Factors Affecting the Intention to Use E-Wallets during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the lifestyle of Malaysians. The government has introduced various incentives to encourage contactless transactions. Malaysia has also expe- rienced a spike in e-wallet transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is no consensus on the reasons behind the rapid increase in the usage of e-wallets. This study aims to fill a knowledge gap by incorporating government support, the perceived risk, and social influence as the potential factors affecting the use of e-wallets. Survey data were collated from 598 respondents using Google Forms and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). The findings confirm that perceived usefulness, government support, the perceived risk, and social influence are positively related to the attitude toward the usage of e-wallets. This attitude is also positively related with the user’s intention of using the wallets. The outcomes of this study may assist policymakers to devise effective strategies that are able to capture the users’ intentions to use e-wallets during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also recommends that the government increases the incentives to speed up the formation of a cash- less society. The related organizations should also enhance public awareness on the usefulness of e-wallets in preventing virus transmission.

Constructing Stock Market Performance Index and Identifying Its Determinants

Existing stock indexes were inappropriate to reflect the stock market aggregate performance since it was suffering from several shortcomings. Moreover, the existing stock indexes only can be used to measure the stock market returns, but not the other aspect, such as stock market development or stock market liquidity. Generally, there are also two common methods, namely (i) market capitalization weighting method and (ii) price-weighting method could be used in constructing the existing stock indexes. Regardless of the types of weighting method, existing stock index tends to be heavily affected by the movements of overprice or large market capitalization stocks. In order to overcome the shortcoming, this study aims to develop an index, namely stock market performance index (SMPI) to measure the stock market performance in aggregate level. This study constructed the index by combining four different stock market indicators, which represented the stock market performance in four different aspects – (i) stock market development, (ii) stock market liquidity, (iii) stock market returns and (iv) stock market volatility. Principal component analysis had been used in determining the weightage to be assigned to four different stock market indicators. The indicator of stock market development carried the highest weightage, followed by stock market liquidity, stock market returns and stock market volatility. The SMPI ranged between 0 and 100, where 0 indicates the worst stock market aggregate performance and 100 indicates the best stock market aggregate performance. Generally, the results obtained shown that most of the countries had a better stock market aggregate performance in the year of 2009. The newly-constructed SMPI also found to be reliable as compared to the existing stock indexes. Besides that, this study intends to investigate the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of SMPI. This study revealed that foreign direct investment and inflation rate had a significant impact towards SMPI for the both developed and developing countries. Specifically, foreign direct investment positively affects the stock market aggregate performance, while the inflation rate negatively affects the stock market aggregate performance. On the other hand, this study also found that the increase in the rating for voice and accountability helps to enhance the SMPI of developed country. Whereas, the increase in the rating for political stability, government effectiveness, rule of law and control on corruption helps to enhance the SMPI of developing country The findings of this study is also expected to contributes to the existing literature by constructing the new index to measure the stock market aggregate performance and identifying its determinants. These may help the policymaker and stock market participants to analyse the aggregate stock market performance in an easier way and understand the significant macroeconomic factor or institutional factors that affect the Stock Market Performance Index (SMPI)

Credit Risk and Banks’ Profitability in Malaysia

This paper examines the relationship between credit risk and profitability of Malaysian local commercial banks which consist of eight banks they are Maybank, CIMB Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Public Bank, RHB Bank, AmBank, Alliance Bank, and Affin Bank. For the purpose of analysis this study covers a period of eight years from 2005 to 2012. The empirical tests employed in this study are Pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Panel regression. Based on the findings of this study its shows that the non-performing loan to total loan ratio (NPL/LA) and the ratio of loan loss provision to total loan (LLP/LA) have a negative effect on profitability meanwhile the total loan to total deposit ratio (LA/TD) found to have a positive effect on the return on asset (ROA). Overall the results of this study concluded that to some degree, Malaysia’s commercial banks have a very good credit risk policy

Factor Affecting Adoption of E-Wallet in Sarawak

E-wallet was an innovative payment instrument that arises under financial technology. E-wallet helps to ease the user’s daily life, in which users can make their daily transactions without using the notes or coins. Indirectly, E-wallet also helps to reduce the risk of cash being stolen. Undeniably, E-wallet brings more benefits than disadvantages. The primary aim of this study is to examine the factors affecting the adoption of E-wallet services in Sarawak. The questionnaire, which consisted of 26 questions were distributed to the respondents and successfully collected 450 feedbacks. Firstly, this study applied factor analysis to construct all the variables. Also, Cronbach’s α coefficient was computed to determine internal consistency reliabilities. Then, this study used regression analysis to test the relationship between the variables. The results of the regression analysis showed that the users would adopt E-wallet when they perceive that the E-wallet is useful and easy to be used. Meanwhile, the findings of this study also showed that rewards tend to attract users to use E-wallet. Besides that, this study also found that higher perceived risk may act as a barrier to stop users from using E-wallet. These results help the E-wallet service providers to identify the significant factors that influence the user’s intention to use E-wallet services. Lastly, this study recommended the E-wallet service providers to take the security systems and rewards into consideration for the enhancement of their payment system

Do insectivorous bird communities decline on land-bridge forest islands in Peninsular Malaysia?

To assess the impact of habitat fragmentation on tropical avian communities, we sampled lowland forest birds on six land-bridge islands and two mainland forest sites in Lake Kenyir, Peninsular Malaysia using timed point counts, hypothesizing that insectivorous birds are the worst affected guild. We used an information-theoretic approach to evaluate the effects of area, isolation, primary dietary guild (omnivore, frugivore and insectivore) and their interactions in predicting species richness, abundance and diversity. Our analysis showed that a model that considered the effects of area, dietary guild and their interaction best explained observed patterns of species richness. But a model considering both area and dietary guild best explained the variation in abundance. Notably, insectivorous birds were singled out as the dietary guild most sensitive to fragmentation, followed by frugivorous and omnivorous birds and hence provide support for our hypothesis. Assemblages of insectivorous birds were clearly depauperate on anthropogenic forest islands in Lake Kenyir and are consistent with forest fragmentation studies in the Neotropics. Given their specialized foraging ecology and diversity, conservation of intact communities of insectivorous bird guilds in Malaysia will be critical for maintaining predator-prey interactions in lowland tropical forest

Exploring Factors Affecting Intention to Use Chatgpt for Searching Finance-Related Information

The emergence of ChatGPT has revolutionized information seeking behavior. This study aims to explore the potential factors that influence the adoption of ChatGPT as a tool for searching finance related information. This study also distributed the online questionnaire to gather the responses from existing users. The findings indicate that ease of use, usefulness, herding behavior, and social influence significantly affect users’ intention to use ChatGPT for searching finance related information. However, this study also revealed that there is no significant relationship between individuals who used ChatGPT for searching finance related information and their intention for information checking. These results provide valuable insights for future studies and underscore the potential of ChatGPT as a tool for searching finance related information

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for supersymmetry in events with one lepton and multiple jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection