Capital ideas Chwieroth, Jeffrey M; Chwieroth, Jeffrey M
2010., 20091214, 2009, 2010, 2010-02-02, 2010-01-01, 20100101
eBook
The right of governments to employ capital controls has always been the official orthodoxy of the International Monetary Fund, and the organization's formal rules providing this right have not ...changed significantly since the IMF was founded in 1945. But informally, among the staff inside the IMF, these controls became heresy in the 1980s and 1990s, prompting critics to accuse the IMF of indiscriminately encouraging the liberalization of controls and precipitating a wave of financial crises in emerging markets in the late 1990s. In Capital Ideas, Jeffrey Chwieroth explores the inner workings of the IMF to understand how its staff's thinking about capital controls changed so radically. In doing so, he also provides an important case study of how international organizations work and evolve.
The recent financial crisis has made it paramount for the financial services industry to find new perspectives to look at their industry and, most importantly, to gain a better understanding of how ...the global financial system can be made less vulnerable and more resilient. The primary objective of this book is to illustrate how the safety science of Resilience Engineering can help to gain a better understanding of what the financial services system is and how to improve governance and control of financial services systems by leveraging some of its key concepts. Resilience is the intrinsic ability of a system to adjust its functioning prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions. This definition is focused on the ability to function, rather than just to be impervious to failure, and thereby bridges the traditional conflict between productivity and safety. The core concept of the book is that the behaviour of the financial services system is the result of the tight couplings among the humans, organizations and technologies that are necessary to provide complex financial functions such as the transfer of economic resources. It is a consequence of this perspective that the risks associated with these systems cannot be understood without considering the nature of these tight couplings. Adopting this perspective, the book is designed to provide some answers to the following key questions about the financial crisis: - What actually happened? - Why and how did it happen? - Could something similar happen again? How can we see that in time and how can we control it? - How can sustainable recovery of the global financial system be established? How can its resilience be improved?
Do Islamic financial institutions perform better than their conventional counterparts during periods of financial stress? To what extent do systems for managing risk have to be adapted for Islamic ...financial institutions, given the unique characteristics of their assets and liabilities and the need for shari’ah compliance? These issues have come to prominence since the global financial crisis of 2007-8 and the subsequent recession, and are addressed in this book. The challenges for Islamic financial institutions are explored in an international post Basel II system where banks are required to have more capital and liquidity. Governance issues are also examined, given their influence on client and investor perceptions and their ultimate implications for institutional stability and sustainability. Offers an in-depth assessment of how Islamic banks weathered the financial crisis and what lessons can be learnt. Asks whether Islamic banks are inherently more stable than conventional banks during periods of economic stress. Examines how Islamic banks manage risk, focusing on liquidity risk and the use of forward contracts to mitigate currency risk. Appraises the work of internal shari’ah audit units and the use of shari’ah reports to reduce non-compliance risks. Features case studies from the Gulf, Malaysia, the UK, Pakistan, Turkey and GCC countries.
This article reviews the evidence on the importance of finance for economic well-being. It provides data on the use of basic financial services by households and firms across a sample of countries, ...assesses the desirability of universal access, and provides an overview of the macroeconomic, legal, and regulatory obstacles to access. Despite the benefits of finance, the data show that use of financial services is far from universal in many countries, especially developing countries. Universal access to financial services has not been a public policy objective in most countries and would likely be difficult to achieve. Countries can, however, facilitate access to financial services by strengthening institutional infrastructure, liberalizing markets and facilitating greater competition, and encouraging innovative use of know-how and technology. Government interventions to directly broaden access to finance, however, are costly and fraught with risks, among others the risk of missing the targeted groups. The article concludes with recommendations for global actions aimed at improving data on access and use and suggestions on areas of further analysis to identify constraints to broadening access.
Business models have historically facilitated the ability of firms to createand capturevalue. Focusing on financial service agents (FSAs) as actors in the Nigerian financial services industry, this ...study helps to elucidate how value creation and distribution can facilitate business model innovation (BMI)in an emerging market. We deployed Osterwalder and Pigneur’s business model canvas alongside Amit and Zott’s Sources of Value in e-Business (SVCeB) model in mapping FSA business models and value creation sources. We find that the constant need to align the resources of a firm with the demand conditions at the customer end triggers the need for BMI by FSAs. The findings also demonstrate that FSAs have weak business models that inhibit their sustainability and ultimately impede their ability to play their role in closing the country’s financial exclusion gap. We suggest the need for business model innovation by FSAs as a pathway to viability, profitability and sustainability.
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