Competition policy and the financial technology revolution in banking

This paper argues that the more ambitious prognosticatons of the outcome of the current "Fintech" revolution, a transformation of banking to the benefit of customers, depend critically on the appropriate use of competition law and policy, in particular the regulation of access to banking platforms. Without supportive intervention of this kind by regulators and central banks to promote incentives for adoption, for example through requiring standardised information exchange through "application programming interfaces" (APIs) and widening access to central bank money, incumbents are likely to successfully resist substantial change

The rise and success of the barcode: some lessons for financial services

This article critically examines the analogy between the barcode and the standardization of data and communication in financial services, recounting the history of the barcode and considering what lessons this offers for regulation and management of financial firms. The initial development and uptake of the barcode was slow, requiring a decade before barcode scanning at point of sale fully took off worldwide and longer still for full application in the global supply chain. This experience indicates that even substantial economic and business benefits do not ensure rapid adoption of efficiency enhancing technological innovation. This requires incentives for adoption and these can remain weak until a demonstrable business case for change emerges. Such a case may be difficult to make for similar standardization in financial services, especially if adoption is perceived to lower barriers to entry and increase competition. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd

An old fashioned banking crisis: credit growth and loan losses in the UK 1997-2012

This book brings together senior macroeconomists from universities and the Bank of England to look at what policy-making lessons can be learned from looking at the period of expansion that preceded the financial crisis

Central securities depositories and securities clearing and settlement: Business practice and public policy concerns

© 2016 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. This chapter describes the emergence of national and international central securities depositories (CSDs) and the systems of tiered account-based security ownership they support. It examines clearing and settlement risks, including principal risk now largely removed by DVP, and liquidity risk reduced but far from fully removed by multilateral netting. Liquidity demand and the complexity of some underlying transactions results in a surprisingly high volume of postponed settlements (trade fails). Systems of clearing and settlement were resilient during the crisis of 2008, but the remarkable complexity of these networks suggests two policy concerns that need further examination. Problems in clearing and settlement could still magnify or transmit systemic financial risk in a future crisis, if firms do not again obtain public sector support; and the sheer complexity of clearing and settlement arrangements may both create operational risks and heighten barriers to entry, hence reducing competition and raising costs to investors. © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited

The impact and potential of blockchain on securities transaction lifecycle

This paper reports the outcome of a series of interviews and focus group meetings with professionals working in post-trade processing and the provision of mutual distributed ledger services. The objective was to elicit and document views on three research hypotheses about the potential impact of mutual distributed ledger technology (‘blockchain’) on post-trade processing global securities markets. These hypotheses are (a) on the appropriate access to mutual distributed ledger; (b) on whether change would be piecemeal or ‘big bang’; and (c) on the extent to which applying mutual distributed ledger in securities settlement would require major changes in business processes. Our research finds that while the use of blockchain to validate operational data in mutual distributed ledgers can yield substantial reductions in both cost and risk, the concept of data sharing itself is far from new. Current interest in mutual distributed ledgers has established significant momentum, but there is a danger of building unrealistic expectations of the extent to which the technology on its own will address the underlying need for co-ordination of business processes both within and between firms. Achieving all the potential benefits from mutual distributed ledgers will require board level buy-in to a substantial commitment of time and resource, and active regulatory support for process reform, with relatively little short term payoff

Risk-adjusted measures of value creation in financial institutions

Many financial institutions assess portfolio decisions using RAROC, the ratio of expected return to risk (or ‘economic’) capital. We use asset pricing theory to determine the appropriate hurdle rate, finding that this varies with the skewness of asset returns. We quantify this discrepancy under a range of assumptions showing that the RAROC hurdle rate differs substantially, being higher by a factor of five or more for equity which has a right skew compared to debt which has a pronounced left skew, and also between different qualities of debt exposure. We discuss implications for both financial institution risk management and supervision

The cyclical behaviour of European bank capital buffers

Using an unbalanced panel of accounting data from 1997 to 2004 and controlling for individual bank costs and risk, we find capital buffers of the banks in the EU15 have a significant negative co-movement with the cycle. For banks in the accession countries there is significant positive co-movement. Capital buffers of commercial and savings banks, and of large banks, exhibit negative co-movement. Those of co-operative and smaller banks exhibit positive co-movement. Speeds of adjustment are fairly slow. We interpret these results and discuss policy implications, noting that negative co-movement of capital buffers will exacerbate the pro-cyclical impact of Basel II

The business models and economics of peer-to-peer lending

This paper reviews peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, its development in the UK and other countries, and assesses the business and economic policy issues surrounding this new form of intermediation. P2P platform technology allows direct matching of borrowers’ and lenders’ diversification over a large number of borrowers without the loans having to be held on an intermediary balance sheet. P2P lending has developed rapidly in both the US and the UK, but it still represents a small fraction, less than 1%, of the stock of bank lending. In the UK – but not elsewhere – it is an important source of loans for smaller companies. We argue that P2P lending is fundamentally complementary to, and not competitive with, conventional banking. We therefore expect banks to adapt to the emergence of P2P lending, either by cooperating closely with third-party P2P lending platforms or offering their own proprietary platforms. We also argue that the full development of the sector requires much further work addressing the risks and business and regulatory issues in P2P lending, including risk communication, orderly resolution of platform failure, control of liquidity risks and minimisation of fraud, security and operational risks. This will depend on developing reliable business processes, the promotion to the full extent possible of transparency and standardisation and appropriate regulation that serves the needs of customers

Fintech and the future of financial services: What are the research gaps?

New financial technologies (FinTech) have erupted around the world. Consequently, there has been a considerable increase in academic literature on FinTech over the last five years. Research tends to be scantily connected with no coherent research agenda. Signi - cant research gaps and important questions remain. There is much work to be done before this area becomes an established academic discipline. This paper offers coherent research themes formulated through focus group meetings with policymakers and academics, and also based on a critical assessment of the literature. We outline seven key research gaps with questions that could form the basis of academic study. If these are addressed it would help this area become an established academic discipline

Data technologies and next generation insurance operations

This article uses insights from knowledge management to describe and contrast two approaches to the application of artificial intelligence and data technologies in insurance operations. The first focuses on the automation of existing processes using robotic processing intervention (RPA). Knowledge is codified, routinezed, and embedded in systems. The second focuses on using cognitive computing (AI) to support data driven human decision making based on tacit knowledge. These approaches are complementary, and their successful execution depends on a fully developed organizational data strategy. Four cases are presented to illustrate specific applications and data that are being used by insurance firms to effect change of this kind