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Authoritarian, revisionist, and revanchist powers are exerting pressure on the liberal international order and challenging the United States' vital security interests across theaters. The United States will increasingly need to simultaneously tackle challenges in two critical theaters while also addressing global threats. To do so effectively, it will need to lean in and actively capitalize on its chief geostrategic advantage over its competitors and adversaries – its global network of alliances and strategic partnerships. However, alliance management faces both traditional and emerging challenges. These range from ensuring effective burden sharing, to providing alliance assurance and balancing interests and values along with allies' contributions across theaters and domains. In addition, because the United States is operating in a world where all instruments of power, military and non-military, are increasingly utilized in an interconnected way, it will also need to look at defense and security alliance management through the lens of issues ranging from industrial policy to economic security. This essay sheds light on these "old" and "new" challenges, providing insights into critical issues of alliance management that the United States will face in the emerging security environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After restructuring of power system, independent system operator is facing a big challenge to manage operations on transmission networks due to growing renewables share and involvement of large market players in power system operation. Among all renewables, wind power has the most stochastic nature and faces penalties due to mismatch in its initial power committed and final power delivered. Also, wind power plants are generally located at remote areas and need longer transmission lines for power delivery. This leads to congestion of transmission lines and poses a threat to security and safety of power system. To manage congestion on transmission lines, this paper proposes a novel rescheduling based combined bidding approach for wind integrated hybrid (pool + bilateral) power system. Congestion management problem has been formulated as mixed integer non-linear programming problem incorporating proposed combined bidding approach with an objective to reduce total congestion management cost through rescheduling of wind and hydro units on the basis of their combined up and down generation cost bids. The hydro units that have lowest operating cost and fast turn-on time have been used in coordination with wind units to alleviate congestion cost. Secured bilateral transactions have been confirmed while implementing the combined bidding approach for congestion management. Performance of proposed strategy has been analyzed by demonstrating it on modified IEEE-24 bus RTS system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of new academic and government attention paid to China's growing Arctic security interests, this article examines the strategic advantages which may lead China to deploy submarines into the polar waters as well as the disadvantages and dangers inherent in such a mission. In contrast to the general belief that such an under-ice presence is both imminent and dangerous to the US and its allies, this piece suggests a more nuanced appreciation for the limited value of the Arctic as a realm of Sino-American competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectively identifying technological threats from competitors and assessing their possible impact directly affects the company's interests and security. This study proposes an early identification approach for technological threats based on patent portfolio analysis. The approach measures and aggregates three dimensions of analysis – technological maturity, technological similarity, and the technological capability gap between a company and its competitors – in a range of technological fields. The novelty of this approach is that it uses patent portfolios to evaluate the level of technological threats faced by companies and to identify technological fields associated with high threat levels. The empirical research results show that this approach has the following advantages (1) it can address the shortcomings of previous studies that identified technological threats on the basis of a single dimension. (2) It is possible to evaluate the level of technological threats faced by the company in a variety of technological fields at the same time. (3) This approach is capable of determining the causes of technological threats faced by a company in each technological field and of providing effective decision-making support for companies that need to formulate reasonable response strategies to counter technological threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces and examines the narratives and specifics of Gulf bilateral donors—namely the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. It confronts established narratives with current data and trends and includes the perspective of both Western and Arab scholars. The research points to some new trends among Gulf donors, notably the diversification of their aid sectors and the strengthening of the distinctiveness of Gulf donors from other southern donors. The research also focuses on the narratives about bilateral aid allocation factors of Gulf donors. The results confirm the continuing preference of Arab countries in Middle East and North Africa with predominately Muslim populations. However, aid is not evenly allocated among recipients in the MENA region, and the different and sometimes conflicting (geo)political and security interests of Gulf donors play an important role in the territorial distribution of aid. In addition to these strategic considerations behind the allocation of aid from Gulf donors, the study reveals certain importance of social needs' factors in