Bank ownership and efficiency in China: what lies ahead in the world’s largest nation?

China is reforming its banking system, partially privatizing and permitting minority foreign ownership of three of the dominant ‘big four’ state-owned banks. This paper seeks to help predict the effects of this change by analysing the efficiency of virtually all Chinese banks in the years 1994–2003. Our findings suggest the big four banks are by far the least efficient and foreign banks the most efficient while minority foreign ownership is associated with significantly improved efficiency. We present corroborating robustness checks and offer several credible mechanisms through which minority foreign owners can increase Chinese bank efficiency. These findings suggest that minority foreign ownership of the big four is likely to significantly improve performance.foreign banks; efficiency; foreign ownership

Further evidence on the link between finance and growth: An international analysis of community banking and economic performance

We seek to contribute to both the finance-growth literature and the community banking literature by testing the effects of the relative health of community banks on economic growth and investigating potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using data from 1993–2000 on 49 nations. Data from both developed and developing nations suggest that larger market shares and higher efficiency rankings for small, private, domestically owned banks are associated with better economic performance, and that the marginal benefits of larger shares are greater when the banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved financing for SMEs or greater overall bank credit flows. The data from developing nations is also consistent with favourable economic effects from foreign-owned banks, but unfavourable effects from state-owned banks.banks, community banking, SMEs, financial development, economic growth, international

Does diversification increase or decrease bank risk and performance? Evidence on diversification and the risk-return tradeoff in banking

Conventional wisdom in banking argues that diversification tends to reduce bank risk and improve performance, but the recent financial crisis suggests that aggressive diversification strategies may have resulted in increased risk taking and poor performance. This paper addresses this important question by evaluating the empirical relationship between diversification strategies and the risk-return tradeoff in banking. Our data set covers Russian banks during the 1999-2006 period and finds somewhat mixed results. Specifically, we find that banks’ performance tends to be non-monotonically related to their diversification strategy. The marginal effects of focus indices (inverse measures of diversification) on performance are nonlinearly associated with the level of risk and foreign ownership. A focused strategy is found to be associated with increased profit and decreased risk only up to a certain threshold. Additionally, when foreign ownership is either very high or very low, banks tend to benefit more from being diversified. This analysis provides important strategic and policy implications for bank managers and regulators in Russia as well as in other emerging economies.banks; diversification; focus; Russia; foreign ownership; scope economies

Further evidence on the link between finance and growth: An international analysis of community banking and economic performance

We seek to contribute to both the finance-growth literature and the community banking literature by testing the effects of the relative health of community banks on economic growth and investigating potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using data from 1993–2000 on 49 nations. Data from both developed and developing nations suggest that larger market shares and higher efficiency rankings for small, private, domestically owned banks are associated with better economic performance, and that the marginal benefits of larger shares are greater when the banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved financing for SMEs or greater overall bank credit flows. The data from developing nations is also consistent with favourable economic effects from foreign-owned banks, but unfavourable effects from state-owned banks.banks, community banking, SMEs, financial development, economic growth, international

Further evidence on the link between finance and growth: An international analysis of community banking and economic performance

We seek to contribute to both the finance-growth literature and the community banking literature by testing the effects of the relative health of community banks on economic growth and investigating potential transmission mechanisms for these effects using data from 1993–2000 on 49 nations. Data from both developed and developing nations suggest that larger market shares and higher efficiency rankings for small, private, domestically owned banks are associated with better economic performance, and that the marginal benefits of larger shares are greater when the banks are more efficient. Only mixed support is found for hypothesized transmission mechanisms through improved financing for SMEs or greater overall bank credit flows. The data from developing nations is also consistent with favourable economic effects from foreign-owned banks, but unfavourable effects from state-owned banks.banks; community banking; SMEs; financial development; economic growth; international

EFFICACY OF UNANI FORMULATIONS IN CHRONIC ENDOCERVICITIS: A RANDOMIZED COMPARATIVE STUDY

Objective: To compare the efficacy of Unani formulation in chronic endocervicitis. Methods: A parallel, comparative randomized trial was conducted at Govt. Nizamia General Hospital, Hyderabad from 1998 to 2000 in 50 patients (25 in each group) with sign and symptoms of endocervicitis. The intervention was administered per oral and locally for 10 d from day 7 to day 16 of each menstrual cycle up to three consecutive months in both groups (A and B). Group A received 10 g powder of mako khusk, chobchini, and gul surkh with equal quantity of sugar orally, twice daily and locally douching with 100 ml of joshandae of barge neem (5g), and gule tesu (5g) was done per vaginum followed by insertion of humool (pessary) of loabe khatmi (5g), and safoof sadberg (3) mixed with roghan neem (10 ml). Group B received 7.5 g powder of ushba and kasni mixed with equal quantity of sugar orally, twice daily. Humool of loabe hulba (5g), and raswat (3g) with roghane gul was kept per vaginum. The outcome was inter-group comparison of effectiveness of Unani medicine by observing change in subjective and objective parameters of endocervicitis. Chi-square/Fisher Exact tests were carried out to observe the inter group comparison. Results: The demographic characteristics were statistically not significant (P>0.05) between the groups. No statistical difference was noted in the subjective and objective parameters of endocervicitis (P>0.05), showing that both groups were comparable. Conclusion: Group A and B were comparable in ameliorating sign and symptoms of endocervicitis because of anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-microbial effects. Further, randomized controlled trials are recommended

Global syndicated lending during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper examines the pricing of global syndicated loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that loan spreads rise by over 11 basis points in response to a one standard deviation increase in the lender’s exposure to COVID-19 and over 5 basis points for an equivalent increase in the borrower’s exposure. This implies excess interest of about USD 5.16 million and USD 2.37 million respectively for a loan of average size and duration. The aggravating effect of the pandemic is exacerbated with the level of government restrictions to tackle the virus’s spread, with firms’ financial constraints and reliance on debt financing, whereas it is mitigated for relationship borrowers, borrowers listed in multiple exchanges or headquartered in countries that can attract institutional investors

Caco-2 cell permeability of flavonoids and saponins from Gynostemma pentaphyllum : the immortal herb

Gynostemma pentaphyllum (the immortal herb) has been an important component of Chinese Traditional Medicine for millennia. Recent clinical studies have revealed that the plant exhibits numerous beneficial biological activities, making it of interest to the pharmaceutical industry. An extract of the herb contains over 200 individual secondary metabolites including flavonol glycosides and dammarane saponins. To focus attention on the compounds most likely to be responsible for the biological activities, this study predicts the potential oral bioavailability of nine dammarane saponins and five flavonol glycosides from G. pentaphyllum using the Caco-2 cell monolayer permeability model. Two flavonoids, 8 and 9, and four saponins, 10, 11, 12, and 14, exhibited high permeability across the monolayers. The results indicated that a higher degree of glycosylation-facilitated permeability, suggestive of active transport. This study demonstrates the utility of the Caco-2 permeability assay as a method of identifying possible bioavailable compounds from medicinal herbal extracts

Oxygen uptake in the brine shrimp artemia in relation to salinity

The rate of oxygen consumption of Artemia has decreased with decrease in salinity and in freshwater the 02 consumed was least. The probable reasons for such decrease have (been discussed