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Sharia multifinance companies are one of Indonesia's Islamic non-bank financial industries that also utilize technological advances to facilitate people who want to apply for Islamic financing online. This study aims to analyse to analyze the determinants of awareness and intention of Indonesian muslim to become a customer of sharia multifinance companies. This study was quantitative by using questionnaire as the method of collecting data which distributed to a total of 418 respondents. The data analysed by using structural equation models with Smart PLS software. The results of this study found that religious commitment, awareness and reputation have a positive and significant impact on the intention to become a customer of sharia multifinance companies. The results of this study contribute to increase the understanding of sharia multifinance companies on the awareness and intention of Muslim in Indonesia to become their customer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web applications are utilized everywhere these days to share services and data online. Because companies deal with sensitive data, hackers have found them attractive targets. Vulnerabilities persist despite the numerous security procedures we've created to safeguard these applications. Major security issues have been identified in web applications used by various organizations, such as banks, healthcare providers, finance companies, and retail businesses. Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks are one of the most significant issues, according to a report from White Hat Security. These attacks enable hackers to execute harmful programs on a user's web browser, resulting in issues such as the theft of data, cookies, passwords, and credit card numbers. This study focuses on the primary weaknesses present in contemporary web applications, particularly XSS attacks. We go over the many kinds of XSS attacks, provide instances from the real world, and describe how they operate. We also examine defenses against these attacks, discussing what works and what doesn't. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the impact of financial indicators on the credit ratings of companies listed on the S&P 500, employing a Sys-GMM model to address endogeneity concerns. Three independent variables categorized as market and survival factors alongside seven control variables sourced from leverage, liquidity, interest coverage, profitability, market, survival, and macroeconomic domains were investigated. The sample consisted of 2398 observations from Capital IQ Pro, spanning nine years (2013 to 2021) and encompassing 240 public companies. The findings suggest that neither Tobin's Q (TQ) nor Total Shareholder Return (TSR) lack significant correlations with credit ratings, implying that stock market performance and total shareholder return do not directly impact credit ratings. In contrast, the Altman Z-score (AZS) emerged as a significant predictor, indicating its importance in assessing credit risk. These insights enhance the understanding of financial indicators' impacts on credit ratings, aiding financial institutions and companies in prudent lending and financing decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era where crowdfunding in Portugal is garnering increased public attention, exemplified by notable campaigns like the recent funding of the nurses' strike, we explore its potential as an alternative financial source to traditional banking. Through a comprehensive case study, we delve into pertinent issues, encompassing European legislation, market dynamics, and a survey disseminated to representatives of the four prominent Portuguese crowdfunding platforms. Comprising forty-one questions across four categories, the survey extracts insights on platform details, company/project information, investor perspectives, and the financing process, along with an evaluation of platform advantages/disadvantages vis-à-vis traditional banking. Despite heightened visibility, crowdfunding remains relatively unfamiliar to the broader public, yet it diverges from banking not as a substitute but as a complementary financial mechanism. Emphasizing accessibility, process agility, and reduced bureaucracy, crowdfunding serves as a means of swiftly gaining recognition for a company or project while tapping into a broad audience. Rather than competition, it offers supplementary support, facilitating the identification and validation of investment opportunities and concepts. Moreover, it streamlines subsequent interactions with banks and investors, enhancing confidence in a project's viability. In essence, crowdfunding emerges not as an alternative but a strategic complement, enriching the financial landscape with its unique attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the relationship between stock prices, credit ratings, and ESG scores for banks internationally. First, it describes stock prices and ESG scores at an annual frequency, as well as stock price and credit risk at a daily frequency. The relationships between (a) stock price and credit rating returns with ESG score returns and (b) among ESG scores are examined by pairwise annual correlation, and daily correlations are examined between price and credit rating returns. Furthermore, Granger causality is used to examine the relationships between the following: (a) price and ESG score annual returns; (b) price and credit rating daily returns; and (c) total and pillar annual ESG scores. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing a detailed temporal analysis using both annual and daily data frequencies, which is relatively rare in the field. There is evidence of statistically and empirically important relations in the form of pairwise correlations. The regressions reveal a low significance of few ESG score changes in explaining credit rating changes. A unique aspect of this paper is the comprehensive analysis of 16 granular ESG scores, including overall scores, pillar scores, and sub-scores, allowing for a multi-faceted understanding of how specific ESG factors impact financial metrics. We found evidence of the significance of COVID-19 in all research questions. Additionally, this paper highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationships between ESG scores, credit ratings, and stock prices, offering timely insights into the heightened importance and volatility of ESG factors during crisis periods. Future research needs to shed more light on this relationship, however. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most entrepreneurs seek VC funding after the reward-based crowdfunding campaign succeeds, and venture capitalists (VCs) can contribute to the project in two aspects: investment and operational expertise. With a game-theoretical model, we find that entrepreneurs face twelve possible scenarios contingent on the mass market revenue and revenue share, including the six scenarios wherein neither side exerts effort to complete the project. To attract VC funding and ensure the project completion after a campaign success, entrepreneurs should set the funding goal above a certain threshold. Specifically, we identify three ranges of the revenue share and derive the lower bound for the funding goal in each range. However, we notice that entrepreneurs prefer a low funding goal to promise the campaign success and the optimal goal will be the lower bound in each range. Moreover, we show that the revenue share is decisive to the role of VCs in the project. If the entrepreneur's share exceeds a high threshold, the venture capitalist becomes a pure investor with no incentive to exert effort, similar to the role of banks; if the share is less