STRATEGIC DIAGNOSIS OF SPANISH FARMING COOPERATIVE CREDIT SECTIONS: A SWOT ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT 1 : Farming cooperative credit sections are financial instruments set up within a cooperative and at its service. They are key funding tools in rural areas and have been developed all over Spain although more intensely in some areas than others. The aim of this paper is to carry out a strategic diagnosis of the Spanish credit section using a SWOT Analysis to discover its set of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as a proposal for strategic actions to be followed. In order to do so an empirical study using personalized surveys and interviews has been undertaken among the managers or persons in charge of the credit sections over the first half of 2008. The study demonstrates that they are efficient entities for their clients (cooperative members). Their main strengths are focussed on their clients, although they show significant weaknesses in organizational, business and technological capacities, which require an effort to provide them with more professional management. Legal constraints are the main threat at present, although uncertainty in the agricultural sector affects their survival.     

农村合作信用社的现状、问题和对策

农村合作信用社是我国农村正规金融服务的主要提供机构。目前，我国农村合作信用社的发展水平差异很大：在经济发达地区，经营状况比较好，甚至出现了无农可扶的状况；而在经济欠发达地区，农村合作信用社经营效益差、自身发展困难。本文针对这些情况，分析指出我们在进行农村信用社改革时，应该采取差异化策略，以产权改革为重点，对其功能、机构、和管理模式进行重新界定，使之更好地为农村经济发展服务。     

农村金融改革与民营银行

在各种生产要素当中,人是第一重要的;在当前农村金融改革中尤其是这样。由于缺乏改革的依靠力量、产权主体不明确以及缺少金融人才,因而向农信社注入资金的成功概率很低。农村金融改革最需要的不是资金支持而是制度创新。当前农信社体制对于民营经济而言是外生的,因而很难实现和民营经济的对接;支持农村经济的融资机制只能从民营经济的资金活动中生成。农村金融改革应当不拘一格,能改造的就改造,不能改造的就新建;应当尽快在所有制上打破对民间资本进入金融业的限制,依靠市场机制,有步骤地通过试点开放民营银行。     

FARMERS’ WILLINGNESS TO INVEST IN NEW COOPERATIVE INSTRUMENTS: A CHOICE EXPERIMENT

Globalization of agricultural markets put pressures on producer cooperatives to invest in expansion and growth to safeguard their competitiveness. Availability of capital is limited if farmers do not have incentives to increase their capital contribution. Cooperative literature recognizes the residual rights, transferability, and the appreciation potential of the investment as the potential solutions for the problems that may impede cooperative investments. The objective of this study is to understand farmer preferences regarding investment attributes and the potential for attracting investment capital from members and non‐members. We employ a choice experiment method to test new cooperative investment instruments. The data consist of a questionnaire conducted with 406 Finnish dairy farmers. Random parameter latent class logit model is used in the estimation of the data. The results indicate that most of the respondents regard the new investment instruments positively. However, farmers prefer restricting ownership rights to members. Incentives for members to participate in financing cooperative growth could be designed with capital‐based residual rights, mechanisms for transferability and for the appreciation of firm value. Estimation that considered choice difficulty improved model fit, which highlights the need to address respondent burden also in future studies of hypothetical investments in order to produce unbiased estimates.     

Capital Inflows,Exchange Rate Flexibility and Credit Booms

Historically, capital flow bonanzas have often fueled sharp credit expansions in advanced and emerging market economies alike. Focusing primarily on emerging markets, this paper analyzes the impact of exchange rate flexibility on credit markets during periods of large capital inflows. It is shown that bank credit is larger and its composition tilts to foreign currency in economies with less flexible exchange rate regimes, and that these results are not explained entirely by the fact that the latter attract more capital inflows than economies with more flexible regimes. The findings thus suggest countries with less flexible exchange rate regimes may stand to benefit the most from regulatory policies that reduce banks' incentives to tap external markets and to lend/borrow in foreign currency; these policies include marginal reserve requirements on foreign lending, currency‐dependent liquidity requirements and higher capital requirement and/or dynamic provisioning on foreign exchange loans.     

