to determine their ethical properties and their social ends. Such a societal dimension that we thrust on banks implies rethinking the responsibility of banks to society and their contributions to the public interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent systems on Paper currency recognition and verification are inevitable for modern banking services. These systems are used in Auto-seller machines, vending machines etc. Extracting sufficient and reliable monetary characteristics are essential for accuracy and performance of such systems. This paper proposes a new intelligent system for paper currency recognition. Pakistani paper currency has been considered, as a case study, for intelligent recognition. This paper identifies, introduces, and extracts robust features from Pakistani banknotes. After extracting these features, the paper proposes to use three layers feed-forward Backpropagation Neural Network (BPN) for intelligent classification. The proposed technique and system are simple and comparatively less time consuming which makes it suitable for real-time applications. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique, experiments have been conducted on 175 Pakistani banknotes. The results indicate that system has 100% recognition ability on properly captured images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is one of the pioneers in developing innovative models for credit business through a partnership between FinTech firms and traditional financial institutions such as banks. There are two main business models of FinTech-bank partnership, namely the loan facilitation model and the co-lending model. While this partnership brings many benefits, it has significant risks, including outsourcing risks, monopolistic practices, data protection, algorithmic bias, and financial systemic risk. This paper critically examines the Chinese regulatory responses to those risks with a focus on the outsourcing issue. Drawing upon the experiences of some overseas jurisdictions, including the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland, this paper makes relevant suggestions for improving the Chinese regulation. China is advised to adopt a staged and differentiated approach to regulate FinTech-bank partnership. The first step is to establish a regulatory sandbox for FinTech firms to test their innovative activities, and, depending on the specific circumstances, an umbrella entity mechanism could also be introduced. Further, a sophisticated licensing regime can be established to set out differentiated rules for FinTech firms according to the nature and extent of the FinTech-Bank partnership, thus addressing the problem of regulatory arbitrage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In recent years many developing countries pursued policies aimed at increasing the banking sector's ability and willingness to lend to households. • These policies contributed to relaxing borrowing constraints households were previously subjected to. • This paper presents a two-sector open economy model that examines the sectoral implications of policy driven household lending expansions. • I use macroeconomic data from the Turkish economy to motivate the model. • The paper shows that policy driven expansions in household lending can have adverse sectoral implications by benefiting low productivity nontradable industries at the expense of higher productivity tradable industries. This paper analyses the sectoral implications of household credit expansions in a two-sector open economy model. In the model, policy-induced expansion in banks' willingness and ability to lend to households results in new lending, boosting aggregate demand and average wages in the nontradable sector. Under fixed relative wages and mark-up pricing in the tradable sector, wage pressures translate into inflationary pressures. The inflation-targeting central bank increases the policy rate to contain inflationary pressures. This intervention causes a real exchange rate appreciation, followed by a reduction in international competitiveness and a contraction of the tradable sector output. This way, the model illustrates that consumer credit expansions can trigger premature deindustrialisation , shifting the sectoral structure away from the high-productivity tradable sector towards the lower-productivity nontradable sector. Key macroeconomic developments from the Turkish economy between 2002 and 2013 are presented to motivate the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper has two main objectives: one, to investigate if inter-bank horizontal dispersion in the remuneration of executives has any significant influence on bank performance. And two, to explore various situations with respect to board quality, agency cost, and government ownership under which the dispersion-performance nexus is moderated. The paper employs a two-step system GMM of (Blundell and Bond, Journal of Econometrics 8:115–143, 1998) to account for the possible endogeneity issues, and Driscoll–Kraay's non-parametric matrix estimator to account for cross-sectional dependence. The findings show that horizontal pay dispersion has a negative influence on bank performance. It produces evidence in favor of the "equity fairness theory" that higher pay dispersion would incentivize them to engage in excessive risk-taking for maximizing their personal interests, which emerges to be detrimental to the bank's performance. Further evidence of moderating effect shows that in the presence of effective board oversight, pay dispersion exerts a favorable influence on the performance of Indian banking firms. The research has significant policy ramifications for regulators to apprehend the undesirable implications of pay dispersion on bank performance and initiate quick action to scrutinize the governance practices of higher-paying banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first problem in merging units is an estimation of the inherited inputs/outputs of the merged unit from merging units and the identification of the least and most achievable efficiency targets from the merged unit is the second one. There are some models to attain a response to these problems. However, these models could not be employed when a deviation from the frontier is observed due to noise and random error in the data. In order to deal with this problem, this paper presents a