than a low threshold, the entrepreneur won't follow up but transfers the project, and the VC investor will be a project owner; if the share stays medium, the VC investor acts as a partner and there may exist "free-riding". In the extension, we consider the revenue share an endogenous and analyse the role of VCs further. Interestingly, the VC investor prefers to own the project and occupy all revenue in mass market, while the entrepreneur treats the inefficient venture capitalist as a pure investor and the efficient one as a partner. In addition, when cooperating with efficient VCs, the entrepreneur is more likely to enlarge her share as the mass market revenue increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we developed an approach for the empirical testing of the relationship between the financing choices of companies and the abnormal returns obtained by their shareholders. We innovate by incorporating controls on how this relationship is affected by the capabilities of each funding source, at different levels of returns, through quantile regression. The estimation of the model for a sample of Brazilian companies indicates the inexistence of a significant relationship between abnormal returns and debt issuance. The same occurs between abnormal returns and equity issuance, with one exception: when there is a deficit of internal financing that extrapolates the available safe debt and the abnormal returns are, at least, median, this relationship becomes significant and positive. Considered as a whole, the results suggest an indifference to the sources of funds used by the company. Among the contributions, we highlight the incorporation of the aforementioned controls, which bridges the gap identified in the literature relating business financial flows and stock returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China's automobile industry has undergone rapid development, creating new opportunities for the auto loan industry. Currently, auto financing companies are actively seeking to expand their cooperation with banks. Therefore, improving the approval rate and scale of joint loan business is of significant practical importance. In this paper, we propose a Stacking‐based financial institution risk approval model and select the optimal stacking model by comparing its performance with other models. Additionally, we construct a bank approval model using deep learning techniques on a biased data set, with feature extraction performed using convolution neural networks (CNN) and feature‐based counterfactual augmentation used for balanced sampling. Finally, we optimize the model of the prediction of auto finance companies by selecting the optimal coefficients of loss function based on the features and results of the bank approval model. The proposed approach leads to an approximately 6% increase in the joint loan approval rate on the actual data set, as demonstrated by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of the study is that the pandemic has affected the financial stability of many businesses. The purpose of the study is to consider the features of bank lending to businesses in a pandemic. Providing credit in the era of the coronavirus is associated with increased risk. However, this does not mean that it is impossible to obtain new funding. Banks still offer a variety of credit products, including mortgages and cash or credit card loans. Changes in the level of debt mask the distinction between new borrowings and repayments of existing amounts. Business loans are mostly short-term, and their rates can be adjusted relatively easily. Historical data shows that on average, 90% of new business loans have a variable or fixed rate with a maturity of less than one year. The huge surge in loans to new businesses is primarily conditioned upon this short-term financing. The speed and scale of the return of the gap to the pandemic is unprecedented. The practical significance lies in the analysis of problems and obstacles to bank lending to businesses in a pandemic, and ways to solve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narcissistic managers with characteristics such as desire for fame and power seeking to protect their interests have the necessary motivation to be effective on the relationship between discretionary accruals and credit rating and, as a result, change the credit rating of companies to their desired rating. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between discretionary accruals and credit rating by considering the moderating effect of managers' narcissism. The statistical sample of the current research includes 113 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and 17 companies listed on the Iranian Foreign Exchange in the period of 2011-2021. The data of this research was collected by referring to the Kodal website, the website of the Iranian Statistics Center and Rahvard Novin software. Hypotheses were tested through multivariate regression models and generalized least squares approach using EViews 12 software. The results of the statistical test of research hypotheses confirm that discretionary accruals have a positive and significant effect on the credit rating of economic units. That is, with the increase of discretionary accrual items, the credit rating of economic units increases. Also, the findings of the research indicate that there is a moderating effect of managers' narcissism with three indicators of the size of managers' signatures, managers' cash bonus and managers' photo in the relationship between discretionary accruals and the credit rating of economic units. In other words, managers' narcissism based on the indicators of the size of managers' signatures, managers' cash bonus and managers' photos strengthens the positive relationship between discretionary accruals and credit rating. Based on these results, credit rating agencies are suggested to pay more attention to the narcissistic factors of managers and discretionary accruals in the credit rating process of economic units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic Easy House Financing (IEHF) increased from RS. 6.8 billion to RS 23.3 billion over 10 years. Identifying the factors that affect the satisfaction of both Muslim and non-Muslim clients with Islamic Easy House Financing (IEHF) is significant. This research then considers the major variables that impact Pakistan's choice of Islamic Easy House Finance (IEHF). Questionnaires were distributed to 160 employees of Meezan Islamic Bank. The current study employed a testing strategy called random sampling. The questionnaire was divided into two segments. One segment included data about the segments, while the other segment focused on the factors that influence how Muslims finance their Islamic Easy House (IEHF). The results demonstrate that several significant variables impact the choice of Islamic Easy House Financing (IEHF), including circumstances, management quality, integrity, prominence in the media, and social impact. The most reliable indication is reputation, as most customers feel comfortable choosing Islamic Easy House Finance (IEHF) because Islamic Meezan Bank has a strong reputation and vision. The study needs to be completely structured. The focus also refers to representatives of a single financial institution. Future research may involve personnel from various Islamic financial institutions. Policymakers and directors could use the tests suggested in the current study as a guide for enhancing Islamic Meezan Bank products and services. There will be an article published on Pakistan's Meezan Islamic Bank as part of the study. This research is the first to examine Pakistan's easy-house-choice Shari'ah laws. For experts and scholars concerned about advancements in Pakistan's Meezan Islamic Bank's banking sector, the findings made throughout this research process will be of the utmost importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses developments in automotive finance in the U.S. Topics include the settlement made by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on junk fees and discriminatory practices of Passport Automotive Group, Inc., actions taken by the Massachusetts attorney general against an automobile group operating two dealerships in Massachusetts and against a nationwide automobile captive finance company, and state regulation of ancillary products.

