Financial development policies in Uzbekistan: an analysis of achievements and failures

This paper provides a detailed analysis of Uzbekistan’s performance in liberalising its financial system. Two major areas are considered in the paper. First, we review financial development reform in Uzbekistan from independence until 2006, including the banking sector, non-bank financial institutions and securities markets. Second, it examines the policy achievements and failures of the Uzbek path and the sequence of reforms in each of these areas. Policy recommendations are then offered to remedy the existing problems that we identify. This paper is first to make a detailed analysis of policy successes and failures in Uzbekistan financial reform.     

对影子银行加强监管的国际金融法制改革

2008年金融危机的产生与游离于监管体系之外的影子银行的崩溃密不可分。在后危机时代,国际社会金融监管改革中很重要的一个方面即是加强对影子银行的监管。美欧等发达金融体已纷纷采取多种改革办法加强对其监管。以金融稳定理事会为代表的国际组织亦对影子银行监管进行研究,并形成了相关建议。影子银行对金融体系带来的主要威胁是系统性风险和监管套利,改革现有金融监管法制的重点也在于此。我国应当积极参与此方面的国际金融法制改革,并适时加强国内的法制建设。     

Banking on China's WTO Commitments: 'Same Bed, Different Dreams' in China's Financial Services Sector

Foreign banks and the Chinese Government have different dreamsabout the business opportunities and obligations that ariseunder China's World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments onfinancial services. This article provides an overview of China'sbanking sector reforms and its gradual opening to foreign participationin the context of General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)rules governing international trade in financial services andthe obligations that apply since China's WTO accession in December2001. The article highlights the contradictory interpretationsthat China and other Members have issued regarding China's GATScommitments and provides a framework for assessing the WTO consistencyof China's banking measures. An analysis is conducted underthis framework to evaluate whether China has fully implementedits GATS commitments on (i) the acquisition of Chinese banksby foreign financial institutions, (ii) legitimate ‘prudentialregulation’ in the banking sector, and (iii) full marketaccess for credit card and electronic payment services. Notwithstandingthe apparent complexity of GATS rules, the article concludesthat the WTO legal framework supports the case for increasedaccess to China's financial services market consistent withits GATS commitments, and fully consistent with China's plansfor continuing domestic growth and its medium-term financialservices export interests.     

The Causal Relationship between Stock,Credit Market and Economic Development: An Empirical Evidence for Greece

This paper examines empirically the causal relationship among financial development, credit market and economic growth by using a trivariate autoregressive VAR model in Greece for the examined period 1988:1–2002:12. The results of cointegration analysis suggested that there is one cointegrated vector among the functions of stock market, the banking sector development and economic growth. Granger causality tests have shown that there is a bilateral causal relationship between banking sector development and economic growth and a unidirectional causality between economic growth and stock market development whereas there is no causal relationship between the stock market and banking sector development.     

论政府对投资银行的风险监管

本轮金融危机中,投资银行业务过度创新而政府监管乏力,风险累积祸及世界.政府对投资银行的风险监管问题引起业界的高度关注.通过分析政府对投资银行监管的理论基础,探讨对投行监管的必要性及监管的目标.在分析政府对投资银行监管方面暴露的问题之后,提出政府应该为投资银行创设良好的运行环境,创建良好的信息披露和风险提示制度,特别是把好市场准人和退出关口及针对投资银行的业务链条设计风险监管制度,防止出现监管"真空",并且加强监管过程中的国际合作.     

Politicization,banking experience and risk in savings banks

During the global financial crisis, criticism of the politicization and lack of professionalization of the savings banks has taken a central position in the political debate. The aim of this article is to analyze if the political presence of governing bodies in Spanish savings banks has been reflected in their various risk-taking behaviors before and during the financial crisis. We will also analyze whether the influence of the chairman’s banking experience matters. The results do not provide evidence that the composition of the boards of savings bank, or even their politicization, have played a role. However we show that savings banks run by a chairman with previous banking experience are likely to be significantly more solvent and less volatile.     

