Sustainability, Digital Transformation and Fintech: The New Challenges of the Banking Industry

In the current competitive scenario, the banking industry must contend with multiple challenges tied to regulations, legacy systems, disruptive models/technologies, new competitors, and a restive customer base, while simultaneously pursuing new strategies for sustainable growth. Banking institutions that can address these emerging challenges and opportunities to effectively balance long-term goals with short-term performance pressures could be aptly rewarded. This book comprises a selection of papers addressing some of these relevant issues concerning the current challenges and opportunities for international banking institutions. Papers in this collection focus on the digital transformation of the banking industry and its effect on sustainability, the emergence of new competitors such as FinTech companies, the role of mobile banking in the industry, the connections between sustainability and financial performance, and other general sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) topics related to the banking industry. The book is a Special Issue of the MDPI journal Sustainability, which has been sponsored by the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI), a Spanish research and training institution created as a collaboration between Santander Bank and the University of Cantabria. SANFI works to identify, develop, support, and promote knowledge, study, talent, and innovation in the financial sector

Limb development genes underlie variation in human fingerprint patterns

Fingerprints are of long-standing practical and cultural interest, but little is known about the mechanisms that underlie their variation. Using genome-wide scans in Han Chinese cohorts, we identified 18 loci associated with fingerprint type across the digits, including a genetic basis for the long-recognized “pattern-block” correlations among the middle three digits. In particular, we identified a variant near EVI1 that alters regulatory activity and established a role for EVI1 in dermatoglyph patterning in mice. Dynamic EVI1 expression during human development supports its role in shaping the limbs and digits, rather than influencing skin patterning directly. Trans-ethnic meta-analysis identified 43 fingerprint-associated loci, with nearby genes being strongly enriched for general limb development pathways. We also found that fingerprint patterns were genetically correlated with hand proportions. Taken together, these findings support the key role of limb development genes in influencing the outcome of fingerprint patterning

Foreign Direct Investment and Poverty in the ECOWAS Region

This study aims to examine the impact of FDI on poverty in the ECOWAS region, covering the period between 1990 and 2018. The research design is a mixed-methods quantitative approach that uses two phases of data collection and analysis. The first phase is the secondary data quantitative study and is followed by the second phase, a primary data quantitative study, the latter of which complements the findings of the former. The data sources were both secondary and primary, collected from renowned websites, questionnaires and documentary reviews. The data were analysed using quantitative estimation techniques, and the study employed the static estimation techniques OLS, FE and RE, and a dynamic estimation technique, namely GMM. Four poverty measures were utilised as dependent variables (infant mortality, the Human Development Index, GDP per capita and household consumption), along with FDI inflow based on United States Dollars at current prices as the main independent variable. The result of the study indicates that the impact of FDI on poverty in the ECOWAS region is mixed, in that it has a positive effect when using HDI and GDP per capita as poverty measures. However, FDI has a negative impact on poverty when using HCON as a measure, and when using MORT as a poverty measure, the result is inconclusive. Therefore, it is concluded that the impact of FDI on poverty in the ECOWAS region is sensitive to the poverty measure used in the study, and it is also dependent on econometric techniques. The study recommends that ECOWAS members and other stakeholders, when examining FDI and poverty relationships, should be critical of the poverty measure adopted, in order to assure the maximum impact of the result. Moreover, ECOWAS member countries should explore new avenues to attract more FDI inflow and diversify it to all sectors of the economy for a more significant effect on poverty reduction and the attainment of SDGs. This study contributes empirically to the extant literature in diverse ways, i.e. its unique findings and its novelty, since it is the first to be undertaken in the ECOWAS region

Inequality as a Cause of Systemic Banking Crises ̶ Some New Theory and Evidence

The thesis argues that systemic banking crises and inequality go hand in hand, with inequality in front. Through showing how factors commonly found to influence banking crises, such as household and business debt levels, asset prices, default ratios, and credit growth (all important in Minsky-type bubbles) theoretically can be attributed to decreasing relative wages of households, and/or concentration of wealth among "hoarders" it sheds light on a potentially strong link between inequality and banking crises. It proposes a simple theoretical model formalizing this link through a capitalist spirit utility function and Minsky-type asset inflation, and tests the effect of inequality on the probability of suffering a systemic banking crisis through a multivariate logit approach. The results are conclusive in favor of growing inequality being a significant factor increasing the probability of suffering a systemic banking crisis in the future. Reducing income inequality is argued to be a first-best policy option for reducing financial fragility

Financialisation and the Myth of Poverty Alleviation in Ghana: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Financial Liberalisation on Sustainable Economic Development

The key theme of the thesis is that the rise of finance (financialisation) in Ghana has done very little, if any, in the fight against poverty. It has, however, resulted in rising financial profits, financialising poverty and stagnating the real sector of the economy. The thesis analyses financialisation in a low middle-income country. The focus is to investigate the impact of the exponential growth of finance on poverty alleviation in Ghana. It adopts a political economy approach to the changing behaviour/conduct of banks, industrial enterprises and households. Different strands of thoughts are reviewed in their understanding of financialisation. The theoretical framework is set vis-à-vis the empirical reality to assess whether the Ghanaian economy is financialised. It has been presented in this thesis that Ghana is indeed a financialised economy. However, it demonstrates several unique characteristics for different sectors because of its subordinate/inferior status shaped by imperial relations between states in the world market. The thesis found rising profit for the banking industry, but limited lending to industrial enterprises for long-term investment. However, what is unique in the context of Ghana is excessive lending to the government. The capital structure of firms in Ghana composed of mainly internal funds, as banks are reluctant to lend to firms due to the lucrative returns on less risky government securities. Banks then demand high collateral from firms together with high interests on capital. These obstructive factors, coupled with other contradictions in the political-economic arrangement, impact high cost on firms and therefore limit their ability to make enough profit. Consequently, firms employ less labour and are unable to pay higher wages, resulting in chronic poverty. This thesis presents that financial inclusion policy as a way of empowering the poor makes poverty a financial problem, which requires new credit relation- the financialisation of poverty. The thesis, therefore, argues that poverty should be viewed as a monetary and non-monetary problem

Proceedings of the International Conference on Emerging Economic Issues in a Globalizing World

This volume consists of papers presented at Third Coonference in Economics co-organized by Izmir Univeristy of Economics and the State University of New York at Cortland on May 1-2, 2008 in Ýzmir. The theme of the conference is "Emerging Economic Issues in a Globalizing World". Papers presented cover issues such as economics of transition, knowledge economy, developments in financial markets in emerging market economies, e-commerce, and financial crisis of the 21st century.Globalization, financial markets, emerging markets, regional development

Untangling hotel industry’s inefficiency: An SFA approach applied to a renowned Portuguese hotel chain

The present paper explores the technical efficiency of four hotels from Teixeira Duarte Group - a renowned Portuguese hotel chain. An efficiency ranking is established from these four hotel units located in Portugal using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. This methodology allows to discriminate between measurement error and systematic inefficiencies in the estimation process enabling to investigate the main inefficiency causes. Several suggestions concerning efficiency improvement are undertaken for each hotel studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Malaysian bilateral trade relations and economic growth

This paper examines the structure and trends of Malaysian bilateral exports and imports and then investigates whether these bilateral exports and imports have caused Malaysian economic growth. Although the structure of Malaysia’s trade has changed quite significantly over the last three decades, the direction of Malaysia’s trade remains generally the same. Broadly, ASEAN, the EU, East Asia, the US and Japan continue to be the Malaysia’s major trading partners. The Granger causality tests have shown that it is the bilateral imports that have caused economic growth in Malaysia rather than the bilateral exports