This paper empirically evaluates the impact of ownership structure on the cost of credit in US banks. It does so by comparing their grouped option-adjusted credit spreads on the outstanding debt issues. As the overall risk of the creditors is reflected in the yield spread of the firms' outstanding bonds, separately classifying bank-holding companies and stand-alone banks and controlling risk ratings, maturities, and issue sizes enables us to compare the yield spreads tied to ownership structure. After computing the option-adjusted yield spreads of outstanding operating and holding company bonds, we used these values in a master regression equation to test the statistical and economic significance of the binary variable separating the option-adjusted spreads of the two sets. Our work finds that when the S&P ranks and maturities are controlled, US bank-holding companies finances with higher cost of credit compared with stand-alone banks, although holding companies add a layer of liability protection due to the legal separation between the assets and the owners. This suggests that certain characteristics of US bank-holding companies, such as higher leverage and higher systematic risk levels, make them riskier compared with traditional stand-alone banks, offsetting the benefits of forming a holding company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banking sector is one such field where the company needs more accurate results after analysis. There are many people applying for bank loans from banks or other finance companies each day. But the banks cannot provide loan to every individual who is applying for loan. There is a very complex task that the bank employees do to study an analyze if the applicant is genuine or not. To find this out, there are a lot of factors to be considered. Going through this huge amount of data can be a really difficult task and yet one cannot be sure if the applicant will be able to pay back the loan within the given time or not. Objective of the paper is to make thorough analysis of the test data and make predictions if the applicant is genuine or not. For this process, we are using Machine Learning where the trained data is used to make predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the credit risk of large European companies. We selected corporations belonged to the EuroStoxx 50 Index and whose CDS (Credit Default Swap) may be found in the iTraxx Europe Index. Then we applied the methodology of event studies to our database of companies, chosen as the event, the day of the declaration of pandemic by the WHO. The results indicate that the significance levels of the CAR (Cummulative Abnormal Default) show that the impact on the credit risk of the companies, as measured by the change in the spread of CDS, is important and depending on the sector in which the corporation is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the task of managing the finances of a company with branches when funds are saved on the central company account, from which payments for the expenses of the branches are made. The dynamics of these expenses may have similar dynamics, which makes it possible to build a single model for the entire group. This article is devoted to the construction of theoretical concepts of the nonlinear dynamics approach and the formalization of criteria for combining time series into a single model. We introduce the concept of series with the same type of symmetrical seasonality, based on phase portraits, which allows formalizing the similarity criterion based on symmetry transformations. Considering time series that are recognized as similar, we bypass nonstationarity by considering the series included in the group as realizations of a random process. Finally, the use of new concepts allows solving an important practical problem, reducing the analysis to grouping by seasonal similarity and statistical characteristics of deviations when symmetry transformations are violated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, supply chain finance is a very important topic. Traditional supply chains rely on banks to support the related financing activities and services. With the emergence of blockchain technology, more and more companies in different industries have considered using it to support supply chain finance. In this paper, we study supply chain financing problems in supply chains selling fashionable products. Modeling under the standard newsvendor problem setting with a single manufacturer and a single retailer employing a revenue sharing contract, we develop analytical models for both the traditional and blockchain-supported supply chains. We derive the optimal contracting and quantity decisions in each supply chain with Nash bargaining between the manufacturer and retailer. We analytically show how the revenue sharing contract can coordinate both types of supply chains. We then compare the optimal systems performances between the two supply chains. We prove that the blockchain-supported supply chain incurs a lower level of operational risk than the traditional supply chain. We have shown that if the service fees by banks are sufficiently high, adopting blockchain technology is a mean-risk dominating policy which brings a higher expected profit and a lower risk for the supply chain and its members. For robustness checking, we examine other commonly seen supply chain contracts and alternative risk measures, and analytically reveal that the results remain valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the phenomenon of digitization in financial-banking institutions, and how entrepreneurs active in various fields of activity have turned to digitization to continue their activities despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. We can say that digitisation is the future, because it doesn't just help us in times of pandemic or other crisis situations, digitisation is the future of the banking industry, because consumers want to work with banks that can offer remote and quality services, and all categories of customers want to work with those companies that find innovative solutions and can provide them with services through technology. Bankers and entrepreneurs need to find a balance between legislation and market regulation, between risk management and consumers. We can say that the future belongs to digitised, standardised banks that understand and comply with legislation and regulation and that place a high value on innovation. We can talk about the era of digitisation as having been accelerated by the pandemic, which is why a lot of measures have been taken to make information as easy as possible, with all banks, as well as other companies and financial-banking institutions, strengthening their websites and solutions for remote access to their banking offer or banking products, such as applications (banking). A good number of banks already offer the possibility to get basic products directly from websites or apps: current account opening, debit cards, credit or shopping cards, personal loans and even deposits. A secure and risk-free digital solution