Regulation,deregulation, and internationalisation in South African and New Zealand banking

The banking industries of New Zealand and South Africa were among the most tightly regulated in the western world in the early 1980s. Restrictions on foreign banks were particularly acute, especially in South Africa. From a position of considerable isolation, first New Zealand then South Africa implemented programmes of financial liberalisation. We show that the outcome of liberalisation was different in these two countries. South African banks were able to establish a strong presence in external markets, but the New Zealand banking system was mopped up by its Australian neighbour. These divergent outcomes reflect the origins, geographical position, and unequal capabilities of the New Zealand and South African banking industries.     

Bank branching deregulation and the credit risk of the regional banking sector: Evidence from city commercial banks in China

From 2006 to 2011, with the change in regulatory policies, most regions of China relaxed restrictions on the intercity branching of city commercial banks, which led to a significant increase in the number of nonlocal branches of city commercial banks. We assess the impact of this bank branching deregulation on the credit risk of the regional banking sector across 286 prefecture-level cities in China. We find that deregulation has increased the credit risk of the regional banking sector in host cities by intensifying competition and encouraging risk-taking behaviors such as “lowering lending criteria” and “attracting deposits with higher interest”. Moreover, this effect becomes more pronounced in regions with a higher initial level of the loan-to-deposit ratio and regions with a higher initial level of competition in the banking sector.     

The impact of scale effects on the prevailing internet-based banking model in the US

Internet-based banks use a technology-intensive production process that may benefit from scale effects as they grow larger. This article analyzes whether the predominant Internet-primary bank in the USA generates technology-based economies of scale in the period 2002–2010. There is evidence of both favorable and adverse technology-based scale effects. As the leading Internet-primary bank gets larger, the financial performance gap with traditional banks shrinks while some of its critical competitive advantages wear down. The results suggest that unless the prevailing Internet-primary bank preserves the distinctive advantages of the Internet-based business model as it improves financial performance, it might end up converging with its branching competitors.     

Efficiency in banking services: a comparative analysis of Internet-primary and branching banks in the US

This paper investigates the provision of financial services by banks as a two-stage production process involving three different basic activities. The first stage includes service activities, while the second stage comprises both investment-related and risk management activities. Financial services performance is assessed in terms of service efficiency and investment and risk management efficiency for years 2002–2010. The major empirical findings are that the Internet-primary bank is more efficient than most branching banks in deposit-raising activities, but with regard to investment and risk management activities, there are many brick-and-mortar banks that match the online bank performance.     

Consumers and deregulation of the electricity market in Germany

Against the backcloth of EU regulation, this note looks at the “politics of necessity” regarding electricity provision in Germany. Electricity as a case is chosen because its provision has been undergoing a profound process of liberalisation and deregulation, and there is a considerable amount of experience with the chances and pitfalls of liberalisation in this sector. Secondly, electricity is a network industry and a natural monopoly subject to systematic market failure, which calls for regulation. The paper starts out with a closer look at the consumer as an actor in the regulation process, proposing a three-role model of the consumer as a market player, as a citizen, and as a micro-producer in households and networks. In these roles, consumers take on different social and political identities; they are affected differently by (de)regulation of essential services and have different options for reacting to quality and price issues. It then describes the legal state and the development of deregulation in the electricity sector in Germany. Selected empirical data are presented, and consumer policy implications are drawn.     

浅谈应收帐款的管理

近年来,许多国有企业应收帐款数额巨大,企业相互拖欠货款现象比较普遍,导致企业资金匮乏,影响企业正常的生产和经营活动,使企业面临效益下降、亏损、甚至倒闭。这就要求企业加强应收帐款的管理与清欠,加速应收帐款的回收,减少损失。但怎样管理,如何管理,是我们面临的首要问题,在此笔者谈谈自己的一些看法。     

Labour unions,globalization and deregulation in Thailand

This contribution traces the evolution of work systems and labour-management relationships in Thailand, with emphasis on the nature and role of unions in the Thai economy. We focus on issues that have emerged as a consequence of globalization and privatization (currently the most significant form of deregulation in Thailand). Labour unions are quite weak in Thailand, even in comparison to other rapidly developing countries in the region. Furthermore, unions have been weakened further in recent years as the consequence of government action, prompted both by globalization pressures and extensive privatization of state enterprises. The emergence of a democratic political system in Thailand has not served to reverse this trend. Indeed, a reversal of this trend does not seem likely in the foreseeable future.     