商业银行信用卡业务发展与风险管理

回顾信用卡业务在我国的发展历程、分析信用卡业务的发展现状,不难发现中国已成为全球信用卡业务增长最快、发展潜力最大的市场。作为未来消费信贷的重要增长点,在金融行业民间资本准入制度的放开、全球化进程不断深入、移动互联快速普及的大数据时代,民间资本、外资银行对信用卡业务的广泛渗透,以及互联网金融的创新发展,必将导致国内信用卡业务参与方关系日趋复杂,信用卡市场竞争日趋激烈。因此,信用卡业务发展过程中所面临的问题及发行风险不容忽视。文中采用行为概率及效用函数的方法对信用卡消费行为进行博弈分析,应用行为分析的结果,对信用卡业务中诸如个人信用登记评估制度,发卡机构营销、审批机制和产品附加值,消费管理和奖惩制度及法律法规制定等相关问题进行了剖析,系统分析了银行信用卡发行过程中的风险,并对信用卡市场的健康发展提出了几点建议。     

Why Credit Rating Agencies Exist

Although credit rating agencies exist and are important to the capital markets, there remains a question of why they should exist. Two standard theories are that rating agencies correct a problem of information asymmetry and that they de facto regulate investments. These theories do not fully answer the question. This paper suggests an alternative explanation. While rating agencies produce little new information, they sort information available in the credit market. This sorting function is needed due to the large volume of information in the credit market. Sorting facilitates better credit analysis and investment selection, but bond investors or a cooperative of them cannot easily replicate this function. Outside of their information intermediary and regulatory roles, rating agencies serve a useful market purpose even if credit ratings inherently provide little new information. This alternative explanation has policy implications for the regulation of the industry.     

基于关系营销的企业信用品质提升策略

关系营销是“以建立各种关系”作为构建企业持久竞争优势的营销模式。在社会主义市场经济秩序建立过程中,创新的关系营销理论、营销模式的实践仍受制于企业的信用关系。营销模式可以复制、模仿,惟一不可复制的是企业文化。其中企业的信用关系及信用品质度是企业文化最重要的基础,全面提升企业信用品质,强化企业信用管理,在产品越来越同质化的今天,已成为企业提高核心竞争力的关键因素。     

Macro effects of capital requirements and macroprudential policy

I investigate macro effects of higher bank capital requirements on the Norwegian economy and their use as a macroprudential policy instrument under Basel III. To this end, I develop a macroeconometric model where the capital adequacy ratio, lending rates, asset prices and credit interact with each other and with the real economy. The empirical results suggest that changes in capital requirements are primarily transmitted via lending rates to the other variables in the model. The proposed increases in capital requirements under Basel III are found to have significant effects especially on house prices and credit. I also derive optimal paths for the countercyclical capital buffer in response to various shocks. The buffer is found to equal its imposed ceiling of 2.5% in response to most of the shocks considered while its duration varies in the range of 1–12 quarters depending on the shock and its persistence.     

CREDIT UNION MEMBER GROUP DOMINATION UNDER HIGH INTEREST RATE ENVIRONMENTS

Theoretical models for credit unions advocate that such organizations should pursue a neutral orientation in order to accommodate the conflicting interests of borrower members, who seek lower interest rates, and saver members, who look for higher returns on their savings. However, there is a lack of empirical support for such neutrality in high interest rate environments. This is because under such conditions, credit unions could accomplish their social mission by providing microcredit at a lower interest rate to local communities, thus becoming more borrower‐dominated. This paper investigates the member group domination of credit unions in Brazil, a country known for its high interest rates, and finds that the majority of credit unions (78.34%) are borrower‐dominated. This behavior becomes more pronounced when local interest rates rise, contradicting the predictions of neutrality‐seeking models. A percentage increase in the interest rate, increases about 5 times the likelihood of a CU becoming extreme borrower‐dominated. Besides interest rates, age, lower size, capital and lower efficiency of the credit unions are the main determinants of borrower domination.     

