Eastern Bank Research Articles

Regional Expansion of Emerging Market Banks: Evidence from the Middle East

This study investigates challenges and opportunities that regionally expanding emerging market banks face. We focus on four leading Middle Eastern banks’ internationalization trajectories and performances by employing a case study approach. We first examine the four banks’ choices of target markets, entry sequencing, and entry modes over time and then analyze their entry strategies and post-entry financial performances in one of their key markets, Turkey. We show that the success of regional expansion strategies depends on parent bank characteristics such as scale and capital strength, strategic decisions regarding entry mode and timing, and host market structure and competitiveness.

Customer Services through E-Banking: A Case Study on Eastern Bank Limited (EBL)

Customer Services through E-Banking: A Case Study on Eastern Bank Limited (EBL)

Contributions of ground‐penetrating radar in research of some predynastic and dynastic archaeological sites at the eastern and western banks of the River Nile, Assiut, Egypt

AbstractThe ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) prospection method has rarely been used previously in Egyptian archaeology and never for a necropolis. Archaeologists have looked at GPR as a powerful method for exploring subsurface spatial patterns in the archaeological record without excavation. The results of the GPR survey were compared with the archaeological excavation outcomes on two archeological sites in Assiut. The first site is the temple located on a rocky bench on the northern slopes of El‐Hamamia, the Eastern bank of the Nile (a part of El Badari civilization period, belongs to Predynastic cemeteries). The second is the rocky tomb at the Western bank of the Nile at Gahdem (belongs to the period from the IXth to the XXXth dynasty). The main purpose of this study is to correlate the types of reflections recorded from GPR profiles and high‐amplitude features visible in amplitude maps with unearthed archaeological features. The applied software was able to process and analyse different digital data set with the given parameters. In each investigated archaeological area, the details of the GPR model are correlated level‐by‐level to the data of archeological excavations of ancient ages and data of the historical documents. Three‐dimensional time‐slices of the GPR data allow the identification of the enhanced targets of potential archaeological interest before planning excavation. Therefore, this research paper can be used as a benchmark to evaluate the efficiency of GPR method for identifying buried archaeological artifacts/vestiges for future archaeological prospection in Egypt.

Past and future drought trends, duration, and frequency in the semi‐arid Urmia Lake Basin under a changing climate

AbstractAlthough the Urmia Lake has undergone remarkable drought conditions within the past decades mainly due to climate change, drought studies covering the entire Urmia Lake Basin and all drought aspects are lacking. The present study investigated the spatial and temporal drought conditions in the Urmia Lake Basin for the past (1988–2017) and future (2021–2050 and 2051–2080) periods using five general circulation models (GCMs) under the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) scenarios RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized precipitation and evapotranspiration index (SPEI) were compared. The SPEI predicted more drought events than the SPI, and it seemed to be a more suitable drought index than the SPI for the basin. In general, the future periods would encounter less drought conditions in terms of significant drought trends and duration than the observed period under all scenarios, but the frequency of quarterly severe drought events in the future periods would be higher than in the observed period. Furthermore, the stations Urmia (western bank) and Tabriz and Maragheh (eastern banks) would face the highest frequency of different types of quarterly drought events in the future periods compared with the observed period. The predicted high frequencies of drought events for the future periods can intensify the current low water level situation of the Urmia Lake, which seriously threatens all types of ecosystems in the basin. Therefore, serious actions need to be taken into account for efficient ecosystem and water resources management in the basin.

