Emergence of Financial Intermediaries in Electronic Markets: The Case of Online P2P Lending

We analyze the role of intermediaries in electronic markets using detailed data of more than 14,000 originated loans on an electronic P2P (peer-to-peer) lending platform. In such an electronic credit market, lenders bid to supply a private loan. Screening of potential borrowers and the monitoring of loan repayment can be delegated to designated group leaders. We find that these market participants act as financial intermediaries and significantly improve borrowers' credit conditions by reducing information asymmetries, predominantly for borrowers with less attractive risk characteristics. Our findings may be surprising given the replacement of a bank by an electronic marketplace.

Impact of dams, dam removal and dam-related river engineering structures on sediment connectivity and channel morphology of the Fugnitz and the Kaja Rivers

In terms of changing flow and sediment regimes of rivers, dams are often regarded as the most dominant form of human impact on fluvial systems. Dams can decrease the flux of water and sediments leading to channel changes such as upstream aggradation and downstream degradation. The opposite effects occur when dams are removed. Channel degradation often requires further intervention in terms of river bed and bank protection works. The situation evolves more complex in river systems that are impacted by a series of dams due to feedback processes between the different system compartments. A number of studies have recently investigated geomorphic systems using connectivity approaches to improve the understanding of geomorphic system response to change. This paper presents a case study investigating the impact of dam construction, dam removal and dam-related river bed and bank protection measures on the sediment connectivity and channel morphology of the Fugnitz and the Kaja Rivers using a combination of DEM analyses, field surveys and landscape evolution modelling. For both river systems the results revealed low sediment connectivity accompanied by a fine river bed sediment facies in river sections upstream of active dams and of removed dams with protection measures. Contrarily, high sediment connectivity which was accompanied by a coarse river bed sediment facies was observed in river sections either located downstream of active dams or of removed dams with upstream protection. In terms of channel changes, significant channel degradation was examined at locations downstream of active dams and of removed dams. Channel bed and bank protection measures prevent erosion and channel slope recovery after dam removal. Landscape evolution modeling revealed a complex geomorphic response to dam construction and dam removal as sediment output rates and therefore geomorphic processes have been shown to act in a non-linear manner. These insights are deemed to have major implications for river management and conservation, as quality and state of riverine habitats are determined by channel morphology and river bed sediment composition.

Medem Channel profiles based on stand-alone model simulation and corrections with nudging

State-of-the-art process-based models have shown to be applicable to the simulation and prediction of coastal morphodynamics. On annual to decadal temporal scales, these models may show limitations in reproducing complex natural morphological evolution patterns, such as the movement of bars and tidal channels, e.g. the observed decadal migration of the Medem Channel in the Elbe Estuary, German Bight. Here a morphodynamic model is shown to simulate the hydrodynamics and sediment budgets of the domain to some extent, but fails to adequately reproduce the pronounced channel migration, due to the insufficient implementation of bank erosion processes. In order to allow for long-term simulations of the domain, a nudging method has been introduced to update the model-predicted bathymetries with observations. The model-predicted bathymetry is nudged towards true states in annual time steps. Sensitivity analysis of a user-defined correlation length scale, for the definition of the background error covariance matrix during the nudging procedure, suggests that the optimal error correlation length is similar to the grid cell size, here 80-90 m. Additionally, spatially heterogeneous correlation lengths produce more realistic channel depths than do spatially homogeneous correlation lengths. Consecutive application of the nudging method compensates for the (stand-alone) model prediction errors and corrects the channel migration pattern, with a Brier skill score of 0.78. The proposed nudging method in this study serves as an analytical approach to update model predictions towards a predefined 'true' state for the spatiotemporal interpolation of incomplete morphological data in long-term simulations.

The Central Bank and bank credits in the Philippines : a survey on effectiveness of monetary policy and its measures

In the post-Asian crisis period, bank loans to the manufacturing sector have shown a slow recovery in the affected countries, unexceptionally in the Philippines. This paper provides a literacy survey on the effectiveness of the Central Bank’s monetary policy and the responsiveness of the financial market, and discusses on the future works necessary to better understand the monetary policy effectiveness in the Philippines. As the survey shows, most previous works focus on the correlation between the short-term policy rates and during the period of monetary tightening and relatively less interest in quantitative effectiveness. Future tasks would shed lights on (1) the asset side – other than loan outstanding – of banks to analyze their behavior/preference in structuring portfolios, and (2) the quantitative impacts during the monetary easing period.

Changes in source of profits and business strategies? : some evidence from the Philippines' universal banks in the 2000s

In the 2000s, the Philippines' local banking sector have conducted very conservative lending behavior and at the same time, gradually but continuously improved their profitability in terms of ROE (return on equity). A set of analyses on the flow of funds and segment reports (information) of local universal banks, whose loans outstanding to the industrial sector have dominated more than three fourths of the total outstanding, shows that (1) they have actively manage assets overseas, (2) their profitability has come from investment activities in the securities markets, and (3) some universal banks have shifted their resources into the consumer/retail segment. Although further refinement in the dataset is needed for a more detailed analysis, diverse business strategies would be expected among the local universal banks in the near future.

Central bank cooperation during the great recession. Bruegel Policy Contribution. Bruegel Policy Contribution 2013/08, 20 June 2013

During the Great Recession, central banks went well beyond their normal operations and provided liquidity in unlimited amounts, in foreign currency and to foreign banks. Central bank cooperation took the form of a swap network, and amounted to an episode of global monetary policy. However, though bank cooperation will continue to contribute to global governance, the swap network should not be made permanent and given an institutional basis to provide international lending of last resort. Swaps are a monetary policy tool and should continue to be decided on by central banks like all other monetary policy tools,to avoid impinging on their independence, which a difficult historical process has shown to be the best basis for price stability.

The sovereign debt crisis that isn't: Or, How to turn a lending crisis into a spending crisis and pocket the spread. ACES Cases No. 2014.1

It’s a testament to the power of ideas in politics that the ongoing policy disaster in Europe is still referred to, by academic as well as popular commentators, as the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. That there was a crisis in European sovereign debt markets in 2010 through the middle of 2012 is not in doubt. That is was a crisis of European sovereign debt markets generated by ‘too much spending’ should be very much in doubt. The ongoing European economic crisis is in fact a transmuted private sector banking crisis first exacerbated and then calmed by central bank policy, the costs of which have been asymmetrically distributed across European mass publics.

Oversight hearings on National Development Bank legislation : hearings before the Subcommittee on General Oversight and Renegotiation of the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, second session, on H.R. 7902 ... September 10, 18, and 24, 1980.

"Serial no. 96-73."

Establishment of a national development bank and related matters : hearing before the Subcommittee on General Oversight and Renegotiation of the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, second session, on H.R. 14 ... September 15 and 28, 1982.

Item 1013-A, 1013-B (microfiche)

Affirmative lending programs at California savings and loan associations, 1979 update : results of a survey /

Mode of access: Internet.

Practice at Life-Saving Station-Channel into White Lake

verso: Small str.-"Cayuga" in distance. Boat and crew turned over for practice periodically for exhibition-years ago

Pier at White Lake entrance-to channel-1895

verso: Lake Michigan showing frequent debris from the numerous lumber mills along its shores-years ago