信息监管:我国信贷资产证券化监管之最优选择

信贷资产证券化作为一种金融创新,将间接融资直接化,打通了银行信用与市场信用,但其系统性风险的放大功能对流行的功能性金融监管模式也提出了严重挑战,美国次贷危机即彰显了现有监管模式对于信贷资产证券化的监管缺陷和失败。反思次贷危机的根源,本质上可以归咎于金融信息披露的严重失范。比较美国新的金融监管体系改革,立足中国实践,重构金融监管体系必须以信息监管为中心,以此构建一个统合的金融信息平台,形成有效的信息共享机制,并进一步完善金融机构和监管者对金融创新产品的全程信息披露制度,强化对金融消费者的保护。     

Fraud, banking crisis, and regulatory enforcement: Evidence from micro-level transactions data

Can widespread fraud cause large scale banking crises? We address this issue in the context of the recent Turkish banking crisis of 2000, which was followed by a severe recession and currency crisis. Using detailed micro-level transactions data, we show that related lending and back-to-back loans across banks were used to circumvent regulation and transfer deposits to private holding companies that were ruined. Our evidence suggests that systemic fraud coupled with weak enforcement of conventional regulatory principles can be a source of banking crisis.     

Inflation and the transition to a mixed economy: Can it work?

This paper reviews a number of possible scenarios for introducing a market element into a centrally planned economy, and analyses the financial relationships between the planned and the market sectors of the resulting mixed economy. It is argued that repressed inflation with some degree of excess demand and administrative price-control, is not neutral, but has distribution effects which greatly ameliorate the financial position of the state in a mixed economy in which the banking sector is still part of the state-controlled sector.     

Consolidation and Competition in Emerging Market: An Empirical Test for Malaysian Banking Industry

This paper investigates the effect of bank consolidation on market structure and competition in Malaysian banking industry during the years of 1998–2005. The study evaluates the degree of competition using H-statistic proposed by Panzar and Rosse (1987 Testing for monopoly equilibrium. J Ind Econ 35:443–456). The estimated H-statistics are positive ranging from 0.53 to 0.81 and the Wald test for the market structure for monopoly or perfect competition is rejected. The results imply that the financial institutions in Malaysia earned their revenue in the condition of monopolistic competition with the traditional interest-based market is significantly less competitive than the overall market. The evidence is however insufficient to show that there is an increase in competition due to a change in the market structure. Thus, the findings suggest that additional competition policy is needed to ensure competition in the Malaysian banking market in view of further consolidation in the banking sector.     

Probability of default models of Russian banks

This paper presents results from an econometric analysis of Russian bank defaults during the period 1997–2003, focusing on the extent to which publicly available information from quarterly bank balance sheets is useful in predicting future defaults. Binary choice models are estimated to construct the probability of default model. In the first part of the paper we analyse bank survival over the financial crisis of 1998. We find that preliminary expert clustering or automatic clustering improves the predictive power of the models and incorporation of macrovariables into the models is useful. Heuristic criteria are suggested to help compare model performance from the perspectives of investors or banks supervision authorities. In the second part of the paper we use the probability of default models developed in the first part in rolling windows to analyse the Russian banking system trends after the crisis 1998.     

美国金融监管改革法案对世界金融监管立法改革的影响

由于美国在当今世界金融体系中处于中心地位,并且是世界金融规则的主要制定者之一,其金融监管改革法案的出台不仅对其防范系统性金融风险,确保美国金融业可持续发展产生重大作用,对世界金融监管立法改革也会产生深远的影响。通过对该问题的研究,可对完善我国金融监管法律制度提供有益参考。     

经济危机对中国法律服务业的影响

由美国次贷危机引发的金融危机愈演愈烈，演变成为一场波及全球的经济危机。在全球整体经济下滑、金融动荡的环境中，法律服务业作为相互关联产业中的一环．不可避免同样受到了波及和重大影响。这主要表现在经济低迷导致法律服务的需求下降。虽然公司面临破产、裁员以及贸易纠纷等问题，增加了一部分破产、劳动仲裁、民商事纠纷等业务，但不会改变法律服务业受全球总体经济拖累的大趋势。     

欧美金融监管的最新发展及其启示

金融危机过后,欧美对其金融监管法制进行了重大变革,尤其是在金融集团、信用评级、影子银行和场外金融衍生工具的监管方面。变革后的金融监管法制更加注重对金融创新的原则监管,更加重视金融监管的全球合作,更加凸显金融安全的价值目标取向。作为一个新兴加转轨的经济体,我国一方面要打破对欧美金融监管模式的顶礼膜拜,另一方面要用更加理性务实的态度与开放的心态借鉴欧美金融监管法制变革的经验,处理好金融创新与金融监管的关系,实现金融安全、金融效率与金融公平之间的竞争性平衡。     

THE POTENTIAL OF THE FAMILY LAW EDUCATION REFORM PROJECT FOR FAMILY LAWYERS1

Family lawyers are major beneficiaries of the reforms set out in the Family Law Education Reform Project (FLER) Report. This commentary from a veteran family law practitioner explores the needs of the family law bar for the training of law students in practical, interdisciplinary, client‐centered lawyering that goes beyond the traditional case method. I trace many of the current innovations evolving in family law practice and how FLER reforms will not only benefit law schools but also have a major impact in the courts and private practice sector.     

Architects of the State: International Financial Institutions and the Reconstruction of States in East Asia

For international financial institutions (IFIs), it is a continuing puzzle why the global norms they propagate are enacted either reluctantly or not at all. This article shows that failures of enactment and implementation frequently occur because many IFI‐initiated law reforms go far beyond changing the law; they amount to a restructuring of the state itself and the accompanying redistributions of power. This article demonstrates how state restructuring can occur in a technical area of commercial law by reanalyzing the ways global and transnational designs of corporate bankruptcy regimes fared between 1998 and 2006 in three countries variously affected by the Asian financial crisis: China, Indonesia, and South Korea. State restructuring occurred by (1) shifting the boundary between the market and state, (2) shifting power inside the state, and (3) vesting new powers in the state. The article identifies the recursive dynamics through which the changes unfolded and shows how variations in the efficacy of international architects of the state can be attributed to the interplay of four sets of factors: the coherence of global norms, the relative power of global versus state actors, domestic demand and mobilization for restructuring, and the extent of state restructuring that reforms will induce.     

Banking on reform in 2010: is regulatory change ever enough and will the general election hold the answers for the financial services industry?

Over the past three years the financial service industry within the United Kingdom has undergone a major crisis. No part of the industry has gone untouched and even the regulators and the Government have come under fire for their part in promulgating the financial crisis, along with the financial service providers themselves. What has developed has been a plethora of policy documents issued and this has culminated in four major new legal updates for the financial services industry occurring during just one year. The Banking Act 2009, the Turner Review, the Walker Review, the White Paper on Reforming Financial Services and the Financial Services Bill 2009 have all increased the burden on financial services firms in light of the financial crisis sweeping not only the UK but the globe. This paper provides an oversight of these four important papers and pieces of legislation so as to shed light on what the new requirements for financial services firms are. Given the fast pace of the financial crisis, its respective regulation is also just as quick and as such it has been hard for practitioners and academics alike to keep pace with the evolving saga of the crisis. This paper therefore provides an overview of what happened and how the regulation has responded to the challenges it now faces.     

New Operators in Russian Agriculture

What has been happening as regards the organization of Russia's agrarian sector in recent years? Agronomists have expressed the most diverse, often diametrically opposed views on this topic. Some say that the reforms are "incomplete" (referring, in particular, to such aspects as the transformation of agricultural enterprises and the privatization of landownership). Others blame the reforms, coupled with various macroeconomic regulations, for the "collapse" of large-scale farming and the severity of the agricultural crisis. Still others say that the real reforms have not yet begun, and that what we see in agriculture is the "stabilization" and stagnation of economic forms.     

Towards a common standard of protection of the right to housing in Europe through the charter of fundamental rights

The trend towards the financialisation of housing since the 1980s and the global financial crisis exposed a dramatic lacuna in the legal protection of the right to housing. Yet, the right to housing features not only in national and international human rights instruments, but also in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Charter rights are increasingly finding expression in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). In particular, drawing on the Charter, the CJEU's interpretation of EU consumer law is moving towards a recognition of housing rights as inherent components of consumer protection. On the basis of such developments, this article examines whether there is scope to extend this human rights approach to new areas – namely, to the Mortgage Credit Directive (2014) – a major EU harmonising measure – and to the work of EU institutions now responsible for banking supervision. The article concludes that, if guided by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the case law of the CJEU and the practice of supranational banking supervision could significantly enhance the protection of the right to housing, both at EU and Member State level.     

The efficacy of the Egyptian bank reform plan in mitigating the impact of the global financial crisis

This study tests the ability of the Egyptian Bank Reform Plan (2004–2009) to enhance bank efficiency and attain the prime national macroeconomic objectives of generating youth employment, stabilizing consumer prices and managing national debt, which were significantly impacted by the global financial crisis (GFC). The Pedroni Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) method is employed and the period covered extends from 2003:01 till 2010:03. The results of the study reveal that the bank reform program has helped the economy weather the impact of the global economic meltdown. On the whole, the reformed banking sector showed evident success in helping the Central Bank of Egypt achieve its nominal anchor of price stability, with the highest outcome delivered by foreign banks. State banks are the most efficient in creating jobs and financing national debt. Private domestic banks are fairly functional in job creation and financing foreign debt. While these results attest to the general success of the reform in mitigating the impact of the blow of the GFC, further enhancement of the role of foreign banks is needed to attain the other two macroeconomic goals.