A Substitute Technology for the Currently Applied Bridge-Like Water Intake along the River Nile in Egypt

Bridge-like intakes are structures extended into open channels carrying suction pipes to reach out to sufficient water depths that can secure permanent abstraction. Such intakes have been found to suffer problems that threaten their performances. The present study aims to highlight these problems and introduce a new technology as a substitute solution. Three problems could be identified by continuous field surveys and monitoring. First, the sediment accumulation at the suction pipe inlet clogs the strainer holes and obstructs water abstraction. Second, the offshore water surface recession due to water stage fluctuation or sediment accumulation causes water surface to be inaccessible to the pipe inlet. Third, the stationary inlet position aggravates the other two problems. A case study of a bridge-like intake at El Koraymat area, south of Cairo, along the Nile eastern bank was introduced to clarify these problems. The intake was found to suffer annual sediment accumulations of about 14000 m3 which resulted in water recession and abstraction interruption. An alternative solution was proposed. The solution concept depends on making the pipe inlet position moveable so that it can mitigate and reduce the occurrence of sediment accumulation and water recession. The tower crane technology was proposed to accomplish this concept.

Compliance and Determinants of the AAOIFI Financial Standards: Evidence from the MENA Region

This paper analyses the level of compliance of financial disclosure with accounting standards of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and its determinants in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Islamic banks. Based on 40 Islamic banks in seven MENA countries over the period 2010-2016, the authors used a disclosure index to measure the compliance level and the effect of governance characteristics and the Sharia Board on the extent of compliance with the AAOIFI accounting standards. Results show a high level of compliance (67%). Using the Feasible General Least Square Regression, we found that the presence of women on the board of directors, the reputation of the Sharia Board, and the cross membership of Sharia Board members are key determinants of compliance. While independence of board of directors is significantly associated to reduced financial disclosure. The research contributes to the literature on accounting and the Islamic banking sector. These findings will be useful for regulatory authorities to better- understand the accounting disclosure practices of Islamic banks. Although findings are encouraging, the sample is limited only to banks. Future researches could deal with a larger sample and review other disclosure items to ensure compliance with the AAOIFI standards. Few empirical studies have explored the determinants of compliance with the AAOIFI standards for Islamic banks in MENA countries. Therefore, this work complements and enriches the research in the field in the MENA region. Keywords: financial disclosure, AAOIFI compliance, Islamic banks, governance characteristics, Sharia board

Effect of environmental factors and density-dependence on somatic growth of Eastern Georges Bank haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)

Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) is an important commercial fish species in the Northwest Atlantic, with the Eastern Georges Bank population a transboundary resources utilized by both Canada and the United States. With the dramatic increase recruitment of this population in the last decade, in particular concentrations of fish on the eastern portion of the Bank, there has been a precipitous decrease in somatic growth, raising concerns for managers and stakeholders. In this study, the effect of environmental factors and density-dependence on somatic growth of eastern Georges Bank haddock was studied using a 2-step Generalized Additive Model (GAM) regression approach. The biotic and abiotic factors examined in the regression analysis included haddock density, sampling location, local sea surface and bottom temperature, salinity and short time series of phytoplankton bloom statistics. The relative importance of each covariate in the best selected model was investigated using the nested GAMs. We found that density-dependence explained most of the variation in haddock growth, where the impact of temperature varied by season. Though of less model importance, annual winter salinity and phytoplankton bloom magnitude (lagged by one year) also contributed the growth model fits. These relationships have the immediate application of contextualizing the observed change in haddock growth, but may also inform various aspects of the stock assessment process.

EFFECT OF FLY-ASH ON THE STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT OF COASTAL SOILS-A CASE STUDY FOR THE SOUTHERN COASTAL ZONE OF BANGLADESH

The rapid demand for urbanization expands the requirements of infrastructures and owing to the scarcity of available firm land; people are now built structures on soft soils. However, the application of a deep foundation for a low-rise structure may not be economically feasible for developing countries. The economic, as well as safe foundation, can be ensured by adopting traditional ground stability approaches. However, replacement of the industrial by-product, which possess minimum environmental threat may be a plausible option for ground stability. Therefore, an attempt is taken in this research to study the improvement of soft coastal soil by replacing with eco-friendly fly ash. The eastern bank of the river Karnaphuli, which has increasing industrial and residential demand is taken as a case study in this research. A series of experimental set-ups have been conducted to evaluate the strength development with different fly ash contents. It is found that the strength of fly ash treated soils increases with fly ash content up to a threshold value, and beyond that, the strength decreases. In addition, compaction and plasticity characteristics are also investigated through experimental observations and show better performance criteria with increasing fly ash contents. In a nutshell, this approach of replacing fly ash is suitable for coastal soil, and the experimental investigation reveals that an optimum 20% of fly ash content is justified.

