Training to address attitudes and behaviour of rural bank managers in Madhya Pradesh, India: A programme to facilitate financial inclusion

Given their physical presence in India, banks are arguably well-placed to improve financial inclusion in rural areas. However, uncertain repayment capacities and high transaction costs mean formal financial institutions are often reluctant to lend to the rural poor. Conversely, high transaction costs in dealing with banks are also incurred by clients, through, for example, lengthy, cumbersome and potentially ignominious procedures. Negative attitudes towards poor clients can be an important component of such transaction costs. An applied research project funded by the Enterprise Development Innovation Fund (EDIF-DFID) developed an innovative training programme designed to encourage more positive attitudes of bank staff towards poor clients, and towards their own role in rural poverty alleviation and development. This paper examines the development of the training programme, its implementation, and the results of its evaluation. It is shown that training can bring about attitudinal change, which in turn is reflected in behaviour and social impact.

An investigation of the existing situation and trends in building energy efficiency management in China

According to the Chinese State Council's "Building Energy Efficiency Management Ordinance", a large-scale investigation of energy efficiency (EE) in buildings in contemporary China has been carried out in 22 provincial capitals and major cities in China. The aim of this project is to provide reliable information for drawing up the "Decision on reinforcing building energy efficiency" by the Ministry of Construction of China. The surveyed organizations include government departments, research institutions, property developers, design institutions, construction companies, construction consultancy services companies, facility management departments, financial institutions and those which relate to the business of building energy efficiency. In addition, representatives of the media and residents were also involved. A detailed analysis of the results of the investigation concerning aspects of the cur-rent situation and trends in building energy consumption, energy efficiency strategy and the implementation of energy efficiency measures has been conducted. The investigation supplies essential information to formulate the market entrance policy for new buildings and the refurbishment policy for existing buildings to encourage the development of energy efficient technology.

Training to address attitudes and behaviour of rural bank managers in Madhya Pradesh, India: a programme to facilitate financial inclusion

Given their physical presence in India, banks are arguably well-placed to improve financial inclusion in rural areas. However, uncertain repayment capacities and high transaction costs mean formal financial institutions are often reluctant to lend to the rural poor. Conversely, high transaction costs in dealing with banks are also incurred by clients, through, for example, lengthy, cumbersome and potentially ignominious procedures. Negative attitudes towards poor clients can be an important component of such transaction costs. An applied research project funded by the Enterprise Development Innovation Fund (EDIF-DFID) developed an innovative training programme designed to encourage more positive attitudes of bank staff towards poor clients, and towards their own role in rural poverty alleviation and development. This paper examines the development of the training programme, its implementation, and the results of its evaluation. It is shown that training can bring about attitudinal change, which in turn is reflected in behaviour and social impact. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Managing governance, risk and compliance for post-crisis regulatory change: a model of IS capabilities for financial organizations

The 2008-2009 financial crisis and related organizational and economic failures have meant that financial organizations are faced with a ‘tsunami’ of new regulatory obligations. This environment provides new managerial challenges as organizations are forced to engage in complex and costly remediation projects with short deadlines. Drawing from a longitudinal study conducted with nine financial institutions over twelve years, this paper identifies nine IS capabilities which underpin activities for managing regulatory themed governance, risk and compliance efforts. The research shows that many firms are now focused on meeting the Regulators’ deadlines at the expense of developing a strategic, enterprise-wide connected approach to compliance. Consequently, executives are in danger of implementing siloed compliance solutions within business functions. By evaluating the maturity of their IS capabilities which underpin regulatory adherence, managers have an opportunity to develop robust operational architectures and so are better positioned to face the challenges derived from shifting regulatory landscapes.

The role of big data in governance: a regulatory and legal perspective of analytics in global financial services

This paper discusses how global financial institutions are using big data analytics within their compliance operations. A lot of previous research has focused on the strategic implications of big data, but not much research has considered how such tools are entwined with regulatory breaches and investigations in financial services. Our work covers two in-depth qualitative case studies, each addressing a distinct type of analytics. The first case focuses on analytics which manage everyday compliance breaches and so are expected by managers. The second case focuses on analytics which facilitate investigation and litigation where serious unexpected breaches may have occurred. In doing so, the study focuses on the micro/data to understand how these tools are influencing operational risks and practices. The paper draws from two bodies of literature, the social studies of information systems and finance to guide our analysis and practitioner recommendations. The cases illustrate how technologies are implicated in multijurisdictional challenges and regulatory conflicts at each end of the operational risk spectrum. We find that compliance analytics are both shaping and reporting regulatory matters yet often firms may have difficulties in recruiting individuals with relevant but diverse skill sets. The cases also underscore the increasing need for financial organizations to adopt robust information governance policies and processes to ease future remediation efforts.

