加拿大个人理财业的透视及对我国的启示

20世纪90年代以来,加拿大个人理财业务发展迅速.本文首先介绍了加拿大个人理财业的发展进程,进而分析了加拿大个人理财业的特点,最后借鉴加拿大个人理财业的发展经验,对我国个人理财业的发展提出一些建议.     

Evaluating Expert Systems in a Financial Domain: A Study Demonstrating Issues in Case Selection,Validation Standards and Evaluator Bias

This article describes and generalizes a validation study of four commercially available personal financial planning expert systems and the rationale for the research methodology used. Our evaluation of these systems adds to the understanding of verification and validation issues related to case selection, validation standards and evaluator bias. The article describes the systems, their domain and the empirical method—field tests using hypothetical cases—and relates that method to the literature. Comparing same-task systems combines multiple system perspectives and multiple models. Our methodology did efficiently and effectively identify conflicting terminology, omissions and system weaknesses but was inadequate for comparing the complex plan recommendations. The results re-emphasize the importance of continual knowledge base updating, formal system testing and the need for external evaluation. The results also show the value of comparing multiple, same-task systems.     

Expert Systems in the UK Life Insurance Industry: Current Status and Future Trends

This paper focuses upon the status and prevalence of expert systems in life insurance in the UK today and reports the results of a widescale survey conducted by the authors. About 90% of the companies who responded are undertaking some form of activity in the field, with 59% expected to have operational systems in use within 3 years. However, a significant minority do not anticipate any increase in expenditure on the technology over the next few years. Other companies, by contrast, view the technology as vital for their futures. The surveys and interviews investigate levels of activity, present and future expenditure, the extent of formal planning for applications, needs, speed of organizational progress, application areas, evaluation criteria, responsibilities for development, satisfaction with shells, and perceived obstacles to progress. For the majority who have already begun development, expert systems are seen to possess a business advantage that outweighs the problems hindering this development.     

Determinants of the voluntary adoption of digital reporting by small private companies to Companies House: Evidence from the UK

This study examines the factors that influence the voluntary adoption of the digital reporting of the statutory accounts and returns to the company registry (Companies House) by small private companies in the UK. We analyse survey data from 343 members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants working in small companies or in practices with small company clients in the UK. The data is examined using statistical methods, mainly PLS-SEM. Our results show the following factors positively influence the voluntary adoption of digital reporting by small private companies: the relative advantage from standardisation benefits, the company's technology competence and support from top management. We also provide evidence that the complexity of the company's accounting system and technology costs inversely influence this voluntary adoption. The study contributes to the emerging literature by expanding our understanding of how the standardisation of financial information flows benefits small private companies. The results should be of interest to small companies and their accountants, regulators in the UK and other jurisdictions planning digital reporting initiatives or seeking to reduce administrative burdens on smaller entities.     

APX: An Integrated Knowledge-Based System to Support Audit Planning

Auditors who must express an opinion on the financial statements of publicly held enterprises must perform a series of risk assessments as the basis for selecting appropriate audit procedures to be performed. Although many auditing expert systems have been developed for individual components of the audit risk assessment process such as inherent and control risk assessment, none integrate these assessments to arrive at the ultimate objective of assessing the allowable level of detection risk which drives audit procedure selection. This paper discusses critical design concerns for audit planning expert systems in light of the integrated nature of the steps involved in the audit planning process. The design and development of an integrated audit planning expert system called APX (Audit Planning eXpert) is also discussed. A distinguishing feature of APX is that it not only performs the individual types of risk assessments but it also integrates the resulting assessments to arrive at allowable detection risk. The knowledge acquisition and system development process are described to illustrate some of the mechanics of developing such a system.     

A FINANCIAL PLANNING MODEL FOR A BRITISH UNIVERSITY

This paper describes a computer-based planning model using the FCS-EPS decision support system to provide a deterministic simulation of the financial flows of a British university over the period 1986–87 to 1990–91. In discussing the model's design, attention is focused upon the validity for universities of various notions of accounting surplus and deficit. Regarding the implementation of the model, the centre of concern is with sensitivity analysis. In the concluding section, the model is placed in the context of related studies in the UK and America.     

Supporting the Process of Customer Consulting in the Field of Financial Services

An increase in competition and a change in customer needs has caused financial service companies to revise their operations and establish a coordinated product and market strategy. Customer consulting is a substantial part of this type of strategy. Due to the increasing number, complexity and diversity of financial products, the client adviser is confronted by a continuously expanding range of required expert knowledge, which in most cases extends beyond his capabilities. To deal with these problems, supporting the consulting process with information technology seems to be appropriate. At a glance, the usage of currently employed advisory support systems indicates that the system support does not fulfil the financial company's needs. For this reason we developed ALLFIWIB to actively support every phase of the client advisory process as well as to improve upon the quality of financial product supply. ALLFIWIB is designed as a blackboard-based distributed problem-solving system. Initial usage of ALLFIWIB has indicated that the system is capable of providing intelligent solutions to financial problems and thus considerably lessens the burden on the client adviser.     

