Assessment of debt counselling services: a case of Gauteng, South Africa.

The high level of over-indebtedness in Gauteng is cause for concern. The number of consumers applying for debt counselling as well as the registered debt counsellors is increasing. The study on which this article reports aimed at exploring and describing the role of debt counselling in terms of personal financial well-being of consumers in Gauteng. Fifteen debt counsellors were interviewed and 300 consumers were surveyed. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. There was no evidence that consumers who received debt counselling improved in their financial standing. It was observed that both debt counsellors and consumers lacked financial management skills. It was concluded that, while debt counselling is important, it does not necessarily improve the financial well-being of consumers. It is recommended that financial management skills should serve as a pre-requisite for debt counselling registration and consumers be introduced to personal financial management education at an early stage of their live

The cost of compliance: the case of South African banks

Compliance cost is expenditure of time or money in conforming to government requirements such as regulation or legislation. In the press it is stated that the cost of compliance is much too high in South Africa. Some South African regulatory authorities agreed with this opinion. To this end, research was conducted in South Africa to establish whether these opinions are accurate. The study found that the cost of compliance with regulations was unacceptably high for South African banks. The study concluded that banks needed assistance to reduce the cost of compliance. Following the recommendations of the study, calculations indicated that the implementation of these recommendations could reduce the cost of compliance by as much as 40 per cent

A proposed checklist for assessing Master’s and Doctoral research proposals

The study confirmed that most chairs of departments (CODs) in the College of Economic and Management Sciences (CEMS) regard Master’s and doctoral (M and D) throughput rates as poor. A proposed checklist for assessing M and D research proposals is advanced. The aim of the research was to establish if a proposed checklist may contribute to improved throughput rates. Inconsistent assessment criteria are used to assess the research proposals of M and D students. Structured interviews with CODs revealed that most departments are using criteria based on previous experience to assess M and D research proposals. These criteria have not been documented. The proposed checklist is regarded by CODs as being potentially valuable for assessing M and D proposals, but they are less optimistic that it could lead to improved throughput rates. The proposed checklist may nevertheless assist prospective M and D students to plan their research in a way that will avoid critical problems. Academic departments should consider testing the proposed checklist for its potential contribution to improve M and D throughput.Finance, Risk Management and Bankin

Improving course success rates at the honours level by setting minimum marks for the prerequisite undergraduate qualification

The study investigated whether a proposed minimum admission requirement of 60 per cent in the final-year module of specialisation at undergraduate level could attribute to the course success rate of students proceeding to the BCom honours degree in Business Management with specialisation in Financial Management at Unisa. Regression analysis and Pearson chi-square tests were conducted. Final-year marks for the Financial Management module, MNF3015, showed a positive correlation with the marks students obtained for the three selected postgraduate level modules at honours level. Significant positive correlations were also found between marks of 60 per cent or more obtained for MNF3015, and marks obtained for the postgraduate modules in Investments (r = 0.464, p = 0.017), Financial Risk Management (r = 0.347, p = 0.188) and Financial Management (r = 0.468, p = 0.002). Tests for the possible statistical association between the marks obtained in the three selected postgraduate-level modules and gender, age, home language and language of tuition did not yield significant values. A minimum mark of 60 per cent for final-year modules in the area of specialisation as an admission requirement is recommended in order to improve the success rate of Finance students at honours levelFinance, Risk Management and Bankin

Incident risk management: the case of banks in East and West Africa

An incident is the occurrence of a seemingly minor event, which is important enough that, if not properly managed, can lead to serious consequences. In contrast, a crisis is a stage in a series of events that significantly determines the direction of all future events. Following the much-publicized financial crises around the world, research was conducted amongst banks in East and West Africa to establish whether these banks are actively managing their incidents and crises. The study on which this article is based found that little was being done with regard to managing incidents. It was concluded that banks need assistance to prevent incidents turning into crises. A specific incident management framework is recommended that when implemented could reduce the risk of incidents becoming crises

Internal capital adequacy process: A framework for participating banks from east and west African countries

Orientation: Basel III makes provision for banks to assess their internal capital adequacy by means of risk-based approaches, stress tests and a leverage ratio. However, the Basel regulations do not prescribe to banks or to bank supervisors which method should be used or how it should be used. Research purpose: The research problem was whether a framework could be formulated for the implementation of an internal capital adequacy assessment process in accordance with the Basel III accord. Motivation for the study: East and west African banks and bank supervisors (BS) aspire to become fully compliant with Basel regulations and requested research regarding an internal capital adequacy assessment process (ICAAP) framework for the implementation of Basel III. Research approach/design and method: A participatory action research (PAR) approach was used because PAR contributes to both knowledge creation and improving professional practice. The PAR comprised a survey and interest groups attended by bank supervisors and senior officers of banks. Main findings: As a result, an actionable framework for the performance of internal capital adequacy assessment is proposed. Practical/managerial implications: Capital adequacy, applied appropriately, safeguards a bank’s own economic sustainability and the stability of the financial sector in general. Contribution/value-add: The proposed capital adequacy framework assists bank supervisors and risk managers to apply a more consistent approach for the implementation of the capital adequacy requirements of Basel III