novel method according to inverse data envelopment analysis for estimating the inherited input/output levels of the merged unit to reach the pre-determined efficiency score in the level of significance α ∊ (0; 1). This paper also suggests a stochastic programming model for estimating the least possible efficiency score via the given merging. The practical applicability of these proposed methodologies is further validated through a comprehensive example within the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reexamine the determinants of nonperforming loans through the impact of supervisory devices in credit risk management in Africa. The paper employs bank-specific, macroeconomic and institutional data for a panel of 14 universal banks over the period 2009 to 2020. We develop models that capture the role of regulatory supervision on credit risk. Findings from the Panels Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) and the system GMM shows that previous year's NPL and inflation significantly affect NPLs in the banking space of Gana. Bank size and financial development are inversely associated with NPLs. The interactive term of regulatory quality and government effectiveness on NPLs has net negative effect. This suggest that regulatory quality enhances the reductive effects of government effectiveness on NPLs. Our findings in general lends credence to the financial instability theory as NPLs in the Ghanaian context has been the outcome of activities of speculative borrowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a persistent pain condition with low prevalence. Multi-centre collaborative research is needed to attain sufficient sample sizes for meaningful studies. This international observational study: (1) tested the feasibility and acceptability of collecting outcome data using an agreed core measurement set (2) tested and refined an electronic data management system to collect and manage the data. Methods: Adults with CRPS, meeting the Budapest diagnostic clinical criteria, were recruited to the study from 7 international research centres. After informed consent, a questionnaire comprising the core set outcome measures was completed: on paper at baseline (T1), and at 3 or 6 months (T2) using a paper or e-version. Participants and clinicians provided feedback on the data collection process. Clinicians completed the CRPS severity score at T1 and optionally, at T2. Ethical approval was obtained at each international centre. Results: Ninety-eight adults were recruited (female n=66; mean age 46.6 years, range 19-89), of whom 32% chose to receive the T2 questionnaire in an electronic format. Fifty-five participants completed both T1 and T2. Eighteen participants and nine clinicians provided feedback on their data collection experience. Conclusion: This study confirmed the questionnaire core outcome data are feasible and practicable to collect in clinical practice. The electronic data management system provided a robust means of collecting and managing the data across an international population. The findings have informed the final data collection tools and processes which will comprise the first international, clinical research registry and data bank for CRPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change-induced pan-financial market and the contagion of systemic financial risks are becoming important issues in the financial sector. The paper measures the temperature difference in terms of the degree and direction of deviation of the actual temperature relative to the average temperature of the same historical period. Based on the high-dimensional time-series variable LASSO-VAR-DY framework, we construct a pan-financial market volatility correlation network consisting of 112 Chinese listed companies in banking, insurance, securities, real estate, traditional energy, and new energy, use eigenvector centrality to measure the systematic risk of each firm, and then empirically test the effect of temperature difference on systematic risk under pan-financial market scenario. The results of the study show that (ⅰ) There is a significant difference among the systemic risk of financial sectors such as banking, insurance, and securities in the financial market pan-financial market scenario and the systemic risk when the financial market pan-financial market is not taken into account;(ⅱ) Higher temperature significantly exacerbates systemic financial risk, while colder temperature significantly mitigates systemic risk, but both have an asymmetric effect on systemic risk, and there is sectoral heterogeneity.(ⅲ) From the dynamic evolutionary characteristics, there are significant differences in the response of systemic financial risk to positive and negative temperature shocks;(iv) The results of the systemic risk variance decomposition indicate that the temperature change contributes more to the variance of systemic risk in the banking and securities sectors in pan-financial market;(ⅴ) The contagion source of financial systemic risk shows an obvious path of leaping and changing characteristics, and the contagion source of systemic risk (source of impact) shows the evolution law of "bank → real estate → new energy → temperature difference," which means that the temperature difference has become the contagion source of systemic financial risk. This study provides a reference for preventing and resolving systemic risks under pan-financial market scenario and provides a basis for improving the current macroprudential regulatory framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the nature of bank money on two complementary levels. The first level deals with theoretical considerations. Here, the departure point is Social Positioning Theory, which provides a framework to investigate the nature of money. Within the theory, the paper situates bank money in credit‐debt relations, that are themselves integral part of a wider productive‐consumptive nexus of the economy. In this perspective, bank money is the relation, accounting economic positions of participating members, resulting from their economic activities realized within the context of the overall society. The second level uses the methods of Oral History and Memory Studies and, through semi‐structured interviews, provides empirical material illustrating ideas about the nature of money in a specific historical form. The article thus explores