传媒融合背景下的报业竞争策略

报业虽然受到了以网络为代表的新媒体的冲击,但在传媒融合背景下,报业与新媒体更多的是一种竞合关系。报业要在竞争中寻求突破,需要强化自身的原创内容优势、积极融合新媒体、转企改制并对接资本市场,以及加强品牌营销。     

Risk aversion,cooperative membership,and path dependences of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia

Smallholder farmers in Sub‐Saharan Africa often mitigate production risks through cooperative membership: institutionalized arrangements where they pool resources and collectively manage production and marketing chains. Cooperative membership has a significant advantage: it cushions detrimental effects of external forces, placing a premium on a risk‐seeking attitude (experimenting and innovating), which can yield greater accumulation. However, cooperatives are self‐selective institutions: relatively better‐endowed farmers, who are usually less risk‐avoidant than poorer ones (a consequence of their broader material bases), tend to be overrepresented. These two realities complicate the causal assessment of the relationships between risk attitudes, farmers’ socioeconomic status, and cooperative membership that is essential to comprehend the role of cooperatives in local capital accumulation. To help resolve this thorny analytical problem, an experimental study was carried out in eastern Ethiopia—a risky production environment where cooperatives feature prominently and relatively affluent farmers exist alongside poorer ones. It unveils the working of specific path dependences: poorer cooperative members are less risk seeking than nonmembers, but at an interval much less than that observed for affluent farmers. For development policies, this suggests that a greater payoff can be expected from investing in farmers’ material bases than from further improving cooperative membership.     

信用与区域经济增长的关联分析--以我国东部地区为例

信用资本与物质资本、人力资本是知识经济时代的三大主要资本,它与一个地区的经济增长密切相关。文章以我国东部地区为例,从GDP、投资、消费、出口四方面对信用与其经济增长的关联性从正反两方面进行了分析,最后得出:良好的信用可促进区域经济增长和可持续发展;反之,信用缺失则会延缓区域经济增长。为此,一个地区要保持其经济增长和发展,根本动力在于建立社会信用体系。     

(Farmer) Producer Companies in India as new generation cooperatives: Case studies of performance and impact from West Bengal,India

One of the innovative alternatives to the traditional cooperative structure has been the new generation cooperatives or cooperative companies, known as producer companies (PCs) in India since the early 2000s. This paper examines the impact of PCs on the member farmer livelihoods, which is not well studied, with the help of member and non-member farmer interview survey in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is found that though the PCs were inclusive of small farmers in their membership, the PC interface with members for farm inputs was not very strong and the output linkage was poor, reaching only a small proportion of member farmers. The Sufal Bangla public supermarket franchise by some PCs was found to make a large difference to the PC performance and its impact on member farmers. The small size of membership in most case study PCs hindered the equity size, leading to working capital and market interface constraints. Therefore, it is important to encourage members to contribute more equity and to reward their output linkage.     

CUSTOMER‐OWNED BANKING IN AUSTRALIA: FROM CREDIT UNION TO MUTUAL BANK

Since the 1990s financial sector regulation in Australia has treated credit unions and building societies the same as banks under the designated title of authorized depository institutions. This allows credit unions to choose between different organizational structures: cooperative; convert to customer‐owned banks or to demutualize. This article utilizes semi‐structured interviews to analyse the key motivations for organizational change. It examines a number of credit unions and their conversion experience to customer‐owned banks. It finds that adaptation of the credit union model was necessary to change customer perceptions, ensure future growth in the customer base and assets, and facilitate access to capital raisings with the credit rating of a bank. Despite this change customer‐owned banks retain the core principals of mutuality.     

