Monetary theory and electronic money : reflections on the Kenyan experience

This article uses a class of models of money and the payments system to inform an analysis of "mobile banking" in the context of the rapid expansion of M-PESA, a new technology in Kenya that allows payments via mobile phones (even without any access to a bank account), and currently reaches close to 38 percent of Kenyan adults. The separation of households and firms in space and time suggests, in theory, from various separate models, a number of implications. These include (i) the potential gain, under some circumstances, from allowing net e-money credit creation, (ii) the impact that the associated enhancement of credit markets can have on monetary policy and on the real economy, (iii) the roles that e-money could play not only in credit but also in insurance, unrelated to its payment function, (iv) the potential role for an activist monetary policy and e-money management, (v) the role of e-money as a circulating private debt and as a store of value though with potential coordination problems associated with achieving balanced security transformation, (vi) the potential welfare losses from insisting on continuous net clearing of cash and e-money and the difficulty, in any event, of achieving this in practice, and (vii) the management of shortages in the context of fixed rates of exchange of e-money for cash. We provide some summary statistics from data collected on M-PESA agents and users that are reminiscent of the environments of the models and that support some of these implications. Other implications of the models suggest reforms to enhance the system's efficiency.Monetary policy ; Inflation (Finance) ; Financial institutions ; Payment systems

Flexible working policies and environments in UK Local Authorities: current practice

The research surveys the uptake of 'modern' or flexible working practices in UK Local Authorities, especially as it impacts on property and office accommodation. Nearly all permit flexible starting and finishing times for as many employees as is practical while forms of accredited hours working for at least some appropriate employees are policy in a majority. Flexible practices with property and ICT implications, working from home without a dedicated work station, formal policies, 'hot' desking, flexible offices and satellite or drop-in offices are less common (ca 10%) but have grown significantly in the last two years. A number of councils also report being at the stage of planning pilots. Five detailed case studies are reported. Three authorities have expanding strategic programmes for 'workstyle' changes or new ways of working. One has shifted its emphasis away from such plans toward higher density office usage only and one was awaiting the election result before anticipated permission to start. These cases do all come from authorities in areas of much higher than average property values and costs. While they have seen savings, they emphasise that the initiatives were equally about better work life balance and improved office environments. Green benefits and service enhancements are harder to quantify but are believed to have been achieved. Higher density of net space utilisation has uniformly been achieved. Executive commitment and clear member support are seen as critical strategic success factors. Clear liaison between HR, Property/ Facilities and ICT has been essential to operational success. Entrenched management attitudes and, at least initially, staff reluctance to change, are cited as the major drawbacks. Accounting and valuation practices can also be a barrier. Similar messages are provided by a variety of pilots, some undertaken deliberately as strategic tests, others as much more of an ad hoc response to local circumstances. Most have not, or not yet, seen net office space reduced. The more successful pilots were not 'just' either property or HR policy initiatives: indeed there is some evidence that initiatives involving only one of the two functions have been less successful. Service areas most frequently cited as being involved in changes are various property functions. Trading Standards and Social Services are other areas where the real or potential development of flexible working and shared desking is highlighted though the latter in particular is also cited as an area where workers in the office have particular mutual support needs. Higher density officing for less mobile workers is, in principle, an option more widely available. Workplace strategy should reflect future service delivery models, asset management plans and organisational development. New ways of working have been a tool for achieving changes in culture and delivery, but were, and are, a challenge to traditional mindsets. They will involve senior property professionals in a range of issues with which they have not traditionally been associated. Future property and workplace strategy will be driven by an authority's service models and aspirations as to working culture: but will also be a tool, alongside organisational development (OD) and ICT, to achieve change and improvement

Design and Performance Analysis of Opportunistic Routing Protocols for Delay Tolerant Networks