the contrasting experiences of banking in the context of a centrally planned economy and banking in the transformation to a market economy. These two contrasting episodes are illustrative because of the significant change in the form of bank money, which brings to light various aspects of its nature. Moreover, the article utilizes interviews that present the lived experience of bankers with years of involvement in the sector, enriching the perspective on the issue under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable financial source for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has been a topic of concern for researchers, politicians, policy makers, civil society organisations, international donors and other development stakeholders in mineral-rich countries. This paper uses a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2010 to 2022 to identify and evaluate ASM financial sources in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The main financial sources identified are cooperative funds, government support, international development organisations, commercial banks, mineral buyers and individual financiers. Although informal financial sources (like private sponsors and mineral buyers) are reported to be exploitative and insufficient, the miners depend on them as they face bureaucratic and complicated procedures to access credit from formal sources like banks and government microcredits. Simplified formalisation procedures enable miners to easily comply with formal financial source conditionality. Government policies in mineral-rich countries should be aligned to create a conducive environment for multiple financial source availability so as to ensure economical decisions for profitable mining and better livelihood outcomes for people in ASM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of financial sanctions at the most disaggregated level possible, individual bank accounts. Using data from the Eurosystem's real-time gross settlement system TARGET2, we provide empirical evidence that sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russian banks following Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 have sizably reduced financial transactions with sanctioned Russian bank accounts, both along the extensive and intensive margins. Among the various sanction measures taken, exclusion from SWIFT, a global provider of secure financial messaging services, turns out to have the largest effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been said about how crises in the EU create disintegration or differentiation pressures. Considerable attention has been paid to EU crisis governance mechanisms. Yet, less attention has been paid to the anticipation of effects of differentiated implementation on transboundary crisis management regimes. This article asks how differential policy integration accommodates the anticipation of differential implementation through institutional choices in transboundary crisis management regimes. Concerns about the consequences of national customisation influence the way in which transboundary crisis management regimes develop in terms of allocation of authority and constraints on member state discretion. The paper compares EU transboundary crisis regimes in four sectors: banking, electricity, youth unemployment, and invasive alien species. Concerns with ongoing differential implementation of transboundary crisis management generate further inevitable tensions in governance systems, leading to continued contestation over institutional arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the European Commission's 'Banking Package', introducing a series of amendments to the key legal sources of EU banking regulation, a comprehensive proposal for the treatment of third country branches of credit institutions (i.e., branches of institutions licensed by non-EU jurisdictions seeking authorisation in an EU Member State) has been presented. If and when ultimately adopted, this new framework will, for the first time, harmonise the applicable authorisation procedures and substantive conditions for authorisation hitherto left exclusively to the discretion of EU Member States. Under the new regime, the equivalence of third country regulatory and supervisory approaches with EU banking regulation will play a role, albeit a limited one. While taking up, and refining, approaches that have been present in a range of Member States for some time already, the new framework will require others to fundamentally change their existing regimes. The new amendments will be of particular relevance for the future regulatory relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, since a bespoke arrangement for continuing access of UK financial intermediaries to the EU markets has not been achieved, and UK credit institutions wishing to continue to operate within the EU other than through legally separate and independently capitalised subsidiaries have to rely on authorisations as third country branches. Against this backdrop, the present paper presents a functional analysis of the incoming regime in light of experiences made with regard to the existing landscape of diverging national laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of high liquidity creation on systemic risk. We use a hand-collected dataset on 94 banks from 16 Western European countries over the 2004–2020 period, including the crisis (2008–2009) period and sound periods (2004–2007 and 2010–2020). We assess banks' systemic risk using two different proxies: banks' systemic risk exposure, measured by the marginal expected shortfall (MES), and banks' systemic risk contribution, measured by the delta conditional value at risk (ΔCoVaR). Based on panel regressions, our results mainly show that, during calm periods, high liquidity creation is associated with high systemic risk exposure. Moreover, we show that the effect of liquidity creation on banks' systemic risk exposure is stronger during turmoil periods. Interestingly, our results show that banks' liquidity creation increases the systemic contribution only during the financial crisis of 2008–2009. Our findings contribute to the literature and the regulatory debate by suggesting that regulators should pay more attention to high liquidity-creating banks as they may cause aggregate financial fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]