ANALYSIS OF THE POSSIBILITIES FOR EXPANSION OF SERVICES IN TANZANIAN SAVINGS AND CREDITS CO‐OPERATIVE SOCIETIES: LEARNING FROM ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Savings and Credit Co‐operative Societies (SACCOS) increasingly recognized as the valuable tool for economic development in low‐income countries. However, recently researchers reported that one of their primary challenges to their expansion is the high level of inefficient. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between growth and efficiency of SACCOS using economies of scale concept. Then we address the role of management of the capital structure and allocation of resources in the expansion of SACCOS. The study used financial statement data from 60 SACCOS in Tanzania for the period of 2004–2011. The findings supports that most of SACCOS are small and cost inefficient because the industry is young, but, the efficiency increases as SACCOS expand. Second the allocation of resources in liquid, financial and non‐financial investment leads to no expansion in SACCOS. Thus, the growth of SACCOS via increasing loan to members, members’ savings, shares, and institutional capital should be encouraged as it increases the efficiency of SACCOS. Also, SACCOS should minimize the allocation of assets in other investments which are different from credit to members.     

Organizational structure, redistribution and the endogeneity of cost: Cooperatives, investor-owned firms and the cost of procurement

As an organizational type, cooperatives are in general not the dominant form of enterprise. Nevertheless, cooperatives and cooperative-like organizations do play important roles in a number of sectors, suggesting that in some circumstances they are more efficient than other business forms. This paper explores the importance of membership goals on the relative efficiency of the cooperative form of organization. The cooperative cost (and hence production efficiency) advantage is directly linked to the goal alignment between the cooperative and its members, and is influenced by the extent of income redistribution between members and the degree of rent seeking that takes place in the organization. When there is no aversion to income inequality, the members produce at their first best levels. However, as aversion to inequality rises, the production profile of the members converges to the production profile generated when the members face an IOF. Regarding rent seeking, if the more (less) efficient members are able to get their profits valued more, total output is increased (decreased). As a consequence, consumers may benefit from the lobbying that occurs inside a cooperative where the powerful members are the most efficient agents.     

中小企业集群的融资优势和障碍分析

融资难是困扰中小企业发展的主要问题。但中小企业集聚成群后却可以形成与单个的中小企业截然不同的独特融资优势：增大中小企业的守信度,降低金融机构的融资风险,促使民间融资发展等。中小企业集群的融资优势十分明显,但目前还存在一些阻碍中小企业集群融资优势充分发挥的因素,如集群内部企业专业化分工不够深入,协作程度低;银行信贷政策和意识存在偏差,银企互动关系有待加强;中小企业集群的信用担保体系建设滞后;集群内服务中小企业的金融机构发展滞后等。为缓解中小企业融资难题,促进中小企业集群融资优势的发挥,我们应采取措施强化中小企业集群产业关联,建立诚信合作的集群文化;加快建设为中小企业集群服务的区域性中心银行,密切银企关系;完善中小企业信用担保体系,设立互助担保联盟;拓宽民营金融经营范围,加快民营金融机构的发展。     

A Theoretical Model of Financial Crisis

The paper develops a new model of private debt financing with an inefficient financial system at its core, where inefficiency is characterized by costly loan monitoring. The model suggests a mechanism that generates the following series of events: a period of low capital inflow despite high rates of economic growth (capital inflow inertia), as observed in the take-off era in the Asian tiger economies; followed by a sudden acceleration of capital inflow (as seen in the 1990s); and then by a crisis, which is defined as a large reduction in the amount of loans intermediated by the financial system (i.e., a large capital outflow or credit crunch). Under certain conditions, financial crisis can occur even when economic fundamentals and market sentiment change only slightly. Unlike most credit rationing models, the results presented here do not hinge on the assumption of asymmetric information. The model also provides guidance about the appropriate policy responses to an imminent crisis.     

"国家信誉"应从国有银行淡出

银行经营是否良好、运行是否稳健主要取决于公众对银行的信心,即银行的信誉.提高和保持银行信誉的手段包括提高银行的资本充足率,保持银行稳定的收入流,政府对银行的支持和担保程度等.我国国有银行的资本充足率未达到国际标准,信贷资产质量低,盈利逐年减少,国家的信誉担保成了国有银行稳健经营的关键性要素.在加入世贸组织后,金融业的开放将使国家信誉担保的作用不断减弱,国家信誉担保的退出面临着系列的难题.