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are characterized by the lack of continuous end-to-end connections because of node mobility, constrained power sources, and limited data storage space of some or all of its nodes. Applications of DTNs include vehicular networks and sensor networks in suburban and rural areas. The intermittent connection in DTNs creates a new and challenging environment that has not been tackled before in wireless and wired networks. Traditional routing protocols fail to deliver data packets because they assume the existence of continuous end-to-end connections. To overcome the frequent disconnections, a DTN node is required to store data packets for long periods of time until it becomes in the communication range of other nodes. In addition, to increase the delivery probability, a DTN node spreads multiple copies of the same packet on the network so that one of the copies reaches the destination. Given the limited storage and energy resources of DTN nodes, there is a trade off between maximizing delivery and minimizing storage and energy consumption. DTN routing protocols can be classified as either blind routing, in which no information is provided to select the next node in the path, or guided routing, in which some network information is used to guide data packets to their destinations. In addition they differ in the amount of overhead they impose on the network and its nodes. The objective of DTN routing protocols is to deliver as many packets as possible. Acquiring network information helps in maximizing packet delivery probability and minimizing the network overhead resulting from replicating many packet copies. Network information could be node contact times and durations, node buffer capacities, packet lifetimes, and many others. The more information acquired, the higher performance could be achieved. However, the cost of acquiring the network information in terms of delay and storage could be high to the degree that render the protocol impractical. In designing a DTN routing protocol, the trade-off between the benefits of acquiring information and its costs should be considered. In this thesis, we study the routing problem in DTN with limited resources. Our objective is to design and implement routing protocols that effectively handles the intermittent connection in DTNs to achieve high packet delivery ratios with lower delivery cost. Delivery cost is represented in terms of number of transmissions per delivered packet. Decreasing the delivery cost means less network overhead and less energy consumption per node. In order to achieve that objective, we first target the optimal results that could be achieved in an ideal scenario. We formulate a mathematical model for optimal routing, assuming the presence of a global observer that can collect information about all the nodes in the network. The optimal results provide us with bounds on the performance metrics, and show the room for improvement that should be worked on. However, optimal routing with a global observer is just a theoretical model, and cannot be implemented practically. In DTNs, there is a need for a distributed routing protocol which utilizes local and easily-collectable data. Therefore, We investigate the different types of heuristic (non-optimal) distributed routing protocols, showing their strengths and weaknesses. Out of the large collection of protocols, we select four protocols that represent different routing classes and are well-known and highly referred by others working in the same area. We implement the protocols using a DTN simulator, and compare their performance under different network and node conditions. We study the impact of changing the node buffer capacities, packet lifetimes, number of nodes, and traffic load on their performance metrics, which are the delivery ratio, delivery cost, and packet average delay. Based on these comparisons, we draw conclusions and guidelines to design an efficient DTN routing protocol. Given the protocol design guidelines, we develop our first DTN routing protocol, Eco-Friendly Routing for DTN (EFR-DTN), which combines the strengths of two of the previously proposed protocols to provide better delivery ratio with low network overhead (less power consumption). The protocol utilizes node encounters to estimate the route to destination, while minimizing the number of packet copies throughout the network. All current DTN routing protocols strive to estimate the route from source to destination, which requires collecting information about node encounters. In addition to the overhead it imposes on the network to collect this information, the time to collect this information could render the data worthless to propagate through the network. Our next proposal is a routing protocol, Social Groups Based Routing (SGBR), which uses social relations among network nodes to exclude the nodes that are not expected to significantly increase the probability of delivering the packet to its destination. Using social relations among nodes, detected from node encounters, every group of nodes can form a social group. Nodes belonging to the same social group are expected to meet each other frequently, and meet nodes from other groups less frequently. Spreading packet copies inside the same social group is found to be of low-added value to the carrying node in delivering a packet to its destination. Therefore, our proposed routing protocol spreads the packet copies to other social groups, which decreases the number of copies throughout the network. We compare the new protocol with the optimal results and the existing well-known routing protocols using real-life simulations. Results show that the proposed protocol achieves higher delivery ratio and less average delay compared to other protocols with significant reduction in network overhead. Finally, we discuss the willingness of DTN nodes to cooperate in routing services. From a network perspective, all nodes are required to participate in delivering packets of each other. From a node perspective, minimizing resource consumption is a critical requirement. We investigate the degree of fair cooperation where all nodes are satisfied with their participation in the network routing services. A new credit-based system is implemented to keep track of and reward node participation in packet routing. Results show that the proposed system improves the fairness among nodes and increases their satisfaction