distribution of Emirati and Kuwaiti official aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's increasingly active economic diplomacy in recent years has often been deeply linked to its geostrategic interests. Japan is said to be watching this development with alarm. Analysts have often claimed that this has resulted in Sino-Japanese rivalry, where the Japanese see any gains made by China in zero-sum terms, and make concerted efforts to counter China's growing influence. This article, however, is critical of such views. While elements of rivalry may indeed be visible in some aspects of Sino-Japanese relations, it would be premature to apply this perspective to economic statecraft, which is inherently multifaceted. This article claims that too much attention has been paid to the strategic aspects of Chinese economic statecraft at the expense of economic/commercial ones that could foster cooperative relations between Beijing and Tokyo. It argues that Japan does not hold a monolithic view that Chinese diplomatic activities in the economic realm are an axiomatic threat to Japanese security interests, and it remains premature to say that Japan and China are 'rivals' in the realm of economic statecraft. Future analysis in this area needs to pay greater attention to the complicating effects that economic interdependence can have in strategic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1990–1991 saw a distinct change in Danish foreign policy in general and towards the Baltic countries in particular, shifting from a quiescent policy of non-recognition of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic countries to active support for Baltic independence. Drawing on declassified documents, this article argues that although the shift was made possible by Soviet decline and by US approval and support for the new Danish position, it was ultimately driven by the idea prevalent in Danish foreign policy thinking that it would further Denmark's long-term indirect security interests. By contributing to restoring the independence of three small democratic states on the other side of the Baltic Sea, Denmark could promote a more stable – and to Denmark less threatening – Baltic Sea area. Alternative hypotheses for the shift in policy: that the Danish desire to adopt the Baltic cause was a way to perform a useful service to the US; or that it was driven by 'pure' humanitarian motives, and/or by consideration for international and domestic prestige are examined and rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Election campaign and political activity financing are scantily regulated in Botswana. This may provide an opportunity for threats to national security as business interests may exert overt influence on politicians and illicit financial flows may bloom. Currently, there is no credible way of knowing who provides what financing to whom since no one is really compelled to disclose such information before a writ is issued. Even after a writ, parties and candidates simply do not declare in accordance with the limited statutory requirement. The paper notes foreign funding of major political parties in Botswana. It then argues argues for reforms that will include banning of funding by organisations involved in crime, introduction of funding thresholds, controls to ensure that funds donated for purposes of campaign finances are used strictly for that, the setting up of a statutory body to ensure compliance as well as sanctions for non-compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes how Sweden developed a hybrid defence-industrial infrastructure with three prioritized 'essential strategic interests' pointing to parts of the domestic defence industry: 'a partial strategic autonomy'. The article focuses on Sweden's declared three essential security interests – combat aircraft capability; underwater capabilities; and integrity-critical parts of the command, control, communication and intelligence domain (C3I). The article finds that the possibilities and ways forward for the essential security interests vary, with a general trend towards more shared and increasingly partial autonomy. Six change factors are formulated as drivers towards Sweden's partial strategic autonomy of today: Autonomy as a result of failed internationalization; Techno-nationalist perception of Sweden leading to industrial protectionism; Strategic choice; Corporate lobbying; Export incentives leading to political support of technologies; and Europeanization of the EU defence industry. Techno-nationalism and strategic choice are the factors with the most evident impact. The overall governance of the defence industry is clear on the priority of ensuring security of supply and a high degree of autonomy regarding the three essential security interests. Other parts of the defence industry operate under globalized and more competitive conditions. In order to apply increased economic rationality and strive for shared autonomy, Sweden must increase its engagement in multilateral arms collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collateral choice option gives the collateral posting party the opportunity to switch between different collateral currencies which is well-known to impact the asset price. Quantification of the option's value is of practical importance but remains challenging under the assumption of stochastic rates, as it is determined by an intractable distribution that requires involved approximations. Indeed, many practitioners still rely on deterministic spreads between the rates for valuation. We develop a scalable and stable stochastic model of the collateral spreads under the assumption of conditional independence. This allows for a common factor approximation that admits analytical results from which further estimators are obtained. We show that in modelling the spreads between collateral rates, a second-order model yields accurate results for the value of the collateral