Corporate social responsibility report

Altres títols : Sustainability report

A Price Concentration Study on European Mobile Telecom Markets: Limitations and Insights

Price concentration studies investigate the relationship between market concentration and price levels. They are increasingly used in the mobile telecom industry. This paper provides a detailed account of the limitations of such studies. In addition, it proposes a specific approach in order to account for quality differences across countries, which are likely important when explaining price differences. When applying our approach to European mobile telecom markets from 2003 to 2012, we find that there is no positive relationship between concentration and prices and some indications that the relationship may be negative

How Far Can Renminbi Internationalization Go?

Since the formal launch of the renminbi trade settlement scheme in 2009, renminbi internationalization has made impressive inroads. The progress in renminbi trade settlement is especially impressive. However, Hong Kong, China's offshore renminbi deposits failed to make significant progress as expected. The question of how far renminbi internationalization can go has become a common concern in the international financial community. This paper argues that while a contributing factor is the sheer size of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) trade and the convenience of using the renminbi for transaction settlements, exchange rate arbitrage and interest rate arbitrage matter also. Profits from arbitrages are the major driving forces of, but do not constitute a sustainable basis for, internationalization. A fundamental constraint for renminbi internationalization is the PRC's capital controls. Before fully opening up its capital account and making the renminbi freely convertible, however, the PRC needs first to put its own house in order. Macroeconomic stability has to be achieved; the high ratio of financial leverage should be reduced; a rational and flexible interest rate structure must be created; and risk management capacity across industries should be established. Most importantly, the PRC must make the renminbi exchange rate flexible to reflect demand for and supply of foreign exchange in the market. The renminbi can and will become a major international currency eventually, but the road to internationalization is bound to be long and bumpy

A Practical Approach to International Monetary System Reform: Building Settlement Infrastructure for Regional Currencies

The squeeze in US dollar liquidity that emerged with the global financial crisis highlighted the risks associated with the current global financial system. Asia was adversely affected by the crisis not only because of its dependence on trade, but also because of its heavy reliance on the US dollar for regional and international transactions. As Asia's role in the global economy expands further, its dependence on the US dollar is bound to increase, raising even more its vulnerability to future liquidity shocks. The use of regional currencies for bilateral trade settlement could reduce such vulnerability. As demonstrated by the renminbi trade settlement scheme piloted between the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, China, the existence of appropriate financial infrastructure could reduce the relatively larger costs of bilateral currency transactions compared with triangular transactions through the US dollar. As most central banks are securities depositories of government bonds, combining trade settlement with government bond securities settlement can also have large synergy effects without much extra costs. This proposal does not require full liberalization of the capital account or full deregulation of capital markets, and is more politically feasible in transition. As such, extending the trade settlement scheme to the rest of Asia and appending a government bond payment and securities settlement system could be a practical solution to international monetary system reform and the diversification of settlement currencies