Generation Y: How cultural values can be used to predict their choice of electronic financial services

Young consumers’ decision-making influencers in regards to financial services are well documented in the financial services literature. Research on the role of influencers of choice behaviour is also prominent in the literature. An important lacuna in financial services is an understanding of the young consumers’ underlying motives for their choices and the relative importance of these motives as predictors of choice. This paper presents findings from a quantitative study, whose main objective is to determine the most reliable influencer variables for predicting the personal banking services preferred by a sample of generation Y consumers. Using several quantitative techniques, the study generates empirical evidence which suggests that cultural variables at the individual level are as reliable as, and in cases more reliable than other proven predictors when predicting generation Y's electronic banking product preferences. As such the study highlights the probability that an understanding of the more enduring motives for generation Ys’ personal banking choices may present a useful alternative for targeting this demographic.     

Bank risk,competition and bank connectedness with firms: A literature review

The outbreak of the 2007–2009 financial crisis and of the European sovereign debt crisis again raised questions about the vulnerability and the behaviour of banking institutions. The unconventional monetary policies that followed have flattened the yield curve and created a low interest rates environment. This can give rise to risk-taking behaviour from banks and can therefore undermine the stability of the banking system with negative impact of the credit supply, corporate investment and real economy. This article proposes a literature review on the main determinants of bank lending and risk-taking decisions, going through the competition in the banking market, the bank connectedness with firms and the role of monetary and banking authorities. The systemic risk concept is also discussed as well as its drivers and potential measures that should be monitored by prudential authorities in order to preserve financial stability.     

Electronic commerce and the marketing of Internet banking in the UK

Recent market research findings and financial services consultants' reports have signalled that electronic commerce will play an increasingly important role in consumers' future financial lives. This paper discusses such evidence and seeks to contextualise the debate on the future of banking through a discussion of consumers' financial behaviour, the UK Government's position and an analysis of UK financial providers' current marketing of Internet banking services to consumers.     

Emerging themes in banking: Recent literature and directions for future research

This paper presents a review of the recent banking literature centred on the core themes of performance, risk and governance of financial institutions. We write this review against the backdrop of the recent financial crisis and the major changes it caused to banking sectors in many countries. Several themes emerge, but the overarching issue relates to the need to better understand bank risk-taking incentives and the implications for systemic stability. Specifically, there is a need for more work on: the role of safety net subsidies and how these relate to systemic risk; financial innovation and the adoption of new products and processes; and how innovative behaviour links to risk-taking, market returns and contagion. Future research could also be directed to provide a better understanding of the inter-connections between competition, capital, profitability, liquidity and risk.     

The Determinants of Bank Capital Ratios in a Developing Economy

This paper reports new findings on the determinants of bank capital ratios. The results are from an unbalanced panel data set spanning eight years around the period of the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis. Test results suggest a strong positive link between regulatory capital and bank management’s risk-taking behaviour. The risk-based capital standards of the regulators did not have an influence on how regulatory capital is adjusted by low-capitalized banks, perhaps due to the well-documented banking fragility during the test period. Finally, bank capital decisions seem not to be driven by bank profitability, which finding is inconsistent with developed country literature that has for long stressed the importance of banks’ earnings as driving capital ratios. Although the study focuses only on one developing economy, these findings may help to identify the correlates of bank capital ratios in both developed and developing economies since this topic has received scant attention of researchers. These findings are somewhat consistent with how banks engaging in risky lending across the world could have brought on the 2007–2008 banking liquidity and capital erosion crisis.     

A Comparative Literature Survey of Islamic Finance and Banking

There has been large-scale growth in Islamic finance and banking in Muslim countries and around the world during the last twenty years. This growth is influenced by factors including the introduction of broad macroeconomic and structural reforms in financial systems, the liberalization of capital movements, privatization, the global integration of financial markets, and the introduction of innovative and new Islamic products. Islamic finance is now reaching new levels of sophistication. However, a complete Islamic financial system with its identifiable instruments and markets is still very much at an early stage of evolution. Many problems and challenges relating to Islamic instruments, financial markets, and regulations must be addressed and resolved. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive comparative review of the literature on the Islamic financial system. Specifically, we discuss the basic features of the Islamic finance and banking. We also introduce Islamic financial instruments in order to compare them to existing Western financial instruments and discuss the legal problems that investors in these instruments may encounter. The paper also gives a preliminary empirical assessment of the performance of Islamic banking and finance, and highlights the regulations, challenges and problems in the Islamic banking market.     

