Alternative Banking and Financial Crisis

Alternative Banking and Financial Crisis PDF

Author: Kurt von Mettenheim

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1317318641

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The recent banking crisis has brought into question the business model used by most large banks. This collection of essays explores the success of ‘alternative banks’ – savings banks, cooperative banks and development banks, using case studies from around the world and discussion of both the historical and theoretical context of banking practices.

The Problem with Banks

The Problem with Banks PDF

Author: Lena Rethel

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2012-05-10

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 1848139411

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Banks of all sorts are troubled institutions. The cost of public bail-outs associated with the subprime crisis in the United States alone may be as high as US$5 trillion. What is the problem with banks? Why do they seem to be at the centre of economic and financial turmoil down through the ages? In this provocative and timely book, Rethel and Sinclair seek answers to these questions, arguing that banks suffer from perennial problems, and that developments in the financial markets and government in recent decades have simply exacerbated these issues. The book examines banking activity in America, Asia and Europe, and how specific historical circumstances have transformed banks' behaviour and attitude to risk. While many see government as a constraint on banks, Sinclair and Rethel argue that what governments do in terms of regulation shapes banks and their motivations, as can be seen in the shortcomings of current reform proposals. Instead, more far-reaching, alternative ways of regulating and shaping banks are needed. A concise, essential overview of a pressing global issue.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report PDF

Author: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2011-05-01

Total Pages: 692

ISBN-13: 1616405414

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The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.

Social Banking and Social Finance

Social Banking and Social Finance PDF

Author: Roland Benedikter

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-01-13

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 1441977740

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For over 2,000 years, banks have served to facilitate the exchange of money and to provide a variety of economic and financial services. During the most recent financial collapse and subsequent recession, beginning in 2008, banks have been vilified as perpetrators of the crisis, the public distrust compounded by massive public bailouts. Nevertheless, another form of banking has also emerged, with a focus on promoting economic sustainability, investing in community, providing opportunity for the disadvantaged, and supporting social, environmental, and ethical agendas. Social Banking and Social Finance traces the emergence of the “bank with a conscience” and proposes a new approach to banking in the wake of the economic crisis. Featuring innovations and initiatives in banking from Europe, Canada, and the United States, Roland Benedikter presents an alternative to traditional banking practices that are focused exclusively on profit maximization. He argues that social banking is not about changing the system, but about improving some of its core features by putting into use the "triple bottom line" principle of profit-people-planet. Important lessons can be learned by the success of social banks that may be useful for the greater task of improving the global financial system and avoiding economic crises in the future.

Lending, Investments and the Financial Crisis

Lending, Investments and the Financial Crisis PDF

Author: Elena Beccalli

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-29

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1137531010

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This book features contributions from leading researchers into the effect of the recent financial crisis on lending in the banking sector. They explore the emergence of alternative methods of firm financing, including crowdfunding, firm network financing and venture capital, and analyse the performance of listed European innovative firms. The book discusses related topics such as the role of loan dynamics and structure for Central and Eastern European economic growth, the liquidity policy of the European Central Bank during the Euro crisis, sovereign pensions and social security reserve funds. Lending, Investments and the Financial Crisis addresses the ways in which the strategies of institutional investors have been impacted by the crisis. The study focuses on Western, Central and Eastern Europe, while providing a wider context in terms of comparison with the Chinese banking system.

Finance in an Age of Austerity

Finance in an Age of Austerity PDF

Author: Johnston Birchall

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2013-01-01

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1781951845

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This is a book in search of an alternative to the discredited investor-owned banks that have brought the rich countries into crisis and the world economy into a long period of austerity. It finds customer-owned banks Ð credit unions, co-operative banks, building societies Ð have hardly been affected by the crisis and continue to operate according to their organisational DNA: low-risk, close to the customer, underpinned by real savings, and still lending to SMEs to protect jobs and local economies. They are big business Ð in some countries with over 40% of the market Ð but networked in smaller, democratic societies whose origins go back to 1850s Germany. The book explores their history and current situation, measures the impact of the banking crisis, makes a systematic study of their advantages, compares them to alternatives (savings banks and micro-finance institutions), and investigates their supervision and governance structures. It provides hard evidence for the superiority of customer-owned banks. Finance in an Age of Austerity will appeal to public policy analysts and political commentators, academics and students interested in current issues concerning banking regulation, supervision and governance. Social commentators and campaigners concerned with providing an ethical alternative to Ôcasino capitalismÕ and social economists wanting to develop a critique of the investor-owned banking system will also find this book invaluable. It will be essential reading for banking specialists interested in broadening their understanding of a hidden sector that, since the crisis, has become much more significant.