choice option. The model remains precise for a wide range of model parameters and is numerically efficient even for a large number of collateral currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses uses and misuses of EU border management models and strategies in the framework of crisis response interventions in the Southern and Eastern neighbourhoods. It focuses especially on Libya and Ukraine, cases which dramatically stand out as the conflicts at the gates of Europe. The deployment of border management instruments appears to follow different trajectories in the two countries, diverging in terms of both design and implementation. By relying on collaborative research materials resulting from extensive fieldwork, the paper argues that the differentiation of EU's interventions across the ENP countries can be explained as the result of growing political and institutional fragmentation in the EU, the replacement of the "transformative power"-mantra with new stabilization templates and weak strategic consistency among member states, each conveying different security identities and interests vis-à-vis EU's external actions and sectors. Primary data, collected between 2016 and 2018, does not point to an increase in conflict-sensitivity, context-specificity and local ownership, they rather reveal the crisis of the EU´s liberal project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2014, Sweden has pursued the world's first Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP). However, the effectiveness of its policy promotion depends on how Sweden's efforts to spread this norm-based policy are perceived and evaluated by other states. We argue that a policy promotion effort has to be perceived as legitimate, coherent and salient by target populations in order to be effective. We investigate the extent to which it is the case in national newspapers of 17 countries, representing world and regional powers. We demonstrate that most coverage of the FFP is rather modest, notably in non-Western countries. Further, we argue that the coverage of Sweden's FFP in foreign media is influenced by three challenges: (1) an absence of a universal definition of FFP; (2) a clash between ideals of FFP and Swedish "traditional" security and commercial interests; (3) an uneasy relationship between the concept of feminism and media in many countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events of November 23–26, 2018, in the Black Sea near the entrance to the Kerch Strait, resulted in Russia's detention of Ukrainian Navy ships and sailors. This crisis confronted the community of experts of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and third countries with a host of thorny questions. How legitimate were Russia's actions in terms of international law? Did it overstep its authority? Was there a planned provocation by Ukraine? Who bears the greater responsibility for the incident? What political and legal consequences could come out of it? The article explores answers to these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles within the issue is presented, including the places that ex-enslaved live in the aftermath of emancipation, continuity in economic life across emancipation, and mortgage records in which credit arrangements were secured on slave collateral.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, enslaved people in the Cape Colony were used as collateral on loans. In the near absence of formal lending institutions, private credit agreements predominated among slave-owners, as researchers have established in earlier studies. Based on a sample of 19th-century mortgage records, I use network analysis in this article to visualise the flow of credit among slave-owner debtors and creditors, showing the position of banks in a network dominated by private creditors and highlighting the role of widows in the male world of credit. The context of emancipation brought insecurity and upheaval to the colony and appears to have slowed the pace and diminished the size of loans offered on slave collateral. Yet emancipation on 1 December 1834 was not the end of the practice, as might be expected. Rather, it continued in two ways: first, mortgages on slave collateral agreed before emancipation continued with unchanged terms into the period of apprenticeship; secondly, new mortgages were agreed after emancipation on the basis of apprenticed labour and future compensation payments. The way in which compensation – in cash and years of labour – was organised secured former slave-owners' access to credit in the transition from slavery to wage labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, 2017 (STMA or Act) was enacted by Nigeria's National Assembly to, amongst others, stimulate lending to micro, small and medium enterprises. The STMA, amongst others creates a collateral registry and assigns its supervision to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria's foremost financial regulatory agency. This article evaluates the CBN's role under the Act and contends that having regard to its regulatory focus, the assignment of this responsibility could jeopardize the realisation of the Act's objective of stimulating funding to small business entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What motivates states to provide others with military assistance? Traditional explanations naturally focus on the security interests of the sender state. But could domestic considerations – intra-party politics, for example – also be a factor in some cases? This analysis, which examines the British decision to send a Military Advisory Team [MAT] to the newly federated United Arab Emirates [UAE] in 1971, answers in the affirmative. It demonstrates that the MAT was primarily, albeit not exclusively, a means by which the British government of Prime Minister Edward Heath could stave off sharp criticism from fellow Conservative politicians that under his leadership that