Uma análise dos efeitos da regulação do setor de microfinanças brasileiro: o caso das Sociedades de Crédito ao Microempreendedor

The purpose of this work is to analyze the process of regulation of the sector of microfinance in Brazil, based on the regulation of the Societies of Credit to Microentrepreneurs - SCMs, the only specialized institucional form in microfinance in the National Financial System, and that, in sight of this, has its performance regulated and supervised by the Brazilian Central Bank. The regulation of the SCMs has been one of the strategies adopted by the Federal Government in our country to stimulate the generation of job and income for the population that usually is excluded from the traditional financial system, for the microentrepreneurs, who have difficulties in getting financing for its productive activities at the traditional financial institutions. However, despite the governmental measures that have been taken in the direction to try to stimulate the sector of microfinance in our country, it is considered that the current model of regulation based on the regulation of the SCMs presents obstacles that must be surpassed in order to reach the objective to facilitate the access of the formal credit to the microentrepreneurs.

Modelo para avaliação do custo burocrático do FCVS (Fundo de Compensação de Variações Salariais) : um estudo de caso

In 1964, year of the military coup, the Brazilian government established a housing finance system with the intention of reducing the housing shortage that had been going on for decades. In order to reach this goal, the government created the Housing Finance System (acronym in Portuguese ¿ SFH), a set of rules which intended to set up a regulated market through standardized contracts and compulsory sources of funds. The system survived for some time, due to the state control of prices and salaries in the authoritarian regime. However, the increasing inflationary pressure obliged the government to adopt a populist subsidy policy, which left as a consequence outstanding balances at the end of the contracts that very often exceeded the value of the financed units. The solution adopted was to create a fund to settle these residual balances. Such fund should be capitalized by the government and by compulsory contributions from borrowers and financial institutions. Since the government did not make such contributions, the debt of this fund increased on a yearly basis, reaching around 3,5 % of Brazil¿s GDP in December 31, 2006. Due to the decline of private investments in the housing finance system, this debt concentrated mostly on public and state-owned companies, government agencies and public funds. The outcome of this policy was the Salary Variations Compensation Fund (acronym in Portuguese ¿ FCVS), which has a negative net equity of 76 billion reais and costs 100 million reais per year to be managed, and whose main creditor is the Federal Government itself.

Programa cheque-cidadão: avaliação e responsabilidade social do Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

No Brasil, na última década, vários programas de transferência de renda foram implantados, mas os níveis de pobreza não têm diminuído na mesma proporção do aporte de recursos investidos nos programas. Verifica-se, especialmente, a falta de coordenação entre poderes governamentais, entre órgãos gestores, financiadores e executores de políticas públicas. O programa Cheque Cidadão, dado ao grande volume de recursos distribuídos e à participação de instituições religiosas na seleção e distribuição de benefícios, foi objeto de inspeção realizada pelo Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (TCERJ), em Campos dos Goytacazes em setembro de 2004. No ano de 2002, foi tema de pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto de Estudo do Trabalho e Sociedade (IETS), que visava conhecer o programa em seus processos e impacto junto ao público beneficiário. Este trabalho visa à contextualização destes dois eventos nos paradigmas da Nova Gestão Pública (NGP) com indicadores de desempenho de eficiência, eficácia, efetividade e eqüidade, esperando inserir o TCE-RJ no campo das Auditorias Operacionais, e favorecendo a avaliação de políticas públicas como uma forma de contribuição para corresponder à crescente demanda social por um governo orientado para resultados.

Citizens vs. banks: institutional drivers of financial market litigiousness in Brazil

This article analyzes the institutional drivers of Brazil’s alarmingly high levels of litigation between clients and financial institutions. Most of the policy oriented literature that explores that phenomenon discusses the impacts of a perceived debtor-friendly bias of Brazilian courts on generating feedback loops of litigation that further increases interest rates and creates adverse selection within the pool of potential debtors. This literature therefore addresses the way courts behave once disputes reach their doorstep; conversely, we take a step back to understand the underlying reasons for why such a large number of disputes end up in courts in the first place. We accordingly attribute endemic litigation in Brazilian financial markets to a framework of political, economic and legal institutions and circumstances, which this article aims to unbound and explain.

Estimating economic interactions of financial suppliers in Thailand

This paper presents a methodology to estimate and identify different kinds of economic interaction, whenever these interactions can be established in the form of spatial dependence. First, we apply the semi-parametric approach of Chen and Conley (2001) to the estimation of reaction functions. Then, the methodology is applied to the analysis financial providers in Thailand. Based on a sample of financial institutions, we provide an economic framework to test if the actual spatial pattern is compatible with strategic competition (local interactions) or social planning (global interactions). Our estimates suggest that the provision of commercial banks and suppliers credit access is determined by spatial competition, while the Thai Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives is distributed as in a social planner problem.

