The Impact on Financial Inclusion in The Era of Covid-19: A Case of Developing Countries

The world still has a large unbanked population, which regularly contributes to unbanked transactions. The problem is a lack of trust, financial insecurity, and knowledge about the products and services of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion provides timely and cost-effective access to financial products and services like loans and credit facilities to low-income vulnerable groups. COVID-19 has badly affected all the world's economies and caused them to suffer a great recession, which makes it essential to include the unbanked population in the net of financial inclusion. This study aims to measure the impact of COVID-19 on financial inclusion in developing countries by taking data from 2017 to 2020. The results concluded that increased fintech technology, such as mobile money services during COVID-19, increased financial technology. People started using mobile accounts during COVID-19 to avoid the risk of getting infected by this novel virus

Identification and Protection of Corporate Whistle-blowers: A Legal Perspective

Internal audit, management review, and account reconciliation are popular tools for combating corporate fraud, but whistle-blowing is the most prevalent. Whistle-blowers frequently fear reprisal from coworkers and bosses. That is why they require protection and support. Many international organizations have advocated that countries adopt regulatory frameworks for protecting whistle-blowers. Therefore, the current study investigates the notion of whistle-blowing to compare it to Public Interest Disclosure Act 2017 of Pakistan, which was enacted. It identifies the influence of legal and ethical cultural norms in organizations on whistle-blowing behaviour

A Bibliometric Analysis of Board Gender Diversity in the Perceptive of Social Equity: A Science Mapping and Performance Analysis in the Banking Sector

Gender equality is becoming a well-discussed phenomenon among scholars, policymakers, and governments, particularly after the emphasis on gender equality goals by the United Nations. As a result, women increasingly occupy higher managerial positions within the firm hierarchy in the banking sector to achieve social equity which is only possible to address the gender disparity issue. That is why the literature on female representation in corporate boards has dramatically increased in recent years, proving unequivocally that specific traits of women favorably influence many domains inside the organization. However, the conflicting empirical evidence regarding the significance of gender board diversity (GBD) leads scholars to revisit the underpinning theories and literature. The current study conducted a bibliometric analysis to evaluate scholarly papers concerning female participation on governing boards from 2012-22. The Scopus database was used for document extractions, and 792 publications were included in the bibliometric analysis. The findings emphasize important journals, institutes, countries, pertinent authors, and research on this issue. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain are the most dominant regions, and University Utara Malaysia is the leading institute in publications. Journal of Business Ethics is the primary source of publication, and García-Sánchez is the most contributing author based on article metric. The study also reported the five major research themes: board structure and composition, CSR disclosure and sustainability, the financial impact of board gender diversity (BGD), demographic diversity, and the significance of female CEOs in decision-making opening new research areas for scholars and practitioners. The study will be helpful in theoretically supporting the concept of GBD in the banking sector and highlighting the reasons for conflicting findings from the prior studies that will be useful in achieving sustainable organizational goals

Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of biological activities of manganese-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles

Purpose: To synthesize, characterize and investigate the antimicrobial properties of pure and manganese-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles.Method: Un-doped and manganese-doped zinc oxide (Mn-doped ZnO) nanoparticles were prepared using co-precipitation method. The synthesized Mn-doped ZnO  nanoparticles were characterized using energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy  (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD)  spectroscopic techniques. Their band gap energies were measured with ultraviolet-visible (UVVis) spectroscopy, while their antioxidant properties were evaluated by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), DPPH radical-scavenging, ferric  thiocyanate (FTC) and total phenolic content (TPC) assays. The antimicrobial  activities of the nanoparticles against different bacterial strains were determined using agar diffusion method.Result: Results from XRD, SEM, EDX and UV-Vis analyses demonstrated  successful synthesis of undoped and Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles as seen in their hexagonal, wurtzite structures. The un-doped and Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles had average grain sizes of 16.72 nm and 17.5 nm, and band gap energies of 3.585 eV and 2.737 eV, respectively. Significant antibacterial activity was manifested by Mndoped ZnO against E. coli, S. aureus, Klebsiella and B. subtilis, with zones of inhibition (ZOIs) of 13 ± 0.09 mm, 14 ± 0.01 mm, 18 ± 0.07 mm and 20 ± 0.10 mm, respectively. The Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles also exhibited effective and significant antioxidant potential relative to butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and un-doped ZnO nanoparticles.Conclusion: Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles demonstrate significant antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. Thus, the preparation is a good candidate for further development into therapeutic formulations.Keywords: Mn-doped ZnO, Nanoparticles, Properties, Antioxidant, Antibacteria

Interest Rate Risk Management by Financial Engineering in Pakistani Non-Financial Firms

The study aimed to investigate firm decisions of using interest rate derivatives and factors affecting this decision. Study is conducted by selecting data of 191 non-financial sector companies listed on PSX from 2010 to 2015. Logit model was employed to detect contribution magnitude of foreign sales, profitability, leverage, liquidity, price to earnings, interest coverage ratio and dividend payout towards decisions by a firm of using the interest rate derivatives. The expected users of interest rate derivatives for purpose of interest rate exposure management were the firms with high foreign sales, lesser leverage, low profits, low dividend payout ratio and low interest coverage ratio. The examination concludes that these derivatives are financial engineering tools and serve as immunization instruments for a firm from anticipated future financial risk

