Perceptions of Regulation on the UK Mortgage Market: A Step Too Far?

Poor risk management within firms was the result of deregulation and the Big Bang of 1986. Without a regulator and in order to achieve financial growth, firms inadequately managed their risk. The 2007 financial crisis was a wake up call to the UK highlighting that companies could not carry on in this manner. The financial crisis resulted in the FSA assuming the role of an active regulator, thus many requirements were implemented including the Capital Adequacy Ratio. Consequently, gross mortgage lending decreased by 63% during 2007-2010. Therefore, this study investigates the perceptions of the current level of regulation on the UK mortgage market. The research found there is a strong perception that the level of regulation is hindering lending and competition within the market. More specifically this study uses a qualitative approach of in-depth interviews with five financial and regulatory professionals. The results suggest that two professionals perceived regulation as positive for the UK mortgage market. Regulation is perceived positively because of its ability to give consumers greater market confidence, the implementation of loss mitigation strategies that prevent house repossession and the loss of irresponsible lenders. Three professionals perceived regulation as highly negative because it has reduced the lending rate, created barriers to entry thus reducing competition, has moved careless lending to other areas of the market such as payday loans, has created a substantial cost burden, has used a one-size-fits-all approach and has not removed fraudulent activity completely. Overall these results suggest that UK economy may struggle to get out of this recessionary period as long as there are uniform capital requirements imposed on UK lenders. It is recommended that the regulator may take an approach that lessens the requirements enforced on non-bank lenders. However, the capital requirements should be imposed on banks that have wider implications for the UK economy and caused the current financial crisis in order to prevent future financial crises. Another recommendation is the segmentation of building societies from banks as seen in the 1970s. The separation would create market confidence and would result in greater local knowledge; this would stimulate growth within the UK mortgage market

The impact of single and multiple mergers and acquisitions on shareholders' wealth of UK bidder firms

This study investigates the impact of takeover announcements on UK acquirer shareholders’ wealth during the period 2002-2006. More specifically, it is investigated whether the impact of single acquirers on shareholders’ wealth is significantly different from the impact of multiple acquirers. Findings suggest that acquirer shareholders experience positive abnormal returns during the announcement period. Moreover, the results indicate single acquirers consistently outperform multiple acquirers when testing for deal characteristics such as: payment method (cash or equity), target status (public or private), target location (domestic or cross crosspayment method (cash or equity), target status (public or private), target location (domestic or cross-border and industry relatedness (specification or diversification). Performance declines with sequential acquisitions due to merger programme announcement hypothesis. Successful first time acquirers suffer from hubris whilst unsuccessful first time acquirers learn from their experiences suggested by the organisation learning hypothesis but go on to suffer from hubris. Acquisitions of private firms yield significant abnormal returns whereas public acquisitions reduce the value of UK acquirers. The effect of cash and equity, domestic and foreign, related and unrelated takeovers are inconclusive for the short-term windows investigated by this study

The use of the balanced scorecard in small companies

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a performance measurement and strategic management system which appears suitable for use by all types and sizes of business. The BSC’s greatest strength for most businesses comes from its innate ability to integrate financial and non-financial measures together by measuring both strategic and business performance across four interrelated perspectives. Many studies have shown that the BSC can be successfully implemented within large-scale companies and organizations. However, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the use of the BSC within small companies. This study adds to the existing literature by reporting the results of a comparative investigation of BSC awareness and use within small companies located in the UK and Cyprus. In addition, the study examines the reasons for non-adoption by small companies and whether these companies use performances measures that are similar to those typically contained within the BSC model. The research data was collected from self-completed questionnaires that were distributed to 500 companies in the UK and Cyprus. The findings of the survey suggest that the majority of small companies, especially in the UK, are unaware of the BSC, and consequently levels of BSC usage are extremely low. Certain respondents believed that BSC is an unsuitable tool for small companies and that its implementation is beyond the resources available to such entities. However, the findings also suggest that even though very few small companies actually use the BSC, many such companies appear to use performances measures and indicators similar to those typically included within a BSC model

Investigating The Perceptions Of Science And Engineering University Educators And Students Around Sustainability Integration And The Role Of Digital Tools

Last year we presented the first phase of our on-going research project - a collaboration between researchers at UCL and Academic Development team members at Ansys Ltd on sustainable digital transition in education. The results of the first phase were published in proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2022). We developed a framework to explore how technology companies, with a focus on education, approach sustainability in education through their products and their practices and what makes them impactful, focusing on a specific case of Ansys Granta EduPack. The framework was the amalgamation of two previous analyses that explored i) how learning outcomes associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goals could be used to foster ways in which learning for sustainability can be implemented in Higher Education, and ii) how the same learning outcomes translate to concepts of capital used by companies to assess sustainability impact. In this part of the study, we present the second phase of our project, the development of two questionnaires for university students and educators based on the framework, described earlier. The questionnaires focus on assessing sustainability awareness and involvement of staff and students of Science and Engineering Departments in sustainability activities, using a Whole Institution Approach. In this paper we present preliminary data from the piloting of the questionnaires during a materials education workshop for University Educators organised by Ansys Ltd in Cambridge UK. In the third phase of this research project the questionnaires will be shared more widely with staff and students in science and engineering focused faculties internationally