Britain was cutting and running from its overseas responsibilities. Furthermore, because the MAT was in inception a political tool, its military utility in assisting the UAE, or the influence Britain derived from its presence, was minimal at best and counterproductive at worst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Philippines gained independence in 1946, Canberra and Manila have maintained a close political and security relationship except for a period from the early-1970s to the mid-1990s. Despite this robust history of cooperation, the Australia-Philippines relationship is often overlooked in the study of Australia's engagement with Asia. This article analyses the Australia-Philippines relationship from 1946 to the present. It argues that the trajectory of the relationship is shaped by strategic trends at the global level that impinge on the Asia-Pacific regional environment and engage the shared security interests of the two. Conversely, the relationship stagnates without this dynamic, as with the easing of Cold War pressures in Asia from the early-1970s. The article demonstrates that while Manila has consistently maintained a positive disposition toward Australia since its independence, Canberra has reciprocated only on its own terms—when Australia's political and security interests have been sufficiently engaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing powerful challenges from both China and the US, the long-standing engagement policy is on the defensive. Focusing on advancing American economic and security interests rather than its ideals and prioritizing reciprocity above economic cooperation, the Trump administration has declared China a strategic competitor and escalated a trade war into a multi-front conflict. However, profound interdependence continues underpinning the bilateral relationship. Neither the US nor China can afford to disengage from the other. The two countries are not natural partners but not inevitable enemies either. Competition does not mean confrontation, much less war. Engagement remains the foundation for healthy competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details the security problems faced by refugees worldwide. Examples of abuses against refugees; Link between forced migration and state security; Response of the Western government to the situation.

Discusses the impact of the ratification rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the United States. Importance of the treaty to the US and international security; Status of the stockpile of its nuclear weapons.

The article focuses on geoeconomics has garnered increased attention as an alternative method to military instruments for advancing U.S. security interests. Topics discussed include way of addressing U.S. national interests and power must aim for a foreign policy, critical security objectives such as protecting homeland security and maintaining the U.S. preeminent relative power position in the international system and economic policies such as preferential tariffs and investment decisions. It mentions decrease in economic size was not due to U.S. economic degradation, but because of others' economic growth.

The article focuses on state powers have brought about a state of competitive multipolarity in the U.S., Russia and China and state of protracted and intensifying security competition. Topics discussed include development of disruptive military capabilities that raise the costs of power projection, participation of the U.S. allies in the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Russia used a chemical weapon on the soil of the most senior American ally and great power with legitimate security interests to be negotiated with Russia. It mentions competition for legitimacy through propaganda; trade wars; competition for military advantage, both nuclear and conventional.

The Secured Transactions in Moveable Assets Act (STMA or the Act) was enacted in May 2017 as Nigeria's apparent response to the reform of states' personal property security laws following calls by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). In an apparent shift from the common law secured transactions' system widely believed to stifle credit transactions, the STMA seeks to stimulate funding to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The Act however curiously adopts the remedies' scheme under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) including receiverships. This paper examines the implication of the Act's adoption of receiverships on the Nigerian law of secured transactions and contends that it could jeopardize the realization of the Act's objective of stimulating funding to MSMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the recent failure of an elaborate biometric registration scheme, the National Digital Registry System (NDRS), in Kenya. The article shows that the Kenyan and South African economies are closely linked in their obsessions with biometric identification registration, and financialisation, but it also draws out the particular significance, in the Kenyan case of a conflict over the form and ownership of credit information as collateral. The failure of the project was the result of fractured financial interests, and specifically of a conflict between the formal banks and Safaricom, the monopoly telecommunications firm that has created the globally distinctive system of mobile money, M-Pesa. At issue between them were two very different models for decision-making, and profit, in the extension of personal credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the juridical nature of security interest under the Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) and secured transactions law reform. Also cited are the Quebecois Law that mandates the registration of retention of title clauses, the City of London Law Society (CLLS) model as another example, as well as the importance of marshalling.