Testing stock market efficiency from spillover effect of Panama Leaks

Artigo publicado em revista científica internacionalOn 3 April 2016, Mossack Fonseca provided the historically most significant leak of its shareholder’s data for owning offshore companies. Shareholders include many political and influential figures around the globe, which causes a moral hazard. The study analyses the effects of Panama leak events on five stock exchanges to ensure the market efficiency and investor perception related to the Panama leaks. Event study methodology is used on five occasions associated with Panama papers, i.e., the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland on 5 April 2016, Jurgen Mossack’s resignation on 7 April 2016, the resignation of the Spanish Minister of Industry on 15 April 2016, the 450 personalities of Pakistan that were nominated in Panama papers on 15 April 2016, and the formation of an inquiry commission to inquire into the matter. The market efficiency of five stock exchanges was checked, i.e., the KSE 100 of Pakistan, the OMXIPI exchange of Iceland, the IBEX 35 of Spain, the New York stock exchange (NYSE), and S&P 500. The market remains efficient for most events and investor behaviour changes for one or two days around the event day (this event has concise term significant abnormal returns in all stock exchanges or concise term significant abnormal macroeconomic effects are observed in all stock exchanges).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An Analysis of Pakistani Corporate Sector

Khan, K. I., Qadeer, F., Mata, M. N., Dantas, R. M., Xavier Rita, J., & Martins, J. N. (2021). Debt Market Trends and Predictors of Specialization: An Analysis of Pakistani Corporate Sector. JOURNAL OF RISK AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, 14(5), 1-16. [224]. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14050224Recently, debt structure research has started focusing on the strategic perspective of financing choices, particularly to understand the reasons for debt specialization (DS). This paper examines trends of specialization over time and industry by using a comprehensive dataset on types of debt employed by the public limited companies during 2009-2018. The objective of the current study is to analyze the effect of debt market conditions by identifying significant predictors of DS. Time-series and cross-sectional results confirm the existence of DS, which is further validated by the findings of the cluster analysis. The empirical results indicate that overall, 61% of the companies solely rely on a single type of debt, mostly on short-term obligations accompanied by long-term secured and other debts. Moreover, small, mature, rated, group-affiliated, and low-leverage companies incline more towards this strategy. Credit rating, debt maturity, financial and interest coverage ratios serve as the primary determinants of the debt market that are significantly associated with the measures of DS. The results contribute to the capital structure literature by specifying that financing choice has an important implication in deciding the debt structure composition of the organizations.publishersversionpublishe

an application of Moora model through stochastic process

Stock markets play a vital role in stimulating economic processes and development through diversification opportunities. Nowadays, purchasing financial instruments, especially stocks during this fluctuating market, is a back-breaker task for investors because of many sector specifications like Food, Auto Assembling, Fertilizer and Textile, etc. This study learns obstruction within the selection of sector and firms for investment to create an efficient portfolio in Pakistan because of the softness of data and miscommunication of economic performance, and plenty of economic models. Thirty-five sectors and five hundred plus companies are registered in the Pakistan Stock exchange, considering the volatile and high-risk market. This study has used a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) strategy by using Multi-Objective Optimization on the idea of Ratio Analysis to seek out the most effective sector and company's financial performance based on the criteria. A review of literature indicates that these methods have not been applied earlier for selection stocks in Pakistan stock exchange. After finding the most effective and efficient performing sector and companies, made portfolio in custody with the most effective two sectors and made hybrid portfolio of those best sector using same criteria and each portfolio is consisted on less then and equal to ten company securities. Results indicate that best optimal portfolio is supported to investor requirements, value of the corporate, return of those companies and prices are top prioritized factor taken during this study. The findings are useful for each new investor and also for financial organization.publishersversionpublishe

Impediments of Green Finance Adoption System: Linking Economy and Environment

Environmental deregulation has become a severe concern for public health around the world. Increased pollution and ecological degradation have diverted attention towards adopting green practices, which can be possible if the sustainable green finance system is implemented in its true spirit. But previous studies reported certain factors affecting its implementation process, particularly in developing countries. This study aims to identify and quantify the barriers to adopting a green finance system. First, it identified twenty barriers through an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews with experts in the fields of financial management, economics, and environmental sciences. Later, eighteen factors were finalized by the consensus of panel experts, which was further used to analyze their interrelationship through Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM). Using MICMAC analysis, these barriers were categorized based on their diving-dependence powers. Finally, the conceptual ISM model is developed that provides a clear picture of the impediments to the green finance adoption system and their flow relationship among the identified barriers at different levels. The findings suggest that global level factors: lack of pressure from international organizations and unavailability of globally acceptable green criteria are critical to the prevalence of other factors that indicate its centrality to effectively implementing the green finance system. The developed model helps in designing, implementing, and promoting eco-friendly projects. It is also recommended that an appropriate framework is required to be developed at global, country, organizational, and individual levels to deal with the barriers of the green finance adoption system. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-02-02 Full Text: PD