Implementing Technologies for Financial Service Innovations in Base of the Pyramid Markets

This study examines how information communications technologies (ICTs) can be implemented effectively to provide financial service innovations to the poor who live in developing countries, a market collectively known as the “Base of the Pyramid” or BOP. The BOP needs—but commonly lacks—basic financial services, a situation that perpetuates poverty. With a dearth of formal banks especially in rural areas of developing countries, the BOP has almost no access to savings accounts, credit lines, and other necessary services. However, ICTs have the potential to overcome cost, infrastructure, and other barriers to service delivery, and are being used to offer new financial services such as mobile phone banking to the BOP. The purpose of this study is to determine ways of successfully implementing these technology‐enabled service innovations. The study draws on the Socio‐Technical View for theoretical girding, and uses case method to examine multiple ICT implementation projects in five sub‐Saharan African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda). The projects, which were carried out by a leading microfinance banking organization named Opportunity International, provided mobile banks, point‐of‐service, and mobile phone banking services to the BOP. Several techniques were applied to gather data in the field over a two‐year period: depth interviews, direct observations, and internal document and data analysis. Multiple forms of evidence were triangulated against one another, and analyzed across cases until themes emerged and converged. In doing so, two specific forms of analysis, explanation building and cross‐case synthesis, were employed to make sense of the data. The findings, summarized as research propositions, collectively conclude that implementation is effective when the unique socio‐human, governmental‐regulatory, and market conditions of the BOP are accounted for, such that fit is achieved between the technologies and environments they are situated in. More specifically, effectiveness comes when implementation (1) addresses customer and agent limits with the technologies, and is accepted and supported by trained staff who monitor technology use and make responsive system adjustments; (2) exploits and promotes supportive governmental regulations and actions, as well as leverages sound electronic fund transfer (EFT) switches, whether government or bank established; and (3) accounts for low business capabilities and evolving market competition, along with the underdeveloped financial sector and financial literacy of the population. In sum, there are multiple factors that should be considered in the design and installation activities surrounding these technologies to ensure they provide cost‐effective, quality financial services to the poor.     

The effects of focus versus diversification on bank performance: Evidence from Chinese banks

This paper investigates the effects of focus versus diversification on bank performance using data on Chinese banks during the 1996–2006 period. We construct a new measure, economies of diversification, and compare the results to those of the more conventional focus indices, which are based on the sum of squares of shares in different products or regions. Diversification is captured in four dimensions: loans, deposits, assets, and geography. We find that all four dimensions of diversification are associated with reduced profits and higher costs. These results are robust regardless of alternative measures of diversification and performance. Furthermore, we observe that banks with foreign ownership (both majority and minority ownership) and banks with conglomerate affiliation are associated with fewer diseconomies of diversification, suggesting that foreign ownership and conglomerate affiliation may play important mitigating roles. This analysis may provide important implications for bank managers and regulators in China as well as in other emerging economies.     

Über das Aequivalenzprinzip

Abstract

Das Prinzip von der Gleichheit von Leistung und Gegenleistung wird in der Lebensversicherungsmathematik in der Regel so ausgesprochen: Es soll für einen beliebigen, innerhalb der Versicherungsdauer gelegenen Zeitpunkt die vorhandene Rücklage im Vereine mit dem versicherungstechnischen Barwert sämmtlicher noch zu erwartender Leistungen des Versicherten stets gleich sein dem versicherungstechnischen Barwert sammtlicher noch zu erwartender Leistungen des Versicherers. Unter versicherungstechnischem Barwert ist hiebei der auf diesen Zeitpunkt unter Rücksicht auf die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Leistung und die Verzinsung bezogene Wert dieser Leistungen zu verstehen. Unter den Leistungen des Versicherers sollen die vertraglich bedingten Zahlungen, aber auch die Verwaltungskosten und Dividendenzahlungen verstanden sein. Der Zeitpunkt, auf welchen die versicherungstechnischen Barwerte der beiderseitigen Leistungen bezogen werden, ist im übrigen willkürlich, nur muss er stets für Leistung und Gegenleistung derselbe sein. Das Aequivalenzprinzip gilt in gleicher weise für den Beginn und das Ende der Versicherungsdauer. Hieraus folgt in bekannter Weise die nur vom formal mathematischen Standpunkte verschiedene, inhaltlich aber völlig gleichwertige Darstellung der Rücklage in der prospektiven bezw. retrospektiven Gestalt, während der Rücklage selbst als einer nach den gewählten Rechnungsgrundlagen zu schätzenden Grösse, immer nur ein prospektiver Charakter zukommt.     

Causes and effects of corporate refocusing programs

We study the precursors and outcomes of refocusing episodesby 107 diversified firms that were not taken over between 1984and 1993. These firms had more value-reducing diversificationpolicies than diversified firms that did not refocus. However,major disciplinary or incentive-altering events (including managementturnover, outside shareholder pressure, changes in managementcompensation, and financial distress) usually occurred beforerefocusing took place. The cumulative abnormal returns overa firm's refocusing-related announcements averaged 7.3% andwere significantly related to the amount of value reductionassociated with the refocuser's diversification policy.     

Challenges and opportunities in disclosure research—A discussion of ‘the financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature’

Beyer et al. (2010) review the financial reporting literature related to voluntary and mandatory firm disclosures, and sell-side analyst reports. The discussion summarizes their approach, highlights some of their main conclusions, and presents alternative ideas about promising avenues for future research.     

The Surprising Use of Credit Scoring in Small Business Lending by Community Banks and the Attendant Effects on Credit Availability, Risk, and Profitability

The literature has documented a positive relationship between the use of credit scoring for small business loans and small business credit availability, broadly defined. However, this literature is hampered by the fact that all of the studies are based on a single 1998 survey of the very largest U.S. banking organizations. This paper addresses a number of deficiencies in the extant literature by employing data from a new survey of the use of credit scoring in small business lending, primarily by community banks. The survey evidence suggests that the use of credit scores in small business lending by community banks is surprisingly widespread. Moreover, the scores employed tend to be the consumer credit scores of the small business owners, rather than the more encompassing small business credit scores that include data on the firms as well as on the owners. Our empirical analysis suggests that credit scoring is associated with an initial increase in small business lending activity that moderates over time and no change in the quality of the loan portfolio. Supplementary analysis suggests that the use of credit scores for small business lending has a negative initial effect on community bank profitability that moderates over time.     

Estimating Europe’s natural rates

This article estimates potential output, the natural rate of unemployment, and the core inflation rate using aggregated euro area data. The empirical model consists of a Phillips curve linking inflation to unemployment. An Okun-type relationship is used to link the output gap to cyclical unemployment. The model further accounts for new developments in unobserved component models by allowing (i) for correlation between shocks to the natural rates and the corresponding gaps and (ii) structural breaks in the drift of potential output and the natural rate of unemployment.