MONITORING AND AUDITING VALUE FOR MONEY IN THE UK: THE SCOPE FOR QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

This paper argues that there is considerable scope for the introduction of quantitative techniques into the planning and conduct of VFM audit in the UK. A new development in public sector corporate planning is described and criteria for desirable performance indicators are given. VFM assessment problems arising out of vague legislation are illustrated using farm income support policy. The paper concludes that the scope for the use of techniques from economics, management science and psychology will not be properly realised without extensive reform in management research and education.     

智慧金融与金融云计算

本文分析了我国金融信息化所处的发展阶段及其特点,介绍了智慧金融和金融云计算的基本概念及其它们之间的关系,通过支付宝快捷支付和阿里云计算的案例分析,介绍第三方电子支付企业如何利用云计算技术进行电子支付服务模式创新。针对云计算服务的数据即服务（DaaS）,初步提出了金融数据资源的五层次模型以及对应的金融信息服务模式,并对上海发展金融数据信息服务产业提出了建议。     

Belief Networks for Expert System Development in Auditing

This study examines the use of a belief network based expert system for an auditing task—financial distress evaluation for banks. A belief network uses probability measures to store important dependencies across variables of interest in a problem domain, and makes inferences based on observed evidence using probability calculus. This paper discusses how belief network structures can be constructed, and used to assist auditor's in making appropriate recommendations regarding the financial health of a bank under audit. The ability of a belief network to make reliable predictions depends on how well the network structure reflects the underlying dependencies across variables in the problem domain (e.g. financial ratios and the financial health of a bank). The first part of this study illustrates how a computer program developed by the authors can be used to generate and evaluate different feasible belief network structures based on historical data. The program uses an information-theoretic measure to compare the alternative structures. The ability of the program to identify existing dependencies across variables is demonstrated by using it to reconstruct a known network structure from simulated data. Next, the program is used on a database of twelve important bank financial ratios over a three-year period. The predictive ratios identified by the program reflect important areas of a bank's health, such as loan quality, efficiency, profitability and capital adequacy. Finally, a belief revision mechanism is encoded for the belief network structure identified earlier, and is used to illustrate how it can assist auditors in making recommendations about financial health based on a bank's critical financial ratios. The probability estimates provided by the system are validated using data on banks not used in the network design stage, and are found to be reliable.     

The euro: The logic and inevitability of UK adoption

A competitive, smoothly functioning financial system is widely accepted as a prerequisite for realising an economy's growth potential. Modern growth theories have broadened their focus beyond the rate of interest as the means of equilibrating savings and investment to the contribution that efficiently operating financial markets make to underlying growth rates. The successful introduction of the euro marks an historic and significant step towards the achievement of a competitive, smoothly functioning pan-European integrated financial system. The elimination nominal currency risk for participants and reduced transaction costs are only the start of a continuing dynamic process that is steadily reducing asymmetries and increasing contestability. More generally a single currency and a smoothly functioning pan-European financial system are necessary counterparts to a single EU market in goods, services, labour and financial capital. This paper advances the argument that the integration of the EU's financial markets should be viewed as part of a longer-term process of economic and political integration in Europe. The UK is unable to stop this trend and UK business in general, and the UK financial markets in particular, would be wise to acknowledge these forces and to start to work with them. Marketing UK financial services with a view to UK membership of EMU would not only align marketing with the flow of history, but also it offers the prospects of a greater longer-term return.     

我国商业银行理财业务发展研究

近年来,随着我国金融体制改革的快速推进,个人理财业务逐渐成为银行业务发展的新方向和竞争焦点所在。虽然经过几年的发展,我国商业银行的个人理财业务已取得一定成绩,但其发展过程中还存在着机制流程以及后台支持体系的欠缺,大量高素质理财人才的缺乏等问题。本文提出了发展我国商业银行个人理财业务的对策建议。     

Winning the worksite customer

As the UK financial services industry advances channel strategies in response to developments in regulation, technology and government policy, a number of systems are evolving. One such system is worksite distribution. The environment is set to facilitate the development of this channel and a good deal of activity is under way. Key environmental drivers include the legal obligation on UK employers regarding stakeholder pensions provision; the continuing erosion in state benefits and the recognition that individuals will almost certainly have to provide for themselves in retirement; and the culmination of IT infrastructure development. Along with a tight labour market and reduced access to financial advice for the ‘mass market’ as advisers turn their focus to high-net-worth individuals, the role of the employer and the workplace as a source of information and purchase power begins to make sense — in essence, the role of a ‘portal’. This paper takes a close look at the customer potential of worksite marketing — both employers and employees — and the technology challenge faced by providers in winning their business.Worksite distribution (also known as worksite marketing) is the latest distribution channel emerging in UK financial services. There has been much discussion over the last two years on the viability of this channel in the UK. These discussions initially focused on comparing the drivers in the UK to the different drivers behind the development of the channel in the USA. More recently, discussions have focused on UK activity and the scramble to secure (pre-register) stakeholder pension (SHP) clients. This flourish of provider activity may well account for the channel becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, with many employers already being presented with a SHP or worksite proposition. ‘Best practice’ in this channel will be dependent on providing the best process for target customers — some lessons are learned from experience in other established markets and, importantly, from realising the inherent differences between the UK and these markets. This paper takes a deeper look at the subject and explores the worksite customer — who they are, how to win their business, and the enabling technology that will determine the outcome for financial service providers embarking on this channel.     