Geographic diversification and risk in banking

Tests of the hypothesis that geographic diversification affects bank risk are conducted on large samples of banking organizations (1976–1985) and focus on intrastate geographic diversification experience. Three composite measures of risk are included iin the tests along with the individual components of these measures. Results show that while composite measures of risk are reduced by geographic diverisification, some inidividual components of these measures increase. Importantly, the results show lower financial risk (the variation in earnings), which is predicted by portfolio theory. However, we also observe lower levels of earnings and capital with greater diversification implying, ceteris paribus, higher risk. This effect is not predicted by portfolio theory, but is predicted by our notion of operating risk. There is apparently more than pure financial risk involved with diversification by firms.     

Business ethics in banking

Companies do have ethical responsibility and are not protected by limited liability from the consequences of their actions. A company's record and the preception of its ethics affect its reputation and ensure long term success or failure.The financial community has a history of placing moral considerations above legal or opportunistic expedients. But we are often exposed to moral dangers and the dangers of contamination are increasing. Deregulation and the technological revolution are sharpening ethical conflicts.Bankers' role is one of stewardship based on trust. We are trusted by those who ask us to look after their money and we have a duty to lend that money responsibly.Banking is about rewards reflecting real risks and ethical considerations form an important part of our risk-taking activities. The welfare of our borrowing customers, in good times and bad, is of major concern in any business proposition. Sometimes commercial considerations can be at odds where ethics and politics combine, for example, on the LDC debt question.We depend on people to run our business and to reflect our ethical standards. We have to let our people know what is expected of them and help them to avoid pressures and temptations.A bank's responsibility extends to Government, customers, shareholders, staff and the community. In the future, as we face increasingly complex and conflicting issues, our resolve and commitment to ethical behaviour will be tested.Mr Charles F Green, 58, was a Deputy Group Chief Executive of National Westminster Bank since 1 December 1986 and a Director since February 1982. Exercised oversight of UK Financial Services and Support Services, as well as shared in the Chief Executive's representational Sole.In July 1989, Mr. Green resigned from the National Westminster Bank.His outside commitments are largely Church based. Since 1980 a member of the Church of England General Synod, he is currently Vice Chairman of the Church's Board for Social Responsibility and is Chairman of its Industrial and Economic Affairs Committee and a Trustee of the Church Urban Fund.He is also Chairman of the Executive Committee of Business in the Community, Chairman of the CBI Overseas Committee and Treasurer of the Policy Studies Institute.     

Cross-buying evaluations in the retail banking industry

Is a customer’s past purchase experience of traditional banking products applicable to the continuing purchase of insurance and investment products at a bank branch? Are service attributes used with similar extensions evaluated differently from when used with dissimilar extensions? In response to these questions, this study develops and examines a framework of service attributes (e.g., locational and one-stop shopping convenience, functional and technical service quality, and firm reputation and size) having positive effects on cross-buying. Meanwhile, this study also examines the mediating roles of satisfaction and trust on the relationship between services attributes and cross-buying. Our results indicate that the relative importance of locational convenience and functional service quality is likely to decline, while the relative importance of one-stop shopping convenience and firm size is likely to increase as category dissimilarity increases. Technical service quality and firm reputation only have indirect effects on cross-buying dissimilar product categories through trust. Instead, satisfaction plays the mediating role for cross-buying similar product categories. Our findings reinforce the view that the relative effects of service attributes, satisfaction and trust on cross-buying vary under different category similarity conditions.     

