The assignment of credit through bills of exchange and transmission documents in Andalusi Law

The exchange traffic was a practice that suited the modus vivendi of caravanners and traders in the Islamic world. The inclusion of the Iberian.Peninsula into the most important commercial routes of Muslims – such as the silk route through the North Africa – provides a very solid reason to deepen in the study of the sources that have been preserved about the role that certain credit instruments, which represented an alternative to the coin, might have played in trade centres.

Asset-backed securities: The key to unlocking Europe's credit markets? Bruegel Policy Contribution 2014/07, 24 July 2014

The European market for asset-backed securities (ABS) has all but closed for business since the start of the economic and financial crisis. ABS (see Box 1) were in fact the first financial assets hit at the onset of the crisis in 2008. The subprime mortgage meltdown caused a deterioration in the quality of collateral in the ABS market in the United States, which in turn dried up overall liquidity because ABS AAA notes were popular collateral for inter-bank lending. The lack of demand for these products, together with the Great Recession in 2009, had a considerable negative impact on the European ABS market. The post-crisis regulatory environment has further undermined the market. The practice of slicing and dicing of loans into ABS packages was blamed for starting and spreading the crisis through the global financial system. Regulation in the post-crisis context has thus been relatively unfavourable to these types of instruments, with heightened capital requirements now necessary for the issuance of new ABS products. And yet policymakers have recently underlined the need to revitalise the ABS market as a tool to improve credit market conditions in the euro area and to enhance transmission of monetary policy. In particular, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have jointly emphasised that: “a market for prudently designed ABS has the potential to improve the efficiency of resource allocation in the economy and to allow for better risk sharing... by transforming relatively illiquid assets into more liquid securities. These can then be sold to investors thereby allowing originators to obtain funding and, potentially, transfer part of the underlying risk, while investors in such securities can diversify their portfolios... . This can lead to lower costs of capital, higher economic growth and a broader distribution of risk” (ECB and Bank of England, 2014a). In addition, consideration has started to be given to the extent to which ABS products could become the target of explicit monetary policy operations, a line of action proposed by Claeys et al (2014). The ECB has officially announced the start of preparatory work related to possible outright purchases of selected ABS1. In this paper we discuss how a revamped market for corporate loans securitised via ABS products, and how use of ABS as a monetary policy instrument, can indeed play a role in revitalising Europe’s credit market. However, before using this instrument a number of issues should be addressed: First, the European ABS market has significantly contracted since the crisis. Hence it needs to be revamped through appropriate regulation if securitisation is to play a role in improving the efficiency of resource allocation in the economy. Second, even assuming that this market can expand again, the European ABS market is heterogeneous: lending criteria are different in different countries and banking institutions and the rating methodologies to assess the quality of the borrowers have to take these differences into account. One further element of differentiation is default law, which is specific to national jurisdictions in the euro area. Therefore, the pool of loans will not only be different in terms of the macro risks related to each country of origination (which is a ‘positive’ idiosyncratic risk, because it enables a portfolio manager to differentiate), but also in terms of the normative side, in case of default. The latter introduces uncertainties and inefficiencies in the ABS market that could create arbitrage opportunities. It is also unclear to what extent a direct purchase of these securities by the ECB might have an impact on the credit market. This will depend on, for example, the type of securities targeted in terms of the underlying assets that would be considered as eligible for inclusion (such as loans to small and medium-sized companies, car loans, leases, residential and commercial mortgages). The timing of a possible move by the ECB is also an issue; immediate action would take place in the context of relatively limited market volumes, while if the ECB waits, it might have access to a larger market, provided steps are taken in the next few months to revamp the market. We start by discussing the first of these issues – the size of the EU ABS market. We estimate how much this market could be worth if some specific measures are implemented. We then discuss the different options available to the ECB should they decide to intervene in the EU ABS market. We include a preliminary list of regulatory steps that could be taken to homogenise asset-backed securities in the euro area. We conclude with our recommended course of action.

Effects of borrowing from commercial lenders on farm organization with particular reference to fertilizers, buildings, machinery, livestock, and operating expense /

Cover title.

Review of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's change in procedure concerning sales of commodities through the Export Credit Guarantee Program and the Intermediate Export Credit Guarantee Program [microform] : hearing before the Subcommittee on Tobacco and Peanuts of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, second session, October 6, 1988.

"Serial no. 100-113."

The consumer finance industry. A monograph prepared for the Commission on Money and Credit.

Includes bibliography.

Report to the Subcommittee on Judiciary of the Advisory Commission on the Uniform Consumer Credit Code.

Mode of access: Internet.

Consumer credit code disclosure: Does it work?

Since 1996 all consumer credit transactions in Australia have been regulated by the Consumer Credit Code. The principal means by which the Code purports to protect consumers and prevent market failure is a detailed and prescriptive disclosure regime. There has been little empirical work done on whether or not such disclosure actually improves consumers’ understanding of their credit contracts. By exposing participants to typical consumer credit documents, this research discovered quite poor comprehension of important features of the relevant transactions. Most significantly, there appeared to be little difference in comprehension when the consumers read contracts which complied with the disclosure requirements of the Code, and when they read contracts which did not. These results cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Code disclosure regime.

Energy efficient measures to reduce electrical energy use in commercial buildings in New York City

GEA Consulting Engineers, acting as the design engineers, was hired by the owner, East Village 207 Residential LLC2 for energy modeling for compliance with LEED NC V3 -- This report details the results of the energy simulation done with the 100% construction documents -- This report only refers to entities within the LEED3 project boundary -- The project consists of a new eight-story high-end residential condominium building with 81 units, as shown in illustration 1, and approximately 117,905 GSF, equivalent to 10,953.73 m2, is located at 211 E 13th Street in New York, NY -- The residential portion of the building will function 24-7 -- The design goal is to utilize energy efficient measures to reduce electrical energy use and aims to achieve LEED certification -- LEED EA Credit 14 requires a building to demonstrate a percentage improvement in the proposed building performance compared with the baseline building -- The Credit rewards 1 point for achieving 12% reduction in energy costs -- Additionally, the Credit rewards another point for each subsequent reduction of 2% in the building’s energy cost

Evaluation of physicochemical and glycaemic properties of commercial plant-based milk substitutes

The market for plant-based dairy-type products is growing as consumers replace bovine milk in their diet, for medical reasons or as a lifestyle choice. A screening of 17 different commercial plant-based milk substitutes based on different cereals, nuts and legumes was performed, including the evaluation of physicochemical and glycaemic properties. Half of the analysed samples had low or no protein contents (<0.5 %). Only samples based on soya showed considerable high protein contents, matching the value of cow’s milk (3.7 %). An in-vitro method was used to predict the glycaemic index. In general, the glycaemic index values ranged from 47 for bovine milk to 64 (almond-based) and up to 100 for rice-based samples. Most of the plant-based milk substitutes were highly unstable with separation rates up to 54.39 %/h. This study demonstrated that nutritional and physicochemical properties of plant-based milk substitutes are strongly dependent on the plant source, processing and fortification. Most products showed low nutritional qualities. Therefore, consumer awareness is important when plant-based milk substitutes are used as an alternative to cow’s milk in the diet.