A validated expert system for decision making in corporate recovery

This paper describes INSOLVE—an expert system for corporate recovery decisions. INSOLVE was built to understand the decision-making processes of corporate recovery experts who deal with companies in financial difficulties. INSOLVE has been developed using a multi-phase process similar to that widely adopted in software engineering. The expert system is described in terms of the assessment task and interpretation models of CommonKADS. The detailed results of the validation of INSOLVE with 17 experts show that it is an accurate model of human expertise in this domain. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Information UK 2000 project

The past two decades have seen many striking changes in the ways in which information is handled and used, in both our work and leisure activities—including the widespread acceptance of the personal computer and the increasing use of online databases as sources of business and technical information. In 1990, the British Library completed a major research programme, Information UK 2000, designed to produce scenarios and forecasts for the way in which information will be generated, handled, stored and used over the next decade and beyond. The end result, a collection of expert forecasts in 11 areas, is expected to provide guidance in planning research, and should also serve as a quarry from which specialists may draw their own interpretation of the possible effects of these developments in combination.     

企业动态财务规划系统研究

传统财务规划不再能够满足价值管理的需要。现代财务规划更强调基于长期行为分析的战略支持性财务规划。本文构建一个用于战略决策模拟分析的动态财务规划系统,并借助于系统动力学原理和方法建立一个动态财务规划系统模拟基模。本文认为,如果在动态财务规划系统基模基础上结合企业实际建立更具针对性的动态财务规划系统模型,则将有助于企业价值管理。     

Personal bankruptcy and consumer credit delinquency: The case of personal finance education

Given the increasing complexities of the financial markets as well as a shift away from employer/government sponsored pensions to individuals managing their retirement funds, personal finance education is an important tool in order to navigate the evolving and complex financial environment. In this paper, I examine the impact of personal finance education on credit delinquency. Prior studies show that financial literacy affects financial decisions such as savings, retirement planning, wealth accumulation and stock market participation. Using U.S data on personal bankruptcy and consumer credit delinquency rates, I show that personal finance education is important in reducing personal bankruptcy as well as consumer credit delinquency rates. Furthermore, personal finance education does not appear to moderate the impact of gambling legislation on personal bankruptcy or consumer credit default.     

Consent to direct marketing in the financial services sector

The development of communications technology in recent years has led to an expansion in ‘cold calling’, particularly as a means of selling financial services. While encouraging new entrants into the market and thereby increasing consumer choice and competitive prices, this is often viewed as an infringement of personal privacy. This paper attempts to reconcile the complex legal framework that has been put in place to restrict the use of unsolicited direct marketing and to show how, through the use of a carefully drafted data protection notice, the direct marketing of financial services may be conducted lawfully.     

Audit committee financial expertise,gender, and earnings management: Does gender of the financial expert matter?

The effectiveness of the presence of financial expertise on the audit committee (AC) in reducing earnings management has been the subject of many previous studies with mixed findings. This paper suggests that the mixed findings may be due to prior studies not distinguishing between the genders of the financial experts on the AC. We investigate how financial expertise affects earnings management taking into account the gender of the financial expert. We use the data of a sample of 5660 US firm-year observations from 2007 to 2013 which was analysed using least squares regressions clustering by firm. The results indicate that proportion of financial expertise on the AC and gender reduces earnings management. We then group the AC financial experts by gender, and examine whether the gender of the financial expert matters. The results show that the proportion of female financial experts on the AC is significantly associated with less earnings management while the proportion of male financial experts does not significantly affect earnings management; this suggests that previous studies indicating that the presence of a financial expert on the AC may have been influenced by gender of the female financial experts. Further, our findings may also partly explain the contradictory findings of prior studies on the effect of financial expertise on the ACs effectivness.     

Rating or no rating? That is the question: an empirical examination of UK companies

The aim of this paper is to examine the main determinants of the rating likelihood of UK companies. We use a binary probit specification to model the main drivers of a firm's propensity to be rated. Using a sample of 245 non-financial UK companies over the period 1995–2006, representing up to 2872 firm years, the study establishes important differences in the financial profiles of rated and non-rated firms. The results of the rating likelihood models indicate that the decision to obtain a rating is driven by a company's financial risk, solvency, default risk, public debt issuance, R&D, and institutional ownership, thus identifying a wider range of determinants and extending the current literature. The study also finds that the rating decision can be modelled by means of a contemporaneous or predictive specification without any loss of efficiency or classification accuracy. This offers support to the argument that the rating process is fundamentally forward-looking.