Lessons from the Current Financial Crisis. A Risk Management Approach

In the last twenty years, the financial risk management has gained an important role for the companies and financial institutions. Financial innovations have improved the efficiency of risk management process, but at the same time, they have imposed new challenges for market participants and their supervisors in the areas of systemic risk. An important feature of periods of financial innovation is that the rapid increase in new products and changes in the structure of those markets can outpace the development of the risk management and processing and settlement infrastructure. The current financial crisis has revealed significant weaknesses in risk management practices across the financial services industry. This paper analyses the main lessons that can be drawn from the current financial crisis in order to improve the financial risk management.risk management, financial crisis, lessons, credit derivatives, financial innovation, systemic risk

The implications of European retail banking integration on small and medium-sized enterprises financing. An overview

Considering the last few years, the European Union (EU) has became one of the most competitive and integrated economic regions of the world, following a rapid pace of change as a result of an inspired series of initiatives. The harmonization of the banking and other financial services legislation as component of the EU’ Single Market, the creation of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), alongside the ongoing implementation of the Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP) represent the central drivers of financial integration and the set of elements that have helped reducing the barriers to cross-border trade in banking services. The process of deregulation is another element that facilitated the environment in which technology and other bank strategic determinants have become increasingly important. The scope of the present paper is to analyze the implications of a higher degree of banking integration on firms financing options and choices. This paper is composed of two main parts. The first part focuses to the determinants of European banking integration, analyzing this process since the banking system represents the main financial channel for both the small and medium-sized enterprises and households. The second part concentrates on the effects of banking integration on considered entities’ financial constraints. The concluding remarks outline that retail bank integration has an ambiguous implication on SMEs’ access to credit.retail banking integration; SMEs; firms’ financing; financial constraints; deregulation

Multilateral Development Banks and their Role in Supporting European SMEs during the Current Financial Crisis

The impact of the ongoing financial crisis on the availability offinance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represents an importanttopic nowadays. The access to finance for SMEs is a major barrier for theirgrowth, especially during severe conditions such as the global financialcrisis. Financing the SMEs represents a priority for the most of the multilateraldevelopment banks. The aim of the paper is to analyze the activity of Europeanmultilateral development banks - European Investment Bank Group and EuropeanBank for Reconstruction and Development - in the support of SMEs. We found thatSMEs financing increased during the period 2008-2011 and the internationalfinancial institutions took several measures in order to improve the SMEsaccess to finance. &nbsp

Parental Rights vs. Best Interests of the Child: A False Dichotomy in the Context of Adoption

I. Introduction: Identifying the Controversy The mythology of adoption involves a scenario in which a teenage girl gets pregnant, and neither she nor the father is ready to raise a child. Upon birth, these young parents voluntarily relinquish the baby to an upwardly mobile couple who have been waiting years to adopt. The adoptive parents become, in essence, the birth parents to the baby who grows up happy and well-adjusted. The birth parents vanish from the picture, perhaps eventually marrying and having additional children. No one looks back. But what happens to this myth when the birth mother changes her mind or misidentifies the father, when the adoptee is not a baby but a ten-year-old foster child, when the adoptive parents abuse the child, when the adoptive parents are the baby\u27s grandparents, or when the adoptee begins asking questions about her family of origin? If ever the reality of adoption fit this myth, it certainly does not today. Adoption, as with every issue involving families, is much more complicated and diverse than the above scenario suggests. Indeed, most adoptions do not even involve infants, but instead concern older children who have lived with multiple families. 1 Moreover, it is now widely recognized that even children adopted as infants do not have just one family, but are always physically and existentially related to their birth families. 2 It is against this backdrop of contemporary adoption that courts are increasingly being called upon to resolve contested adoptions involving competing adults. ..

Visual attention and speeds of pedestrians, cyclists, and electric scooter riders when using underpass: a field eye tracker experiment

Cycling and walking are typical forms of local locomotion. especially common in the urban environment. During the last five years, portable electric scooters were developed and quicldy gained popularity and, at the same time, generated previously unknown challenges associated with safety [1]. Their users compete with pedestrians and cyclists to occupy the same space [2], which may create conflicts and cause accidents. The balance between the safety of pedestrians and ES riders is still being sought [3], while the legislation process lags behind the rapid emergence and popularity of this new micromobility transportation mode [ 4, 5]. Tue aim of this research was a comparison of visual gaze behaviour of cyclists, electric scooter users, and pedestrians passing the same route stretch - a broad busy underpass in city centre. Visual interaction of the test participants with other road users was analysed to understand threats and risks for each of these modes of transport during selection of the path; speeds and behaviour during manoeuvres were also assessed. Differences in perception. depending on the utilized mode of transport, should bring better understanding of their specific needs and may support appropriate regulation. This research work could be considered as an extension of previous study when, in the similar way, behaviours of road-users utilizing a shared road were analysed [ 6]. [From: Introduction

Digital cloning of online social networks for language-sensitive agent-based modeling of misinformation spread

We develop a simulation framework for studying misinformation spread within online social networks that blends agent-based modeling and natural language processing techniques. While many other agent-based simulations exist in this space, questions over their fidelity and generalization to existing networks in part hinders their ability to provide actionable insights. To partially address these concerns, we create a 'digital clone' of a known misinformation sharing network by downloading social media histories for over ten thousand of its users. We parse these histories to both extract the structure of the network and model the nuanced ways in which information is shared and spread among its members. Unlike many other agent-based methods in this space, information sharing between users in our framework is sensitive to topic of discussion, user preferences, and online community dynamics. To evaluate the fidelity of our method, we seed our cloned network with a set of posts recorded in the base network and compare propagation dynamics between the two, observing reasonable agreement across the twin networks over a variety of metrics. Lastly, we explore how the cloned network may serve as a flexible, low-cost testbed for misinformation countermeasure evaluation and red teaming analysis. We hope the tools explored here augment existing efforts in the space and unlock new opportunities for misinformation countermeasure evaluation, a field that may become increasingly important to consider with the anticipated rise of misinformation campaigns fueled by generative artificial intelligence