is certME. With the certME solution, customers no longer need to be physically present at the counters and interact with their own staff for the identification processes specific to digital onboarding and Know Your Customer procedures, enjoying many advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies have increasingly used supply chain financing instead of bank financing when engaging with financially constrained suppliers. We investigate the effectiveness of different financing mechanisms at supporting supply chain responsibility. We consider a decentralized supply chain where a buyer sources from a financially constrained supplier who borrows from either a bank or the buyer to finance his production. The buyer audits the supplier for responsibility compliance and will refuse to accept and pay for the order if the supplier fails the audit. We find that under conventional bank financing, the bank is concerned with the supplier's audit failure and will raise the interest rate. This not only hinders the supplier's compliance effort but also hurts the profitability of every stakeholder. In contrast, under buyer financing, the buyer may offer the supplier a low interest rate to motivate him to be more compliant when the supplier's collateral is of low value. However, if the supplier's collateral is of high value, the buyer may be tempted to set a high interest rate to exploit the supplier—leading to a reduction in supplier's compliance and supply chain profitability. Thus, we conclude that buyer (bank) financing is more preferable for encouraging responsibility when the supplier has low (high) collateral. Our findings suggest that buyer financing may not always be an effective approach for encouraging supply chain responsibility. As such, we propose an alternative mechanism under which the buyer offers a reward to the supplier if he passes the audit while the supplier continues to borrow from a bank. We prove that this combination of bank financing and buyer reward always improves the compliance level and in most cases increases the total supply chain profit. It is even more effective than buyer financing in encouraging responsibility especially when the supplier's collateral is of low value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the theory of legitimacy and the theoretical perspective of New Institutional Economics, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of economic freedom over the relationship between Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) practices and profitability. The sample was finance companies located in the Americas, between 2017 and 2020, using the Refinitiv Eikon® database. The analysis used data modeling in a hierarchical panel. Results demonstrate that ESG practices have a positive and significant impact on profitability. Individually, only the social variable showed a positive and significant relationship over profitability. As for the moderating effect of economic freedom, it was shown that economic freedom enhances the relationship between an ESG index and profitability, and only enhances the relationship between corporate governance and profitability when analyzed individually. Furthermore, findings imply that a country's institutional quality has an important influence on ESG practices and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze and generalize the factors influencing credit decision-making in Turkey's service sector, which has seen substantial growth and increased dynamism post-2000, coinciding with accelerated economic development. The evolving competitive landscape and shifting consumer purchasing perceptions have led companies within this sector to seek differentiation strategies to attain a competitive edge. In this context, access to credit emerges as a crucial enabler for companies to expand and capture market share. The research focuses on the financial and non-financial characteristics of medium-sized service sector firms seeking credit, recognizing that both sets of variables play a pivotal role in the credit allocation process conducted by banks. The core of this study involves applying established assumption tests from extant literature, followed by an extensive regression analysis. The primary objective of this analysis is to identify and underscore the key financial and non-financial factors that significantly impact credit decisions in the service sector. By examining these variables, the study seeks to contribute valuable insights into the credit decision-making process, addressing the nuanced and varied nature of the service sector. This approach not only provides a deeper understanding of the sector's credit dynamics but also assists in formulating more informed strategies for businesses seeking financial support within this evolving economic landscape. The primary conclusion reached by the study is that non-financial variables exert a greater influence on credit decision-making in the service sector compared to financial variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While disclosing financial information has been widely proved to reduce the financing cost of a company, the impact of non-financial information, such as sustainability information, disclosing on the financing cost of the company is still in debate. The goal of this paper is to explore the impact of disclosing sustainability-related information on the cost of equity for firms. The paper first introduces the concept of sustainability information disclosure, and then exhibits its benefit through exploring its impact on reducing a firm's financing cost. It uses the Gartner supply chain top 50 rankings to construct the experiment environment to test for the effect of sustainability information disclosure on the cost of equity capital. The study uses the Gartner top 50 supply chain rankings from 2013 to 2017 to construct the experiment environment, and test for the sustainability information disclosure's impact on reducing the cost of equity capital. The regressions, which are based on the 350 firm-year sample of the United States and the 604 global firm-year sample, indicate that sustainability information disclosure significantly reduced the cost of equity capital. This paper uses a fixed effect regression method to analyze the impact of sustainability information disclosure. According to the regression result, the sustainability information disclosure variable has a significant negative coefficient. The result is robust under many settings. Thus, the paper finds that sustainability information disclosure significantly diminishes the cost of equity capital, controlling for ESG information disclosure. It also discusses the implications of the findings and future research directions for sustainability information disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an online experiment with a sample of finance professionals and participants from the general population (acting as clients), we examine drivers and motives of clients' choices to delegate investment decisions to agents. We find that clients favor delegation to investment algorithms, followed by delegation to finance professionals compensated with an aligned incentive scheme, and lastly to finance professionals receiving a fixed payment for investing on behalf of others. We show that trust in investment algorithms or finance professionals, and clients' propensity to shift blame on others increase the likelihood of delegation, whereas clients' own decision-making quality is associated with a decrease in delegation frequency. This paper was accepted by Bruno Biais, finance. Funding: This work was supported by Austrian Science Fund [Grants SFB F63 and Y617-G11], Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) [Grant 2015-01713], and Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian National Bank) [Grant 17788]. M. Holmén and E. Wengström acknowledge funding from the Swedish House of Finance. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4555. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: This article surveys the evolution of commercial finance in Ming-Qing China and responds to the debates about the role of finance in the “Great Divergence” between China and Europe. Methodology: Based on new historical materials, especially commercial documents, we study the evolution of financial organizations at different levels as delineated by Fernand Braudel. We also analyze the long-run trends of commercial interest rates in the Ming-Qing eras based on a novel historical database of interest rates in China. Originality: This article explores capital market developments since the 16th century and their relationship with the state —a topic that has been almost entirely neglected in the existing literature. We also find improvements in market integration in China before the late 19th century when Western financial institutions began to enter China, and the prime commercial interest rate in the capital market was much lower than the dominant accounts in the “Great Divergence” debate. Conclusions: While current comparative studies either emphasize the financial stagnation of Ming-Qing China relative to the West or emphasize its special development through non-market mechanisms, e.g., clans, this article shows that the capital market played a similar key role in the evolution of finance in Ming-Qing China as it did in advanced parts of Europe. Thus, we suggest that the difference in financial development between China and the West lies in the organizational structure of the financial sector and the relationship between finance and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to assess the efficiency of housing finance companies operating in India by applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We analyse 26 housing finance companies' efficiency using various key financial indicators. In addition to DEA, we utilised Tobit regression to investigate the determinants of efficiency in housing finance companies. The findings indicate that large firms need internal restructuring of their coefficients to achieve efficiency, while small firms maintain efficiency within their capacity in the given scenarios. The total factor productivity change for housing finance companies was the highest in 2020–21, followed by a comparative decline in the subsequent year. By considering censored or truncated data, Tobit regression allows us to identify the specific factors influencing efficiency scores derived through DEA. The independent variables used in the Tobit regression model include financial indicators and other relevant factors impacting housing finance companies' efficiency. Overall, this study sheds light on the performance of housing finance companies and highlights the financial parameters necessary for maintaining a robust non-banking financial system in the Indian economy. The combination of DEA and Tobit regression provides a comprehensive understanding of efficiency and aids in identifying areas for improvement in the housing finance sector while benefiting policymakers and industry stakeholders alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the investor's investment decision in a standard financial contracting model. The investor chooses among entrepreneurs with heterogeneous production technologies who generate different probability distributions of cash flow under effort. I provide a complete characterization of optimal contracts, agency rents, and the investor's investment decision. Differences in entrepreneurs' production technologies imply differences in optimal contracts and agency rents across equally productive entrepreneurs, which biases and potentially distorts the investor's investment decision. The results provide a complete characterization of entrepreneurs' financial constraints in the presence of heterogeneous production technologies and uncover a fundamental link between production technologies, financial contracts, and financial constraints. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance. Funding: This work was supported by the Swedish House of Finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shipping Enterprise Credit Named Entity Recognition (NER) aims to recognize shipping enterprise credit entities from unstructured shipping enterprise credit texts. Aiming at the problem of low entity recognition rate caused by complex and diverse entities and nesting phenomenon in the field of shipping enterprise credit, a deep learning method based on multi-feature fusion is proposed to improve the recognition effect of shipping enterprise credit entities. In this study, the shipping enterprise credit dataset is manually labeled using the BIO labeling model, combining the pre-trained model Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) with conditional random field (CRF) to form the BERT-BiGRU-CRF model, and changing the input of the model from a single feature vector to a multi-feature vector (MF) after stitching character vector features, word vector features, word length features, and part-of-speech (pos) features; BiGRU is introduced to extract the contextual features of shipping enterprise credit texts. Finally, CRF completes the sequence annotation task. According to the experimental results, using the BERT-MF-BiGRU-CRF model for NER of shipping enterprise credit text data, the F1 Score (F1) reaches 91.7%, which is 8.37% higher than the traditional BERT-BiGRU-CRF model. The experimental results show that the BERT-MF-BiGRU-CRF model can effectively perform NER for shipping enterprise credit text data, which is helpful to construct a credit knowledge graph for shipping enterprises, while the research results can provide references for complex entities and nested entities recognition in other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small companies face significant difficulties in accessing finance, and the use of bank credit and trade credit are the primary sources of financing, specifically in small countries, with little market liquidity, and focused on the banking system, as is the case of Portugal. The main objective of this article is to identify significant drivers of bank and trade credit, as well as investigate the complementary or substitutive relationship between them, considering that both constitute an essential source of financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The sample comprises 5860 companies, and the analysis was performed using panel data methodology (2010–2019). The results suggest that, during the period in which the financial crisis was most felt in the country (2010–2013), companies intensified their demand for trade credit, and in the following years for bank credit. Our evidence does support the substitution hypothesis between trade and bank credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel, the nation, and the family, arising in the age of colonisation, are structures deeply imbricated in each other, providing the imaginaries that sustain each other. The contemporary emergence of world literature therefore requires a model different from the family. This essay argues that the contemporary South Asian novel centres new modes of affiliation and kinship that are enabled by global institutions--the multinational finance company and the university--in order to provide an alternative to the site of the family, the imagined basis for the nation's community. By looking at three novels written by authors of Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi origins respectively--Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), Neel Mukherjee's The Lives of Others (2014), and Zia Haider Rahman's In the Light of What We Know (2014)--I indicate that rather than a unified 'global imaginary' that replaces a previous national one, the characters in these novels find themselves imbricated in conflicting contracts of affiliation. It is the allure of class-based solidarity and the political community enabled by the university that the contemporary South Asian Anglophone novel proffers as models of imagining the world through various acts of affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to establish which sources of financing were used and the relevance of different banking products for Portuguese companies during the pandemic. We also intend to understand the determinants of companies' financing options and what lies behind their decisions concerning the appropriate level of debt. A quantitative methodology was used, based on a questionnaire given to Portuguese companies to analyse different financing issues. The sample was composed of 1957 companies with a business volume of more than EUR 500,000 per year. The results show that Portuguese companies focused on managing liquidity and corporate risk. We found evidence that companies kept financing themselves by banking products such as in the pre-pandemic period, although 29.6% resorted to the LAE-COVID economy support line. Companies decide on the appropriate amount of debt based on the nature of the business, the phase of the life cycle in which the company is, the cash flows' volatility, accounting results, credit rating, and fiscal benefits. Academicians and companies should master the concept of company financing and adopt strategies to consider the level of debt and refine the banking products to be used. Although the literature on business financial management usually claims that all crises are the same, the COVID-19 pandemic not only caused a recession but also forced people and companies to adapt to a new environment. Portuguese companies have shown resilience and focus on their adoption of good financing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to analyze whether the institute of judicial reorganization of companies has viability in the context of Economic Analysis of Law, taking into account its reflexes on the cost of credit in Brazil and consequently on society as a whole. The method of approach followed was empirical-dialectical, using bibliographic and legislative research. In conclusion, it was verified that the institute of judicial reorganization of companies, in the current national scenario, does not have viability in face of the theoretical framework of Economic Analysis of Law, considering that it provides short-term benefits only to those who participate directly in its process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shariah Authority plays an essential role in confirming that the products and services of Islamic finance companies comply with Shariah principles. The Shariah Advisory Board and the National Shariah Council are the highest authorities for determining Islamic law for Islamic financial transactions in Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively -the Shariah Advisory Board of Malaysia reports to the Central Bank of Malaysia. At the same time, the National Shariah Council of Indonesia was part of the Indonesian Ulema Council, a non-governmental organisation. The latter is thus part of the regulatory framework and complements the financial system. As the two councils are different in nature, the rulings have different implications for the community. This article aims to analyse the status of the Shariah Authority in terms of the establishment and procedures for deriving the rulings. The research is qualitative and uses content analysis by looking at the legislation that governs these institutions. The research findings show that the Shariah authority in both countries has the same function in the industry but differs in terms of the creation of the rulings, the procedures and the attachment to the Islamic financial institutions, courts and arbitrators. In conclusion, the article proposes several improvements by the relevant agencies to strengthen the framework of the Shariah authority in Malaysia and Indonesia, leading to accountable administration to the industry, the community and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Direito GV is the property of Fundacao Getulio Vargas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A value chain framework for guiding the financial firms in their credit decisions is urgent, as the current COVID‐19 pandemic has highlighted, but missing in the extant literature, particularly for those that lend to industries sensitive to value and supply chain bottlenecks. This study creates knowledge in value chain finance, a big untapped and un‐researched market. It constructs, confirms, and validates a value chain framework for assessing risks in lending to Agro and Food Processing firms in which value chain risks are major business concerns globally. To pursue the objectives of the study, we use a novel methodology that integrates the Modified Delphi technique, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and discriminant analysis. Based on testing and analysis of primary data, including loan data, a framework comprising six factors is proposed for use in conjunction with existing risk assessment models of finance companies to improve the quality of their credit decisions, contributing to their performance sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a famous saying: Money changes companies and companies change money. Nowadays there are more and more opinions about the future of money and central banks. Is money issuance still a function of central banks? Regulation or deregulation? Society without physical money? These are just some of the questions we hear from both the general public and the financial banking world. This paper is a small study of money issuance and its necessity from a central bank perspective. The study on the US case is based on data published by the Federal Reserve and brings the US dollar issuance into focus. Based on volume and tightness analysis, the results show that there is still a need for physical currency in the US, especially small denomination. Although credit cards have replaced many cash transactions in recent years, the dollar is a sought-after physical currency outside the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Good earnings quality (EQ) provides reasonable assurance as to the reliability of future cash-flow generation capability of the borrowing firms and thereby mitigates the credit risk of the banks. Against the backdrop of the stressed-assets problem in public-sector banks in India, adversely impacting the public finance system, this paper aims to explore the role of EQ of the borrowers in obtaining bank credit and the ways to mitigate the problem. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of listed 3,486 non-financial and non-government firms, the authors apply Jones (1991) model to estimate their EQ. Then, the authors conduct Hausman's (1970) test and find the existence of a two-way relation between bank finance and EQ. The authors adopt a two-stage least-square regression model to test the nature of the association between the two after controlling for firm and industry-level characteristics. Findings: The empirical results suggest that there exists a two-way negative association between EQ and bank finance implying that the Indian firms tend to report abnormal accruals to enhance tangibility for enjoying higher credit limits and easier access to bank finance. Also, the poor EQ is associated with earnings volatility, adversely impacting the credit quality. The findings are consistent. Practical implications: The study highlights the role of EQ in mitigating credit risk and addressing adverse selection problems in granting credit by practicing bankers. Originality/value: The findings of the study enrich the literature on EQ, capital structure, agency theory and public finance in several ways and have significant ethical and policy implications in bank-finance-led economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates and compares the total risk attributable to holding and operating companies, using data from the United States. By proxying overall risk by the option-adjusted spread on corporate bonds, we hypothesize that operating companies face a higher risk. Our data were obtained from Bloomberg and comprise 17,800 corporate bonds. Our methodology entails stratified univariate comparisons of the means of the option-adjusted spreads of sub-samples of operating companies versus holding companies. The principal bases of stratification are issue size, bond maturity, and creditworthiness proxied by the Standard and Poor ratings. With very few exceptions, our results report insignificant t-statistics, thus making us unable to reject the null hypothesis that the operating companies have the same business risk as holding companies. When bond rating, maturity, and size are controlled, there is no consistent cost reduction attributable to holding companies, and contrary to common belief, this is more visible for smaller firms. Our work suggests that there is no evidence consistently favoring holding-company financing compared to operating ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to solving the puzzle of assessing the financial performance of private/unlisted companies. The inner characteristics of these companies make the adoption of traditional best practices in estimating risk premia difficult or impossible. Moreover, the lack of market data and comparable information biases the perception of corporate performance and generates the misallocation of credit fundings (both quantities and pricing). Hence, in this paper, we develop an Integrated Rating Methodology (IRM) to estimate a more efficient corporate "return-to-risk" measure. Our IRM is rooted in the seminal "certainty equivalent" model as developed by Lintner in 1965, but we modify it using a shortfall approach, and then compute a "confident equivalent" that is compliant with Fischer Black's zero-beta model as well as the Basel agreements. An empirical application of the approach is conducted with a sample of 13,583 non-financial SMEs in the north-east regions of Italy, where there is evidence of inefficient bank financing. We back-test our IRM by rating these companies using corporate financial data during the period 2007–2014, which encompasses both the Great Financial Crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. Our empirical results depict a clear crowding-out effect of credit allocations when we compare our IRM scoring measure with the actual raising ability and the cost of capital relating to these firms. We find that 36% of companies are underfunded, even if they have a superior IRM score, while 27% of them are funded without merit. Interestingly, this last figure is in line with the average non-performing loan ratio provided by official Italian statistics from 2015 to 2020. Therefore, we conclude that our IRM methodology is promising and may be better at estimating risk financing in small private companies (including start-ups) than internal banking models. These initial results will drive our forthcoming research towards creating an IRM 2.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We show that executive ownership is a significant driver of the demand for credit following credit expansion policies. Our focus on credit demand is in contrast to most studies that have focused on credit supply factors such as bank capital. Our identification exploits the large and unexpected Chinese credit expansion in 2008. This setting offers a unique advantage as in 2008 the Chinese government had almost complete control over the banking sector and it directed the banks to increase credit supply. Thus, in this setting, demand, rather than supply, largely drives the observed changes in firms' borrowing. We provide extensive robustness tests to validate our results. This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses development and drivers of accelerated growth of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in Lithuania and its impact on the consumer credit market with a focus on related sustainability issues. Legislative discrepancies between the P2P and banking segments are analysed and their role in predetermining the different development trends within the segments is highlighted. The research is composed of several steps, where each step analyses a certain problem with the aim to compare the processes in both segments, and is using two different approaches based on macroeconomic data and legislative environment analysis. The applied setup of the research allows for distinguishing and quantitative evaluation of the impact on the segments caused by various internal and external factors, such as macroeconomics, technological advantages of P2P platforms, and discrepancies within business regulation. The obtained results could fill in the scientific literature gaps by providing quantitative evidence of the influence the analysed internal and external drivers have on the growth rate of the consumer credit market segments in Lithuania and how this could affect the performance of the whole market, including its sustainability. Conclusions made could be of interest to researchers and practitioners in other countries too, especially those which have similar legislation and regulations within the consumer credit market. Methods used: a scientific literature analysis and generalisation, comparative analysis, statistical data analysis, correlation–regression analysis, mathematical modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an empirically grounded study of financialisation in India and assesses the challenges of theorising financialisation and applying it to developing countries. Drawing on the case study of the Indian telecommunication (telecom) sector, this article then contrasts the characteristics of financialisation in India with those in other developing countries. Using the case study, the key institutions, policies and practices that produce and reproduce financial accumulation in this sector are mapped, detailing how the primary role of finance in the telecom sector has changed from facilitating business to making telecom companies investable financial assets that could be bought and sold for profit. The article shows how the uniqueness of India's financial system leads to a structure where the state, the public sector banks, the big businesses and the financial markets together play a key role in producing and reproducing financialisation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we present a new model of a balanced evaluation system in listed firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The study's statistical analyses were carried out based on the extracted data from 166 questionnaires of listed firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2020. In this paper, Cochran Formula is used for sampling and since all CEOs and financial managers of listed firms on the Stock Exchange were 688 people, the sample volume is 166 people. A questionnaire is used to collect the required information and evaluate the opinions of the statistical sample. The findings at a 95% of confidence