This article is concerned with debate in England as to whether English law has tipped too far in favour of promoting corporate bankruptcy law’s policy concerns to the detriment of an effective secured transactions law regime, and debate in America as to whether reform to secured transactions law has tipped too far in favour of secured transaction law’s policy concerns to the detriment of an effective corporate bankruptcy regime. Through a detailed analysis of the evolutionary history of secured transactions and corporate bankruptcy law and policy in both America and England, the article analyses why each jurisdiction approaches balancing the policy objectives in a fundamentally different way, and the role which the very different institutional environments in corporate bankruptcy have played in mediating between them. It argues that this legal and institutional evolutionary history suggests relatively modest ongoing reform in both jurisdictions, closely adapted to local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the implementation in the UK of the Directive on financial collateral arrangements 2002/47/EC, it is extremely difficult - if not simply impossible - to confine certain concepts of law (mainly those of possession and control) within sharp and definitive boundaries. Nowadays, the main perception is that there can be different forms of control as well as different forms of possession (depending on the type of asset involved and/or the terms and conditions posed by the parties to the security agreement). The article suggests that this 'flexibility' is by no means surprising as it reflects the tradition, ingrained in English law to continuously stretch the notion of property to accommodate market needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a detailed analysis of interest rate derivatives valuation under credit risk and collateral modeling. We show how the credit and collateral extended valuation framework presented in Pallaviciniet al.[Funding valuation adjustment: FVA consistent with CVA, DVA, WWR, collateral, netting and re-hyphotecation, 2011], and the related collateralized valuation measure, can be helpful in defining the key market rates underlying the multiple interest rate curves that characterize current interest rate markets. A key point is that spot Libor rates are to be treated as market primitives rather than being defined by no-arbitrage relationships. We formulate a consistent realistic dynamics for the different rates emerging from our analysis and compare the resulting model performances to simpler models used in the industry. We include the often neglected margin period of risk, showing how this feature may increase the impact of different rates dynamics on valuation. We point out limitations of multiple curve models with deterministic basis considering valuation of particularly sensitive products such as basis swaps. We stress that a proper wrong way risk analysis for such products requires a model with a stochastic basis and we show numerical results confirming this fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative decision-making processes are conducted widely in public affairs at various scales, from community to metropolitan, regional and national. They vary from highly formalized and prescribed processes, such as “regulatory negotiations”, to collaborative planning processes directed by urban planners or other public agency staff, to rather informal processes within community-based organizations. While substantial effort has been invested in identifying the benefits of collaboration, we ask; do the benefits materialize in each case? We researched one ad hoc community collaborative in Oregon, USA, widely considered a success in the aftermath of agreement. We were interested in the implementation of agreement provisions, as well as in any social benefits from the process. Relying on published documents, surveys and interviews one year after the process ended, and additional interviews and on-site observations five years later, we found that despite the initial enthusiasm and confidence in actions proposed in the final report and social relationships strengthened during the process, evidence of long-term success on these two dimensions was mixed. This case provides a cautionary note to process facilitators, urban planners, public administrators and stakeholder and citizen participants. Participants face many strategic and process design decisions. Among these are choices about institutional linkages, stakeholders, the decision rule, and clarity about the purpose and goal of the process. While the degree of “success” of any collaborative may not be our call as observers, we contend that implementation and social impacts are critical to assessing the value of these processes. Consequently, we propose that participants and facilitators alike should understand and consider appropriately the micro-decisions that can and do add to critical implications on these two important dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains why United States (US) Senator Richard Lugar voted against the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Goal of the treaty; Implications of the treaty to the US security.