Assessment of debt counselling services: A case of Gauteng, South Afrca

The high level of over-indebtedness in Gauteng is cause for concern. The number of consumers applying for debt counselling as well as the registered debt counsellors is increasing. The study on which this article reports aimed at exploring and describing the role of debt counselling in terms of personal financial well-being of consumers in Gauteng. Fifteen debt counsellors were interviewed and 300 consumers were surveyed. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. There was no evidence that consumers who received debt counselling improved in their financial standing. It was observed that both debt counsellors and consumers lacked financial management skills. It was concluded that, while debt counselling is important, it does not necessarily improve the financial well-being of consumers. It is recommended that financial management skills should serve as a pre-requisite for debt counselling registration and consumers be introduced to personal financial management education at an early stage of their lives

Mitigating the South African retirement-income shortfall crisis

Orientation: National Treasury acknowledges that 90% of all South African retirees will not have adequate financial resources in order to sustain themselves. Research purpose: This study aimed to address the retirement income shortfall by assessing possible changes to prudential retirement fund regulations. Motivation: Asset allocation plays a pivotal role in achieving the required rate of return of any portfolio. However, the restrictions on asset allocation imposed by article 28 of the Pension Funds Act of 1956 limits pension funds’ ability to achieve adequate returns. Research approach: A survey was conducted among chief investment officers (CIO) of the top 25 South African investment management companies. Main findings: The study proposes changes to the Income Tax Act, the Collective Investment Scheme Control Act and Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act. Managerial implications: The proposed framework should result in fewer pensioners becoming dependent on the state for their pension and empower pensioners to have greater amounts of post-retirement savings. Contribution: The contribution of this article is the proposed changes to the regulatory framework, which could – ceteris paribus: (1) Enable SA retirement fund investors to contribute to the retirement wealth pool in an unconstrained manner. (2) Enable SA retirement fund assets to increase investment returns by as much as 1.21% per annum. (3) Increase the average SA GRRs from the current projected 10.0% to 10.7% by 2045. (4) Increase the efficacy of the existing tax incentives. (5) Reduce spending requirements for grants in the national budget

Lindstrom theorems for fragments of first-order logic

Lindstr\"om theorems characterize logics in terms of model-theoretic conditions such as Compactness and the L\"owenheim-Skolem property. Most existing characterizations of this kind concern extensions of first-order logic. But on the other hand, many logics relevant to computer science are fragments or extensions of fragments of first-order logic, e.g., k-variable logics and various modal logics. Finding Lindstr\"om theorems for these languages can be challenging, as most known techniques rely on coding arguments that seem to require the full expressive power of first-order logic. In this paper, we provide Lindstr\"om theorems for several fragments of first-order logic, including the k-variable fragments for k>2, Tarski's relation algebra, graded modal logic, and the binary guarded fragment. We use two different proof techniques. One is a modification of the original Lindstr\"om proof. The other involves the modal concepts of bisimulation, tree unraveling, and finite depth. Our results also imply semantic preservation theorems.Comment: Appears in Logical Methods in Computer Science (LMCS

To What Extent do Fiscal Regimes Equalize Opportunities for Income Acquisition Among Citizens?

This project employs the theory of equality of opportunity, described in Roemer's book (Equality of Opportunity, Harvard University Press, 1998), to compute the extent to which tax-and-transfer regimes in ten countries equalize opportunities among citizens for income acquisition. Roughly speaking, equality of opportunity for incomes has been achieved in a country when it is the case that the distributions of post-fisc income are the same for different types of citizen, where a citizen's type is defined by the socioeconomic status of his parents. Intuitively, a country will have equalized opportunity if the chances of earning high (or low) income are equal for citizens from all family backgrounds. Of course, pre-fisc income distributions, by type, will not be identical, as long as the educational system does not entirely make up for the disadvantage that children, who come from poor families face, but the tax-and-transfer system can play a role in rectifying that inequality. We include, in our computation, two numbers that summarize the extent to which each country's current fiscal regime achieves equalization of opportunities for income, and the deadweight loss that would be incurred by moving to the regime that does.