level show that based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the significance level of all variables of balanced evaluation (customer, internal processes, growth, learning, and finance) was more than 0.05, and the result was normal. The structural equations indicate that it is possible to position the perspective (customer, internal processes, growth, learning, and finance) for designing and implementing the revised model of the balanced evaluation system in listed firms on the Tehran Stock Exchange. According to the study results, we recommend that organisation managers pay more attention to productivity, training programs, and education level enhancement of the employees and try to improve the productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting information systems have recently received many investments in the implementation, resulting in introducing of its technology and gaining importance. However, factors affecting the accounting information system's success are the adoption and use by accountants in organizations. The present study used the unified model of acceptance and the use of technology and the model of task-technology fit to investigate the factors affecting the accountants' behavioral intentions regarding an accounting information system adoption. The present study was a descriptive survey regarding the applied purpose and collecting data tools. The data were collected using a questionnaire distributed among accountants of companies listed on the 2020 Tehran Stock Exchange, and 200 questionnaires approved by structural equation modeling were analyzed by Smart PLS 3 software. The results showed a direct and positive association between all model constructs (i.e., self-efficacy, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, and perceived technology fit) in accounting information system adoption, except the facilitating conditions in the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to design a model for improving the quality of tax auditing. To this end, this study used a fundamental research perspective and a qualitative methodology. The study was conducted using an analytical approach and the datatheoretic research method (Strauss and Corbin, 2006). Data were collected through a peer-reviewed interview, and 23 interviews were conducted. The participants were selected using theoretical sampling. Data analysis was performed in three phases: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding using MAXQDA software. The results of this study led to the recognition of 20 main categories and 123 subcategories. They were in the form of the permanent model, including content, organization and model processing as core categories and causal conditions (professional actions, structural actions, professional environment, audit procedures), underlying factors (auditor requirements, process platform, institutional context and auditor capabilities), interventional conditions (human, structural, managerial and regulatory factors), strategies (development actions and support measures), consequences of the process, and the effects of structure process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emergence of economic globalization, expansion of business activities and more complex financial, administrative and operational structures, the need for firms to have CEOs with capable financial and managerial knowledge has multiplied more than in the past. Leading companies will require specialized human capital such as knowledge-based CEOs to bring maximum productivity, efficiency, and value creation to stakeholders through effective corporate governance, risk management, optimal organizational resources, and increased profitability. This study investigates the effect of CEO knowledge and management ability on non-systematic risk and the effect of management ability on the relationship between the CEO's financial knowledge and unsystematic risk. The statistical population of this study is the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and the statistical sample size includes 147 companies for the years 2011 to 2020, which have been selected by the systematic elimination method. Combined data and multivariate regression using the generalized least squares method have been used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that the financial knowledge of CEOs has a negative and significant effect on non-systematic risk. The effect of management ability on non-systematic risk is also negative and significant. Another result of the study indicates that management's ability as a moderating variable does not have a positive and significant effect on the relationship between the financial knowledge of CEOs and non-systematic risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable growth involves a situation where growth is witnessed with no increase in assets, equity issuance and liabilities. An effective corporate governance mechanism, especially the audit committee, is needed to achieve an optimum sustainable growth rate. The influence of audit committee characteristics on the manufacturing firms' sustainable growth during the financial crisis cannot be overemphasized. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate the influence of audit committee characteristics on the sustainable growth rate of non-financial firms in Nigeria. The study population was listed as manufacturing companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). A sample size of 60 manufacturing firms was selected using a purposive sampling technique and content analysis, covering ten financial years (2011 to 2020). The results showed that audit committee size, audit committee independence and audit committee financial expertise were positively and significantly associated with sustainable growth rate. The study was anchored on agency theory because it showed that effective audit committee characteristics greatly contributed to the overall companies' goal congruence. From the foregoing, the study recommended that an audit committee should be large, with a great sense of independence and professionalism to make nonfinancial companies attain sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explain the convergence model between the expectations of auditors and users of financial statements with the multidimensional grounded theory and structural equation modeling. The study's statistical population consisted of university faculties, auditing firm partners, tax auditors, official justice experts, financial analysts, senior creditors, and social security insurance auditors. The sampling method of the present study is a mixed purposive approach, which led to 42 in-depth and semi-structured interviews to achieve theoretical saturation. The extant study was implemented in 2020 and 2021. The grounded factors for the expectation convergence provide Provision of a cultural and educational context; Reforming, unity of procedure between upstream laws and regulations; Enhancing audit performance and effectiveness; Continuous monitoring of professional organizations and regulatory bodies on the performance of auditors; Strengthening the computer auditing infrastructure and paying attention to social responsibility and Requiring auditors to be accountable. Furthermore, the convergence between the expectations of auditors and users of financial statements has consequences providing an optimal allocation of resources, data transparency, and crime reduction, Improving the quality of information and financial reporting features, efficient standards following environmental conditions, and ultimately, dynamism and increase of trust and growth and effectiveness of the audit profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]