Although international crises are often believed to represent windows of opportunity to strengthen European defence cooperation, recent crises have not seemed to produce a clear convergence of European Union (EU) member states’ security interests. This article seeks to address this puzzle by arguing that European defence cooperation is a response to crises that place European states in a situation of military interdependence. Conversely, asymmetric crises, i.e. crises that affect European states unevenly, encourage those states to maintain their autonomy of action. This theoretical argument is supported by two case studies: the failure of the European Defence Community in the early 1950s and the current difficulties experienced by the EU’s military operations. These two cases illustrate a striking continuity in that, because of (neo)colonial ties in particular, European states are often unevenly affected by international crises, which tends to make defence cooperation less effective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is wide agreement among scholars that the shift from government to governance in security has seen unprecedented levels of cooperation (and competition) between private security actors (PSAs) and law enforcement agencies in the policing of public spaces, and the formation of fluid, diverse policing assemblages. With the overriding goal of investigating how the politics of security governance vary across time and space, this article seeks to explore security assemblage structures in counter-piracy operations on the high seas. Specifically, it studies the assembly of coercive force between public and private actors there, and compares this to the experience of multilateral security governance in other policing environments. On the back of this, it suggests that the formation of security assemblages in maritime space involves a configuration of public and private in which private actors have great prominence in (and authority over) the distribution of legitimate coercive force in ‘public good’ or ‘civilised’ security provision. Consequently, it argues that in this space, private interests (rather than those of the nation) may be central in the assembly of ‘civilised’ security interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar equipment dealers in the residential and business sectors must often do business with customers that are not creditworthy, raising the issue of the best, least expensive mechanisms for collection. Unfortunately for such dealers, secured transactions law and mechanic's lien laws leave significant gaps that make it either impossible or unprofitable for them to recover. This article discusses the different approaches solar equipment dealers can take with the advantages and disadvantages of each, concluding that, in most cases, the best avenue will be to transfer the risk by contract to a lender that pays the equipment dealer directly. This piece draws primarily from California law because it is the state with by far the most solar photovoltaic installed capacity in the United States. However, its laws are typical of other states and UCC Article 9 concepts are being exported abroad, as reflected in United Nations model rules. As such, the strategies discussed herein have broad applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their contribution to job creation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are financially constrained. Lenders view SMEs as high risk borrowers and hence demand collateral, but lack of collateral inhibits SMEs access to credit. Relationship lending is believed to lessen collateral requirement and increase SMEs access to credit. However, recent studies question substitutability of relationship lending and collateral. The present study adds to the debate by drawing on the survey of 102 randomly selected manufacturing SMEs in Ethiopia. Our binary logistic regression results suggest that banks in Ethiopia are cautious in extending credit to SMEs, evidenced by simultaneous usage of relationships, collateral and other criteria, suggesting complementarity between collateral and relationship lending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the European Commission's proposals to include the repo market – a market systemic to European (shadow) banking – in the financial transactions tax (FTT). It asks why the FTT governments negotiating under the enhanced co-operation procedure quickly removed the repo market from the scope of the FTT. It argues that the European repo market, rather than a shadow market energized by regulatory arbitrage, as it is customary to portray it, grew out of a public–private joint venture before the crisis. Thus, regulators became deeply embedded – through their government bond markets and policy frameworks – in (repo) market-based finance. This convergence in public and private interests creates new trade-offs and ambiguous preferences that allow private finance to successfully mobilize resistance to reform, creating coalitions with public actors such as the European Central Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the effect of the collateral informal lenders use to ensure loan repayment. Specifically we measure how the use of movable and immovable assets affects loan repayment and delinquency rate, and assess the extent to which guarantorship and relationship-lending act as collateral to improve loan repayment. With a dataset of 835 individual borrowers drawn from an informal Tanzanian lending institution, we run descriptive and econometric models. The results suggest that movable assets increase