This collection of conference papers presents a contemporary insight into key trends impacting on the global financial sector post crisis and highlights new policy and research areas affecting banks and other financial institutions. The four main themes are: financial crises, credit activity, capital markets and risk management.

Financial Exclusion

by S. Carbo, E. Gardner, and Philip Molyneux

Published 1 January 2005
This text is concerned with the increasingly important and problematic area of financial exclusion, broadly defined as the inability and/or reluctance of particular societal groups to access mainstream financial services. This has emerged as a major international policy issue. There is growing evidence that deregulation in developed financial sectors improves financial inclusion for some societal groups (more products become available to a bigger customer base), but may at the same time exacerbate it for others (for example, by emphasizing greater customer segmentation and more emphasis on risk-based pricing and 'value added'). In developing countries access to financial services is typically limited and therefore providing wider access to such services can aid financial and economic development. This is the first text to analyze financial exclusion issues in different parts of the world and it covers the various public and private sector mechanisms that have been advanced to help eradicate this problem.

In today's globalized economy, banking is of international importance. This book interrogates important issues, including reform in China, electronic money and loan pricing. Highlighting key policy and research, it provides insight into contemporary global banking trends and assesses the impact of new technology for future industry development.

This book explores risk culture in banks following the financial crisis. It analyses the role of national and institutional risk culture, market competitiveness, organisational systems and institutional practices that led to a weakening of risk culture in financial institutions leading up to the financial crisis. It addresses how to assess and measure risk culture, and analyse the impact on performance and reputation. Finally it explores the impact of regulation and a variety of tools that can be applied from the board down to promote a healthy risk culture in the governance of financial institutions internal controls and risk culture in banks.