Developing a framework for mobile payments integration

This paper derives a theoretical framework for consideration of both the technologically driven dimensions of mobile payment solutions, and the associated value proposition for customers. Banks promote traditional payment instruments whose value proposition is the management of risk for both consumers and merchants. These instruments are centralised, costly and lack decision support functionality. The ubiquity of the mobile phone has provided a decentralised platform for managing payment processes in a new way, but the value proposition for customers has yet to be elaborated clearly. This inertia has stalled the design of sustainable revenue models for a mobile payments ecosystem. Merchants and consumers in the meantime are being seduced by the convenience of on-line and mobile payment solutions. Adopting the purchase and payment process as the unit of analysis, the current mobile payment landscape is reviewed with respect to the creation and consumption of customer value. From this analysis, a framework is derived juxtaposing customer value, related to what is being paid for, with payment integration, related to how payments are being made. The framework provides a theoretical and practical basis for considering the contribution of mobile technologies to the payment industry. The framework is then used to describe the components of a mobile payments pilot project being run on a trial population of 250 students on a campus in Ireland. In this manner, weaknesses in the value proposition for consumers and merchants were highlighted. Limitations of the framework as a research tool are also discussed

GENERIC TRANSACTION CARD

The present disclosure relates to a generic transaction card authorization method for approving a second user credit card transaction. The present disclosure suggests receiving a request from a first user via a first user device to a bank server for issuing a credit card through a parental control system, wherein the parental control system is used for setting and enforcing the restrictions on the credit card. The bank server processes the request and issues the card to the first user. Thereafter, the present disclosure suggests using, by a second user, the issued credit card for financial transactions at a merchant payment system. The merchant payment system consequently submits a request to a card authorization system to verify financial transactions via a network. Further, the present disclosure suggests sending an approval message to the merchant payment system after verification to complete the financial transaction

Title I: Subject Matter, Scope and Definitions (Art. 1 - Art. 4): the regulated field (object and subject)

The PSD2 regulates ‘payment services’ provided within the European Union by ‘payment service providers’ (PSPs). PSPs are identified in art 1(1). ‘Payment services’ are set out in Annex I, to which art 4(3) directs. Title I, consisting of arts 1 to 4, provides for the subject matter, scope and definitions of the PSD2. In addition to identifying the payment institutions to which the PSD2 applies, art 1 states that the Directive establishes PSPs’ disclosure and contractual framework requirements. Art 2 both provides for and finetunes coverage by addressing currencies and exemptions. Art 3 provides for exclusions. Art 4 sets out definitions of terms applicable throughout the Directive. The chapter will critically deal with the interpretation of these provisions, as well as analyse their rationale and origins. It will draw a comparison with the 2007 PSD and similar enactments in other jurisdictions. It will address inconsistencies and synergies within the general EU-based framework and analyse Court of Justice case law and professional literature, if any

Collusion in Peer-to-Peer Systems

Peer-to-peer systems have reached a widespread use, ranging from academic and industrial applications to home entertainment. The key advantage of this paradigm lies in its scalability and flexibility, consequences of the participants sharing their resources for the common welfare. Security in such systems is a desirable goal. For example, when mission-critical operations or bank transactions are involved, their effectiveness strongly depends on the perception that users have about the system dependability and trustworthiness. A major threat to the security of these systems is the phenomenon of collusion. Peers can be selfish colluders, when they try to fool the system to gain unfair advantages over other peers, or malicious, when their purpose is to subvert the system or disturb other users. The problem, however, has received so far only a marginal attention by the research community. While several solutions exist to counter attacks in peer-to-peer systems, very few of them are meant to directly counter colluders and their attacks. Reputation, micro-payments, and concepts of game theory are currently used as the main means to obtain fairness in the usage of the resources. Our goal is to provide an overview of the topic by examining the key issues involved. We measure the relevance of the problem in the current literature and the effectiveness of existing philosophies against it, to suggest fruitful directions in the further development of the field