The Real Effects of Financial Sector Interventions During Crises

The Real Effects of Financial Sector Interventions During Crises PDF

Author: Mr.Luc Laeven

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13: 1455218979

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We collect new data to assess the importance of supply-side credit market frictions by studying the impact of financial sector recapitalization packages on the growth performance of firms in a large cross-section of 50 countries during the recent crisis. We develop an identification strategy that uses the financial crisis as a shock to credit supply and exploits exogenous variation in the degree to which firms depend on external financing for investment needs, and focus on policy interventions aimed at alleviating the bank capital crunch. We find that the growth of firms dependent on external financing is disproportionately positively affected by bank recapitalization policies, and that this effect is quantitatively important and robust to controlling for other financial sector support policies. We also find that fiscal policy disproportionately boosted growth of firms more dependent on external financing. These results provide new evidence of a quantitatively important role of credit market frictions in influencing real economic activity.

A Taxonomy of Financial Crisis Resolution Mechanisms

A Taxonomy of Financial Crisis Resolution Mechanisms PDF

Author: Charles W. Calomiris

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 75

ISBN-13:

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"The goals of financial restructuring are to reestablish the creditor-debtor relationships on which the economy depends for an efficient allocation of capital, and to accomplish that objective at minimal cost. Costs include direct costs to taxpayers of financial assistance and the indirect costs to the economy that result from misallocations of capital and incentive problems resulting from the restructuring. Calomiris, Klingebiel, and Laeven review cases in which countries used alternative mechanisms to restructure their financial and corporate sectors. Countries typically apply a combination of tools, including decentralized, market-based mechanisms, and government-managed programs. Market-based strategies seek to strengthen the capital base of financial institutions and borrowers to enable them to renegotiate debt and resume new credit supply. Government-led restructuring strategies often include the establishment of an entity to which nonperforming loans are transferred or the government's sale of financial institutions, sometimes to foreign entrants. Market-based mechanisms can, in principle, resolve coordination problems that countries face in the wake of massive debtor and creditor insolvency, with acceptably low direct and indirect costs, particularly when those mechanisms are effective in achieving the desirable objective of selectivity. However, these mechanisms depend for their success on an efficient judicial system, a credible supervisory framework and authority with sufficient enforcement capacity, and a lack of corruption in implementation. Government-managed programs may not seem to depend as much on efficient legal and supervisory institutions for their success, but in fact these approaches, in particular the transfer of assets to government-owned asset management companies, also depend on effective legal, regulatory, and political institutions for their success. Further, a lack of attention to incentive problems when designing specific rules governing financial assistance can aggravate moral hazard problems, unnecessarily raising the costs of resolution. These results suggest that policymakers in emerging market economies with weak institutions should not expect to achieve the same level of success in financial restructuring as other countries, and that they should design resolution mechanisms accordingly. Despite the theoretical attraction of some complex market-based mechanisms, simpler mechanisms that afford quick resolution of outstanding debts that improve financial system competitiveness, and that offer little discretion to governments, are most effective. This paper--a product of the Financial Sector and Operations Policy Department--is part of a larger effort in the department to study the containment and resolution of financial crises"--World Bank web site.

Financial Crises and the Limits of Bank Reform

Financial Crises and the Limits of Bank Reform PDF

Author: Eileen Keller

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-05-28

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0192643746

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Financial Crises and the Limits of Bank Reform examines the responses that were implemented in France and Germany, two comparable European economies, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis from 2007/2008 with respect to the future economic role of the banks. While France pushed for greater independence from the banks by strengthening financial disintermediation and non-bank intermediation, Germany supported classic bank intermediation. Analysing the reasons for this puzzling difference, this book shows that the main lessons drawn from the crisis were the consequence of differing patterns of social learning, leading to changes in widely shared beliefs of specific aspects of banking. While these were related to the conditions of bank lending and the limits of bank intermediation in France, in Germany they were linked to the risks of financial innovation and financial sector concentration. The book draws on an in-depth analysis of French and German banking and financial sector reforms in the decades prior to the crisis, crisis management, and the responses implemented in the aftermath, featuring extensive interview data with over 70 professionals in addition to profound document and data analysis. It discusses alternative theoretical approaches and spells out the ontological foundations and behavioural implications of the social learning approach to policy change. Contrary to other accounts of the post-crisis reforms concentrating on regulatory change, the author focuses on how evolving financial practices and reform priorities mutually condition each other over time, forming distinctive developmental paths. As this book shows, it is only once we embed the reform options chosen in their specific institutional and socio-economic context that we fully understand the driving forces behind the post-crisis reforms.

The Icelandic Financial Crisis

The Icelandic Financial Crisis PDF

Author: Ásgeir Jónsson

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-02-02

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 1137394552

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This book presents a detailed account of Iceland’s recovery from the tumultuous banking collapse that overturned its financial industry in 2008. Early chapters recount how Iceland’s central bank was unable to follow the quantitative easing policies of the time to print money and save the banks, while serving the world ́s smallest currency area. The book goes on to explore how the government exercised force majeure rights to implement emergency legislation aimed at preventing the “socialization of losses”. Later chapters investigate how, eight years later, these policies have yielded renewed growth and reinvigorated liquidity streams for the financial system. The authors argue that Iceland, long-called the ‘canary in the coal mine’ of the developed world, offers important lessons for the future. This book will be useful to all readers interested in better understanding the unique history of Iceland’s banking crisis and the phenomena of its recovery.