Exploring the nexus between financial sector reforms and the emergence of digital banking culture – Evidences from a developing country

Several financial and banking sector reform programs were instituted in different countries over the last three decades. The underlining purpose of these reforms was largely to improve banking sector supervision and regulation, introduce bank privatization mechanism, introduce clearance and settlement systems, infuse competition and to stimulate financial innovation. The objectives of this study are to 1) review the relevant published literature and market survey reports on the financial & banking sector reforms undertaken in Pakistan and elsewhere, 2) analyze how these reform programs develop digital banking culture and increase financial inclusion in the country and 3) guide future research by putting forward a research agenda. The findings of the study suggest a link between the financial and banking sector reforms and the stimulation of financial innovation; the promotion of digital banking culture; and the infusion of financial inclusion in Pakistan. We discuss managerial/policy implications of the study, limitations and presents recommendations for future research.     

银行综合经营财务效应实证研究

本轮金融危机后,美国沃克尔法则的提出引发了金融界强烈的争议,对银行综合经营问题的探讨具有了新的时代意义。本文采用美国资产10亿美元以上的约70家一级银行控股公司2000年到2009年的季度财务数据,对综合经营实际财务效应进行了实证研究,验证了银行综合经营对于银行控股公司资本利润率的增长的确存在正面的影响,但这种影响可能被银行非利息收入占比提高的负面影响抵销。     

金融错配、非金融企业影子银行化与经济“脱实向虚”

当前,我国一些非金融企业通过直接或间接的方式从事影子银行业务。本文利用2004-2015年上市公司数据研究发现,金融错配程度的提高整体上会提高企业影子银行化规模,并且这种效应仅在金融深化程度较高、经济资源市场化配置程度偏低的地区显著;僵尸企业和盈利性较差的企业,分别受到“利润追逐”和“投资替代”机制的影响,金融错配对其影子银行化趋势的正向作用更为明显。机制检验发现,金融错配水平的上升通过提高融资约束程度从而降低企业实体投资水平,这种效应在资产专用性较强的企业中更为明显;金融错配主要通过融资约束程度和实体投资规模,而非资本回报率渠道作用于企业影子银行化行为。本文研究对于提高信贷资源配置效率,防范经济“脱实向虚”具有较强的政策意义。     

金融错配、非金融企业影子银行化与经济“脱实向虚”

当前,我国一些非金融企业通过直接或间接的方式从事影子银行业务。本文利用2004-2015年上市公司数据研究发现,金融错配程度的提高整体上会提高企业影子银行化规模,并且这种效应仅在金融深化程度较高、经济资源市场化配置程度偏低的地区显著;僵尸企业和盈利性较差的企业,分别受到“利润追逐”和“投资替代”机制的影响,金融错配对其影子银行化趋势的正向作用更为明显。机制检验发现,金融错配水平的上升通过提高融资约束程度从而降低企业实体投资水平,这种效应在资产专用性较强的企业中更为明显;金融错配主要通过融资约束程度和实体投资规模,而非资本回报率渠道作用于企业影子银行化行为。本文研究对于提高信贷资源配置效率,防范经济“脱实向虚”具有较强的政策意义。     

中国影子银行的经济学分析:定义、构成和规模测算

2008年国际金融危机以后,中国金融体系发生的重大变化之一是影子银行的较快发展,其规模迅速膨胀,交易结构日趋复杂,各类市场主体都牵涉其中。这些变化吸引了政策制订者和学术界的广泛关注。本文给出了中国影子银行的功能性定义,即依赖于银行信用、从事银行业务、但又没接受严格的银行业监管的金融业务,具体指传统的银行表内贷款和债券投资以外的,具备完整的信用转换、期限转换和流动性转换功能的金融业务。本文逐项分析影子银行业务,详细总结各类型业务的交易结构、业务主体、业务实质、资金来源、法律基础、资产负债表表示,准确测算了2002年至今影子银行总量和资产负债表结构月度数据。只从资产负债表的负债端着手加总,既完整地涵盖了影子银行的全部业务,得到其宏观总量,又剔除了重复计算。本文测算数据为后续研究打下了基础。     

Determinants of risk in the banking sector during the European Financial Crisis

Risk assessment in the banking sector has been a prominent topic in the banking literature and has gained attention especially since the recent financial crises. In particular, the European crisis, which was the first since the formation of the Eurozone, underlined a number of significant problems and increased concerns on the tail or crash risk of banks. In the present study, we seek to examine whether information asymmetry, the importance of banks in the financial system and systemic risk play significant roles in the evolution of stock crashes in the banking sector. Information asymmetry is proxied by opacity, the importance of a bank in a financial network is proxied by network centrality, and systemic risk is proxied by clustering. The research framework considers a number of regulatory, reporting and financial market factors that have also been determined to relate to stock crashes and shows that all of the above factors are related to (idiosyncratic) stock crash risk under specific conditions.     