the likelihood that borrowers perceived to be less creditworthy will obtain loans from informal sources and repay them. We also find a small proportion of customers to have pledged immovable assets as collateral when borrowing from informal lenders. The results also show the positive effect of referral, which implies that relationship lending and social collateral is key to increasing access to finance through informal lenders. Our results contribute to the advancement of economic theory, specifically in the ex-ante and ex-post-related literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a closed-form formula for calculating the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio in an adjusted-rate reverse mortgage (RM) with a lump sum payment. Previous literatures consider the pricing of RM in a constant interest rate assumption and price it on fixed-rate loans. This paper successfully considers the dynamic of interest rate and the adjustable-rate RM simultaneously. This paper also considers the housing price shock into the valuation model. Assuming that house prices follow a jump diffusion process with a stochastic interest rate and that the loan interest rate is adjusted instantaneously according to the short rate, we demonstrate that the LTV ratio is independent of the term structure of interest rates. This argument holds even when housing prices follow a general process: an exponential Lévy process. In addition, the HECM (Home Equity Conversion Mortgage) program may be not sustainable, especially for a higher level of housing price volatility. Finally, when the loan interest rate is adjusted periodically according to the LIBOR rate, our finding reveals that the LTV ratio is insensitive to the parameters characterizing the CIR model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the haircut regulatory framework issued by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) for non-centrally cleared securities financing transactions (SFTs). Topics discussed include the securities lending risks in the shadow banking system, the cash-collateralised securities lending, and the special repurchase agreements or repos. It also mentioned the SFTs' rules on haircuts in over-the-counter (OTC) market.

General education teachers often implement classroom practices to address the needs of selected children with clinically significant behavior problems. The extent to which such practices affect the classmates of the selected children is an important question. Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) is a teacher-delivered classroom intervention, designed for and validated to improve the peer relationships of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The current study examined the collateral effects of MOSAIC on 113 typically developing (TD) classmates (ages 6.8-9.8, 47% boys) of the children with ADHD; TD children did not meet criteria for any clinical disorder. All children were enrolled in a summer program containing 16 classrooms with teachers randomly assigned to MOSAIC or to an active comparison intervention condition. Results indicated that TD children showed reduced negative sociometric nominations from peers, increased reciprocated friendships, and reduced negative interactions with peers in MOSAIC. The positive effects of MOSAIC were accentuated for TD children with higher levels of disruptive behavior. In sum, the benefits of a peer relationship intervention targeted for children with ADHD may extend to TD classmates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of collateralization through a change of funding cost is now well recognized among practitioners. In this article, the authors have extended previous studies of collateralized derivative pricing to more generic situations, i.e. asymmetric and imperfect collateralization with the associated counterparty credit risk. By introducing the collateral coverage ratio, their framework can handle these issues in a unified manner. Although the resultant pricing formula becomes a nonlinear forward–backward stochastic differential equation and cannot be solved exactly, its first-order approximation is provided using the Gateaux derivative. The authors have shown that it allows one to decompose the price of a generic contract into three parts: a market benchmark, a bilateral credit value adjustment (CVA), and a collateral cost adjustment (CCA) independent of the credit risk. Each term is studied closely, and the significant impact is demonstrated of asymmetric collateralization through CCA using numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securities financing (ie repos and cash-driven securities loans) provide short-term credit against securities collateral, and offer a valuable alternative to short-term bank finance. These markets are an important aspect of the shadow banking system, where unregulated maturity transformation and leverage was implicated in the recent financial crisis. International regulatory reform initiatives, particularly by the Financial Stability Board, are timely, generally well-targeted and welcome. Less welcome is alarmism about the substantive law basis of securities financing. This discussion is intended to show those concerns to be unfounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a significant legislative challenge in many jurisdictions around the world a decade on from the events of 11 September 2001. Using Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as case studies, it aims to assess the relative effectiveness of regular and extraordinary review mechanisms at the national level in leading