The development of the private equity industry since the 2008 financial crisis

The private equity industry was experiencing a phenomenal boom at the turn of the century but collapsed abruptly in 2008 with the onset of the financial crisis. Considered one of the worst crises since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it had sent ripples around the world threatening the collapse of financial institutions and provoking a liquidity crunch followed by a huge downturn in economic activity and recession. Furthermore, the physiognomy of the financial landscape had considerably altered with banks retracting from the lending space, accompanied by a hardening of financial regulation that sought to better contain systemic risk. Given the new set of changes and challenges that had arisen from this period of financial turmoil, private equity found itself having to question current practices and methods of operation in order to adjust to the harsh realities of a new post-apocalyptic world. Consequently, this paper goes on to explore how the private equity business, management and operation model has evolved since the credit crunch with a specific focus on mature markets such as the United States and Europe. More specifically, this paper will aim to gather insights on the development of the industry since the crisis in Western Europe through a case study approach using as a base interviews with professionals working in the industry and those external to the sector but who have/have had considerable interaction with PE players from 2007 to the present.

Applying supply chain management models in the banking industry: a brazilian case analysis

The study presents the results and recommendations deriving from the application of two supply chain management analysis models as proposed by the Supply Chain Council (SCOR, version 10.0) and by Lambert (1997, Framework for Supply Chain Management) on the logistics of cash transfers in Brazil. Cash transfers consist of the transportation of notes to and from each node of the complex network formed by the bank branches, ATMs, armored transportation providers, the government custodian, Brazilian Central Bank and financial institutions. Although the logistic to sustain these operations is so wide-ranged (country-size), complex and subject to a lot of financial regulations and security procedures, it has been detected that it was probably not fully integrated. Through the use of a primary and a secondary data research and analysis, using the above mentioned models, the study ends up with propositions to strongly improve the operations efficiency

Gestão híbrida em cooperativa de crédito: uma análise a partir do interesse, participação, satisfação e expectativa dos cooperados da COOPERUFPA

The globalization of markets has confirmed for the processes of change in organizations both in structure and in management. This dynamic was also observed in credit unions because they are financial institutions and are under the rules of the Brazil´s Financial System. Given the context of organizational changes in the financial capital has played the traditional management reform is urgent. In organizations credit unions, given its dual purpose, because in the same organizational environment and capitalism coexist cooperative whose logics are antagonistic, but can live through the balance between instrumental rationality and substantive rationality in credit unions. Based on this concept a new form of management should be thought to be able to accommodate the demand of cooperative, community, government and the market. Hybridization has been observed in management practices` COOPERUFPA into dimensions financial, social and solidarity participation with a trend in paradigmatic form of hybrid management, in that it directly or indirectly affect the management decisions in the credit union. The hybrid management is a trend that has been setting the basis for societal transformation, so that credit unions promote actions of welfare oriented cooperative members and the community around the same time that attend the dynamics of market globalization. These actions, in the context of hybrid management should be implemented by COOPERUFPA from the sociability of the remains and the wide diffusion of solidarity culture between cooperative partnership as a way to recover their participation in trade relations, financial and the social collective developement. For the members of COOPERUFPA financial interest is evidenced in greater relevance for the social interest given its dominant relationship as "mere customer" of the credit union, however, the proactive participation of the life of the cooperative credit union is one of its expectative among of participation of to share power in decisions by general meetings. This passivity`s cooperator of the COOPERUFPA in defending the ideals overshadowed the spread of cooperative principles and values of cooperation among them. Thus his conception for COOPERUFPA in the financial dimension, social and solidarity democracy, performed transversely. The COOPERUFPA for not developing an education policy for the cooperation among its members, contributed to a process of collective alienation of cooperative ideals, since the cooperative do not understand the reality that surrounds them as members of an organization whose mission is to social and financial sustainability of its members

Apoio governamental à inovação Tecnológica: análise da indústria farmacêutica paraense

The transformations economical, cultural and social that happen in world ambit they are associated to the intense progress and expansion of new technologies, forcing governments, people, companies and nations to the introduction of new patterns of behavior, forcing, in that way, to the continuous renewal of products and technological processes to maintain the competitiveness, so much among nations, as in the managerial world. In that matter, the technological innovation is recognized as basic factor of maintainable economical competitiveness, being the responsible for the breaking and/or improvement of the techniques and production processes, what presupposes the systematization varied institutional arrangements that they involve firms, interaction nets among companies, government agencies, universities, research institutes, laboratories of companies and scientists and engineers activities. Those arrangements, to the if they articulate with the educational system, with the industrial and managerial section and, also, with the financial institutions, they take the form that Freeman (1987) it coined of national system of innovation, promoted through public politics of CT&I, which seek to induce and to support innovative initiatives in the companies, as well as to establish demands and to prioritize vocations and regional potentialities. In that context of government support to the technological innovation interferes this study, that it looked for to know the reasons of the fragility innovative in the pharmaceutical industry of State of Pará in Brazil, pointed for PINTEC (2005), starting from the point of view of the businessmen of that section. For such, the qualitative approach was used - with interviews directing semi and the technique of the content analysis. The results of the research pointed that the fragilities innovative of the section links to the ignorance of the government support to the technological innovation on the part of the businessmen of the pharmaceutical industry of State of Pará in Brazil