Capital account liberalization and income inequality

This article makes both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the literature on financial liberalization and income inequality. In the first part, we develop a tractable model that features agents with varying investment abilities and a banking sector. There are two possible interventions to liberalize the banking sector: first, a reduction in reserve requirements, and, second, an increase in the amount of foreign funds that can be used to finance domestic loans. Financial liberalization leads to enhanced banking sector efficiency and adjustments in interest rates affecting income of investors and savers, and, therefore, income inequality. Theoretically, the impact of financial liberalization on income inequality is ambiguous. Yet, the model suggests that financial liberalization will improve income distribution in countries where financial depth is high. Our empirical estimates confirm this conditional effect. More precisely, the estimates suggest that capital account liberalization only tends to lower income inequality if the level of financial depth, as measured by private credit over GDP, exceeds 25 percent.     

The role of on- and off-balance-sheet leverage of banks in the late 2000s crisis

Extensive regulatory changes and technological advances have transformed banking systems to a great extent. Banks have reacted to the challenges posed by the new operating environment by creating new products and expanding their activities to some uncharted business areas. In this paper, we study how modern banking which gave birth to the off-balance-sheet leverage activities affected the risk profile of U.S. banks as well as the level of systemic risk before and after the onset of the late 2000s financial crisis. Towards this, we separate on- from off-balance-sheet leverage and capture the latter with different, yet complementary, measures which do not exist in the current literature. Special attention is paid on the deleveraging process that occurred in the banking market after the crisis erupted, which is an additional innovative feature of this study. Our findings reveal that leverage, both explicit and hidden off-the-balance-sheet, increases the individual risk of banking firms making them vulnerable to financial shocks. Reverse leverage, on the other hand, is beneficial for individual banks’ health, but is found to be harmful for financial stability. We also demonstrate that the banks which concentrate on traditional lines of business typically carry less risk compared to those involved with modern financial instruments.     

Mobile banking and consumer behaviour: New insights into the diffusion pattern

Technological advancement has challenged the providers of financial services; the very nature of selling and buying financial services has changed. Mobile devices are among the newest channels to conduct banking electronically. This paper focuses on studying diffusion and adopters of mobile banking services. Previous research has identified the typical characteristics of a potential adopter in the electronic services era; this paper explores some contradictory empirical findings drawn from a mobile banking survey. The results provide an indication of the characteristics of potential subsequent adopters of mobile banking, and of differences between user segments. Consequently, the authors are able to comment on the influence of certain demographic characteristics and the preferred communication mode of customers on the adoption and future usage of mobile banking services. The quantitative survey that sheds more light on this researched issue employed a traditional method of postal questionnaire. The data were collected in Finland during May–July 2002 and include 1,253 survey responses.     

我国影子银行发展及其对经济金融的影响研究——以山东省为例

本文基于我国对影子银行的定义测算其规模,并在此基础上采用2002—2014年的月度数据和结构VAR模型(SVAR)实证研究了影子银行对宏观经济发展和金融体系的影响。结果表明,近些年我国影子银行发展规模均以较为平稳的速度增长;影子银行短期内对经济增长有负面影响,但总体来看其发展对我国宏观经济具有积极作用;影子银行发展对我国金融发展具有一定的促进作用,但其规模过度扩张将会增加商业银行流动性风险,弱化其信用中介功能,对金融稳定产生负向冲击效应。最后在总结研究结论的基础上提出政策建议。     

Relationship Banking: What Do We Know?

This paper briefly reviews the contemporary literature on relationship banking. We start out with a discussion of the raison d'être of banks in the context of the financial intermediation literature. From there we discuss how relationship banking fits into the core economic services provided by banks and point at its costs and benefits. This leads to an examination of the interrelationship between the competitive environment and relationship banking as well as a discussion of the empirical evidence. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G20, G21, L10.     

Making cross-border retail finance a reality case study: Deutsche Bank PBC S.A. in Poland

Until recently, the retail banking industry was widely recognised as being predominantly a local activity. Now retail banking is increasingly affected by globalisation. Cross-border activity offers opportunities for financial institutions to boost their sales through unified marketing and client acquisition techniques. Deutsche Bank quickly recognised the advantages of a regional versus a local approach to its retail activities in Europe. This paper outlines and discusses Deutsche Bank's cross-border activity in the Polish market. Poland, which joined the European Union in May 2004, is an interesting area of study. The case study presents the Deutsche Bank approach to retail banking in Poland. The case concludes that it is not the behaviour of the customer which is the most important obstacle to cross-border retail banking, but rather the legislative environment of the individual countries. With the harmonisation of European policies in this respect, these hurdles should be eliminated gradually.     

Financial fragility in a general equilibrium model: the Brazilian case

This paper employs a general equilibrium approach to model the Brazilian financial system. We show that the model is able to replicate the main characteristics of the data and to predict short-term trends. We calibrate the model for the years of 2002–2006, which comprise a crisis period in Brazil’s financial system. Empirical results suggest that the financial system is improving in terms of financial stability over time. Furthermore, the model has been proven useful to model the Brazilian banking system and could be employed to evaluate the impact of changes in financial regulation on the banking system.