to the improvement of anti-terrorism laws. That such mechanisms often appear to meet with only muted success says something about their institutional weakness and also the tension that inheres in legislatures as simultaneously legal and political institutions. Further, it reflects the authority and legitimacy to which national security law quickly lays claim in a political culture. This makes it resistant to reform, even when aspects of it can be said to be part of the terrorist problem rather than its solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many households and businesses in developing countries are said to face credit constraints which limit their ability to undertake investments in various production-enhancing economic activities required to reduce poverty. This limited access to formal credit is often attributed to the lack of ‘acceptable’ collateral, resulting from the absence of formally registered land titles. Despite the fact that this assertion is fast gaining ground, land registration has not been found empirically to positively influence access to credit. This article seeks to critically examine the above argument and provide credible theoretical explanations as to why previous studies in the developing world have failed to establish any significant positive link between land registration and access to credit. It is argued that formalising property titles alone will not be enough solve the problem of limited access to credit in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores the developments that are relevant to banking and finance law as well as matter regarding the sovereign immunity and foreign state interests in Great Britain. It discusses the amendments of the Financial Markets and Insolvency Regulations 2010 to the Financial Markets and Insolvency to the Financial Markets and Insolvency Regulations 1999 and to the Financial Collateral Arrangements Regulations 2003. It further mentions the indirect enforcement of a foreign sovereign interest and the act of state doctrine as well as exercise of rights and waivers of defaults.

In seventeenth-century England, most proposals for new banking institutions focused on addressing contemporary obstacles to creating confidence in the proposed institutions. In proposals for banks of charity in the first half of the century, bank proposers were concerned primarily with usurious pawnbrokers, and with ameliorating the problems they caused. In proposals for Lombard banks that appeared in the 1650s, proposers employed terms such as ‘pawn’, ‘fund’, and ‘security’ rhetorically in emphasizing the security of the envisioned institutions. The struggle for confidence over the course of the century shows that institutional credit neither emerged fully formed nor swept disorder away. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Privacy is at the core of civil rights from which all other human rights and freedoms flow. Since the twentieth century, and particularly since 9/11, rapid deployment of information and surveillance technologies in the name of national security has grave implications for individual privacy and human rights. This article reviews major strands in contemporary privacy-security debate, while critiquing existing conceptualisations of privacy that are inadequate in the context of multifaceted and ubiquitous surveillance technologies post 9/11. Further, this paper contends most privacy-security debate overlooks unequal consequences for targeted populations (e.g. people of Middle Eastern, Arab or South Asian descent and Muslims). Finally, the paper emphasises the need for more accountability on part of the watchers and more expansive notions of privacy and security to uphold the well-being of individuals, society and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Financial Collateral Arrangements (No 2) Regulations 2003 have recently been amended to include credit claims as financial collateral, to provide a partial definition of "possession" and to allow the claims of a person holding floating security on financial collateral to rank ahead of claims ranking as administration and liquidation expenses. This article analyses the effects of these changes and identifies other changes which were not made - the opportunity missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Turkey's accession to the EU has been securitised by the French and German right, according to the Copenhagen School's constructivist explanation of securitisation as a 'speech act'. Moreover, like other critical security schools, the Copenhagen School argues that security is not limited to the state or the military, but that securitisation may take place in other sectors, with the political, economic, environmental and societal spheres as its referent object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking security in Spain may pose some uncertainties to non-Spanish lenders as, in general, strict formalities are required to perfect the granting of the security, and the risk of rescission may hover over the securities when insolvency proceedings are commenced. Lenders may also encounter issues and difficulties when foreclosure of a security is required. The purpose of this article is to assist foreign lenders (and their counsel) in the process of considering, negotiating and perfecting security interests in Spain (ie security over assets located in Spain and over which, according to Spanish law, a Spanish law security may be created) and to avoid and mitigate any risks of rescission set forth under Spanish law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]