Nonbanks in the payments system: innovation, competition, and risk - a conference summary

From the early days of automated card sorting to the more recent times of the Internet and check imaging, payments and payments processing have continually embraced new technology. At the same time, the industry has been shaped by its share of entry and exit, through startups, mergers, and the reorganization of businesses seeking the proper scope of horizontal and vertical integration. ; These changes have enabled nonbank organizations to play a larger role in the payments system. Nonbanks have followed a number of pathways to more prominence: purchasing bank payment processing subsidiaries, carving out niches in the payments market through innovation, and taking advantage of economies of scale made possible by shifting to electronic forms of payment. ; Nonbanks have introduced some of the most far-reaching innovations to the payments system in recent years, leading to greater efficiencies in payments processing. At the same time, nonbanks have changed the dynamics of competition in payments, leading to a significant change in the system’s risk profile. ; Sullivan and Wang summarize the proceedings of a conference on nonbanks in the payments system held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 2-4, 2007. The conference addressed many of the key questions raised by the growing presence of nonbanks in payments, including: Have recent payment innovations been more likely to come from nonbanks? Have nonbanks improved or harmed competition in payments? Have nonbanks increased risk or helped to develop tools to manage it? How should public policy respond as increasingly more activity in payments lies outside of the banking system?Payment systems ; Nonbank financial institutions

Internet banking: an exploration in technology diffusion and impact

This paper studies endogenous diffusion and impact of a cost-saving technological innovation -- Internet Banking. When the innovation is initially introduced, large banks have an advantage to adopt it first and enjoy further growth of size. Over time, as the innovation diffuses into smaller banks, the aggregate bank size distribution increases stochastically towards a new steady state. Applying the theory to a panel study of Internet Banking diffusion across 50 US states, we examine the technological, economic and institutional factors governing the process. The empirical findings allow us to disentangle the interrelationship between Internet Banking adoption and growth of average bank size, and explain the variation of diffusion rates across geographic regions.Internet ; Internet banking ; Technology

A useful variant of the Davis--Kahan theorem for statisticians

The Davis--Kahan theorem is used in the analysis of many statistical procedures to bound the distance between subspaces spanned by population eigenvectors and their sample versions. It relies on an eigenvalue separation condition between certain relevant population and sample eigenvalues. We present a variant of this result that depends only on a population eigenvalue separation condition, making it more natural and convenient for direct application in statistical contexts, and improving the bounds in some cases. We also provide an extension to situations where the matrices under study may be asymmetric or even non-square, and where interest is in the distance between subspaces spanned by corresponding singular vectors.Comment: 12 page

Metallic Icosahedron Phase of Sodium at Terapascal Pressures

Alkali metals exhibit unexpected structures and electronic behavior at high pressures. Compression of metallic sodium (Na) to 200 GPa leads to the stability of a wide-band-gap insulator with the double hexagonal hP4 structure. Post-hP4 structures remain unexplored, but they are important for addressing the question of the pressure at which Na reverts to a metal. Here we report the reentrant metallicity of Na at the very high pressure of 15.5 terapascal (TPa), predicted using first-principles structure searching simulations. Na is therefore insulating over the large pressure range of 0.2-15.5 TPa. Unusually, Na adopts an oP8 structure at pressures of 117-125 GPa, and the same oP8 structure at 1.75-15.5 TPa. Metallization of Na occurs on formation of a stable and striking body-centered cubic cI24 electride structure consisting of Na12 icosahedra, each housing at its center about one electron which is not associated with any Na ions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, PRL (2015

Oriented gap opening in the magnetically ordered state of Iron-pnicitides: an impact of intrinsic unit cell doubling on the FeFe square lattice by AsAs atoms

We show that the complicated band reconstruction near Fermi surfaces in the magnetically ordered state of iron-pnictides observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopies (ARPES) can be understood in a meanfield level if the \emph{intrinsic unit cell doubling} due to As atoms is properly considered as shown in the recently constructed S$_{4}$ microscopic effective model. The (0,$\pi$) or ($\pi$,0) col-linear antiferromagnetic (C-AFM) order does not open gaps between two points at Fermi surfaces linked by the ordered wave vector but forces a band reconstruction involving four points in unfolded Brillouin zone (BZ) and gives rise to small pockets or hot spots. The S$_4$ symmetry naturally chooses a staggered orbital order over a ferro-orbital order to coexist with the C-AFM order. These results strongly suggest that the kinematics based on the S$_{4}$ symmetry captures the essential low energy physics of iron-based superconductors.Comment: 5 figures, 5 page

Distinct metabolic programs induced by TGF-β1 and BMP2 in human articular chondrocytes with osteoarthritis

Objectives: Cellular energy metabolism is important for the function of all tissues, including cartilage. Recent studies indicate that superficial and deep subpopulations of articular chondrocytes (ACs) have distinct metabolic profiles. At the cellular and molecular level, osteoarthritis (OA) is characterised by alteration from a healthy homoeostatic state towards a catabolic state. Several molecular pathways, including transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling, have been identified as critical players in the pathogenesis and progression of OA. However, the manner in which these factors influence cellular energy metabolism in ACs is not well understood. This study investigates the effect of TGF-β or BMP signalling on energy metabolism in human articular chondrocytes (hACs). Methods: ACs were isolated from residual macroscopically full thickness and intact cartilage from the femoral condyle of human samples obtained from patients with OA. ACs were treated with Vehicle (control), TGF-β1 or BMP2 for 48–72 hours. Metabolic assays were performed to determine glucose consumption, lactate production and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, whereas the mitochondrial stress test was performed to determine oxygen consumption rate. Protein was isolated to assess translational activity and was evaluated using Western blot. Results: We showed that TGF-β1, known to maintain chondrocyte homoeostasis, stimulated glycolysis by upregulating key glycolytic factors, such as glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) and hexokinase II, while reducing oxidative phosphorylation in hACs. In contrast, BMP2 enhanced mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation and had a minimal effect on key glycolytic regulators. Conclusions: Our data revealed distinct metabolic programs induced by TGF-β1 and BMP2 in hACs, suggesting that the regulation of cellular metabolism may represent a new mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of OA. The translational potential of this article: The findings define the regulation of energy metabolism as a potential novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of OA

ANALYZING VERTICAL MARKET STRUCTURE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND MARKET ACCESS

International Relations/Trade,