Changes in the banking system and small business lending

Since small businesses typically rely on small banks as their primary source of financing, there are concerns that the wave of bank consolidation of the 1990s may have reduced the availability of loans to small businesses in the US. Using a panel of state-level banking information over 1993–2002, this paper shows that the Riegle–Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 reduced the number of small banks, but not the amount of small business lending. We also show that small banks are participating less in small business lending. These results imply that the bank-lending channel of the monetary transmission mechanism became less important in the US in the late 1990s as a result of more firms borrowing from large banks that are less sensitive to monetary shocks.     

Globalization and Hong Kong's labour market: the deregulation paradox

The globalization of business has affected Hong Kong, giving rise to important changes in its labour market and with impacts on workers and labour organizations. This has been felt in the migration of manufacturing plants to China in combination with labour market deregulation via the government's guest worker policy. We examine the institutional implications of liberalizing the previous ban on the admission of guest workers. While this seeming reversal was tantamount to deregulation, it also produced regulation via a new body of norms and rules governing guest labour which were, paradoxically, restrictive and disabling for the affected parties.     

Telecommunications deregulation and rural consumers: the impact on decision-making

Deregulation of the U.S. telecommunications industry has made a major impact on the consumer decisions of both urban and rural telephone consumers. This article focuses on rural consumers and examines their relative satisfaction with local and long-distance service, attitudes toward and knowledge about deregulation, and use of information in specific local service and equipment decisions. Implications for consumer educators are identified.     

Analyzing the relationship between CSR and reputation in the banking sector

Theoretical studies form the core of the literature on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and bank reputation, with few empirical applications discussing the validity of these theoretical proposals. Additionally, the evidence for the links between CSR aspects and bank reputation is inconclusive. This study aims to shed light on the impact of CSR on bank reputation. First, a systematic review of the literature on the empirical studies that relates CSR to bank reputation is performed. These studies indicate significant discrepancies in the measurement of CSR and its links with bank reputation. Second, an empirical study is presented in order to test the impact that CSR (employer branding, integrity and social action) has on the reputation of leading banks in the United Kingdom and Spain. The results obtained call into question the ability of CSR to improve a banking reputation in an unstable financial system.     

Globalization,labour market deregulation and trade unions in Singapore

This contribution examines recent trends in globalization and their effects on the labour market in Singapore. It discusses the responses of the government and the trade union movement to the challenges of globalization, and concludes by looking at the changing role of the trade union movement in Singapore. Citing government policies in dealing with the recent economic crisis, the article highlights the ‘managed flexibility’ approach of the government. We find that the trade union movement has gained considerably in stature and influence in providing training for the workers and helping them cope with retrenchment and the recession.     

Spatial competition and market power in banking

Banks in non-metropolitan areas compete in a spatially differentiated environment. Non-metro community banks have been insulated from increasing competition from metro banks due to their reliance on soft information in relationship lending. Proximity to borrowers, therefore, may be an important source of market power for non-metro community banks. This paper estimates a structural model of the supply and demand of banking services in which pricing power is allowed to depend explicitly on the distance between rival banks. A spatial autoregressive econometric model shows that approximately 38.0% of economic surplus earned by firms in non-metropolitan banking in the upper midwest is due to spatial market power.     

Capital structure and cost efficiency in the Taiwanese banking industry

By utilizing a sample of 44 Taiwanese banks, this study analyses whether banks can mitigate agency costs, to increase firm performance through optimization of capital structure. The stochastic frontier approach is adopted to determine cost efficiency as the firm performance indicator, an approach that is capable of controlling outside environmental factors. Furthermore, this study uses two-stage least squares to estimate two simultaneous equations that are then used to examine the relationship between capital structure and firm performance. This study includes indicators of ownership structure. The main results are: first, optimal capital structure is selected by the manager to combat the agency problem and thus improve performance, yielding results consistent with agency theory; and second, reducing managerial share ownership will decrease agency cost and increase firm performance, a finding that is consistent with the Entrenchment Hypothesis.