Idiopathic sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis (or abdominal cocoon)

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis (or abdominal cocoon) is a rare cause of small bowel obstruction, especially in adult population. Diagnosis is usually incidental at laparotomy. We discuss one such rare case, outlining the fact that an intra-operative surprise diagnosis could have been facilitated by previous investigations. CASE PRESENTATION: A 56 year-old man presented in A&E department with small bowel ileus. He had a history of 6 similar episodes of small bowel obstruction in the past 4 years, which resolved with conservative treatment. Pre-operative work-up did not reveal any specific etiology. At laparotomy, a fibrous capsule was revealed, in which small bowel loops were encased, with the presence of interloop adhesions. A diagnosis of abdominal cocoon was established and extensive adhesiolysis was performed. The patient had an uneventful recovery and follow-up. CONCLUSION: Idiopathic sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, although rare, may be the cause of a common surgical emergency such as small bowel ileus, especially in cases with attacks of non-strangulating obstruction in the same individual. A high index of clinical suspicion may be generated by the recurrent character of small bowel ileus combined with relevant imaging findings and lack of other plausible etiologies. Clinicians must rigorously pursue a preoperative diagnosis, as it may prevent a "surprise" upon laparotomy and result in proper management

Uplink NOMA for UAV-Aided Maritime Internet-of-Things

Maritime activities are vital for economic growth, being further accelerated by various emerging maritime Internet of Things (IoT) use cases, including smart ports, autonomous navigation, and ocean monitoring systems. However, broadband, low-delay, and reliable wireless connectivity to the ever-increasing number of vessels, buoys, platforms and sensors in maritime communication networks (MCNs) has not yet been achieved. Towards this end, the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in MCNs provides an aerial dimension to current deployments, relying on shore-based base stations (BSs) with limited coverage and satellite links with high latency. In this work, a maritime IoT topology is examined where direct uplink communication with a shore BS cannot be established due to excessive pathloss. In this context, we employ multiple UAVs for end-to-end connectivity, simultaneously receiving data from the maritime IoT nodes, following the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) paradigm. In contrast to other UAV-aided NOMA schemes in maritime settings, dynamic decoding ordering at the UAVs is used to improve the performance of successive interference cancellation (SIC), considering the rate requirements and the channel state information (CSI) of each maritime node towards the UAVs. Moreover, the UAVs are equipped with buffers to store data and provide increased degrees of freedom in opportunistic UAV selection. Simulations reveal that the proposed opportunistic UAV-aided NOMA improves the average sum-rate of NOMA-based maritime IoT communication, leveraging the dynamic decoding ordering and caching capabilities of the UAVs

The Impact of Surplus Free Cash Flow, Corporate Governance and Firm Size on Earnings Predictability in Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Among the most important cases considered in financial statements by investors and other users of financial statements is earnings-related information. Given the need of the users of financial statements for the future information of companies and use of past data to predict the future, it seems that earnings forecast is among the favorite items of investors. In fact, earnings forecast by the management provides information about the future of companies. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of surplus free cash flow, corporate governance and firm size on earnings predictability in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. This research is an applied study and of post-event causal type. For data analysis, OLS regression method has been applied using Eviews‏ software. The research results demonstrate that there is a statistically significant relationship between earnings predictability and surplus free cash flow and good corporate mechanisms play a positive role in the relationship between surplus free cash flow and earnings predictability. According to the results, in large companies, good corporate mechanisms enhance the relationship between surplus free cash flow and earnings predictability

Policy and Practice on Inclusive Higher Education in the UK and Kenya: A Theoretical Framework and Recommendations

This article presents a study that was undertaken as part of a collaborative project between a UK university and a university in Kenya. The study aimed to investigate policies and practices of Inclusion and Inclusive Education in the two universities. Here, we present how Inclusion and Inclusive Education are conceptualized in the two geographical contexts, and review literature on Inclusion, Inclusive Education, disability, race and international/refugee students to develop a theoretical framework that we use to analyze the policies and practices of the two universities in two case studies. Our preliminary findings of this analysis show that Inclusion and Inclusive Education definitions in the two contexts need to be augmented with considerations of identity. We also make recommendations for the two institutions on how they can improve their policies and practices of inclusion, generate new strategies where they are missing or review existing tools and services to evaluate. These recommendations can benefit higher education institutions in the Global North and South

Post-earnings announcement drift in Greece

This paper presents evidence regarding the post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) anomaly for the Greek market in the years 2000–2006 (covering earnings announcements in the years 2001–2007). The impact of the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards on the size and prevalence of the PEAD anomaly is examined. Unlike recent evidence for the US market we find PEAD to be alive and well, and of growing importance in our Greek sample. It may be the adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) has served to reduce earnings predictability in Greece and thus enhance PEAD in the Athens stock exchange (ASE) market. This contrasts strongly with US evidence that the post earnings- announcement drift anomaly is now waning as more efficient markets and smarter, fundamentals-based, traders arbitrage its impact on stock prices