A Survey on Parthian Pithos Cemeteries on The Western Bank of The Little Zab River, Sardasht Region, Northwest Iran

ABSTRACT Sardasht is a mountainous region located in the northern part of the Zagros. The Little Zab river, has had an important role in the formation of archaeological sites in the region. During field studies conducted along the eastern bank of the Iranian Little Zab we found seven pithos cemeteries, as well as archaeological sites that belong to multiple cultures. Unfortunately, all the cemeteries have been disturbed by illegal excavations and many pithos cemeteries have been destroyed. We were able to recover a significant amount of ceramic material, including glazed potsherds and sherds of the fine orange “Clinky ware” characteristic of the Parthian period, as well as glass, agate and clay beads. This paper presents the evidence from the newly discovered Parthian cemeteries in Sardasht, and compares their characteristics with other known Parthian pithos cemeteries such as those at Mingeçevir, Germi, Kangavar, Taq-e Bostan, Marivan and the Acropolis and the Royal City of Susa. A comparative study on the shape of the pithoi and other finds indicates a close similarity between the pithos cemeteries of Sardasht with the cemeteries at Germi and Taq-e Bostan. Considering these comparisons, we believe that the Sardasht cemeteries date to the first and second centuries AD.

Eastern Bank awards $3 million for COVID‐19 response

Eastern Bank awards $3 million for COVID‐19 response

Riverine Fish of Murshidabad: A Study on River Ganga

Murshidabad is a district of West Bengal, India and situated on the eastern bank of river Hooghly, a distributary of river Ganga. Although, many studies on fish ecology and fish systematics have been conducted largely to improve fisheries but fish diversity and their distribution pattern from conservation point of view have never been adequately addressed in the Ganga River. In this present study priority was given to prepare a consolidated list of fish fauna that have been found in the part of river Ganga which flows through the District Murshidabad. 74 species belonging to 9 orders and 24 families are found in the river Ganga of Murshidabad district. Family Cyprinidae representing highest number of species viz. 21. The order Cypriniformes is represented by 26 species followed by order Siluriformes containing 20 species.

Privacy Policy Analysis of Banks and Mobile Money Services in the Middle East

Privacy compliance of the Middle East’s financial sector has been relatively unexplored. This paper evaluates the privacy compliance and readability of privacy statements for top banks and mobile money services in the Middle East. Our analysis shows that, overall, Middle Eastern banks have better privacy policy availability and language distribution, and are more privacy compliant compared to mobile money services. However, both the banks and mobile money services need to improve (1) compliance with the principles of children/adolescent’s data protection, accountability and enforcement, and data minimization/retention, and (2) privacy statement texts to be comprehensible for a reader with ~8 years of education or less.

Zalakhtovye archaeological complex: flat-grave burial grounds of the 13th–17th century (results of the investigations)

This study is devoted to the results of investigations of the unmounded part of the Zalakhtovye burial ground (eastern bank of Lake Chudskoye). During three field seasons (2004, 2006, and 2008), in four excavations areas covering in total 682 sq. m, 227 burials belonging to three flat-grave cemeteries have been dug. The earliest flat-grave burial ground is dated to the 12th–13th century, another one is dated to the 14th–15th century, and the most expansive (and the latest) cemetery is attributed to the period of the 14th–17th century.

From Migdol to Syene: Documents Pertaining to Jews in Egypt in the Persian Period by Bezalel Porten

Reviewed by: From Migdol to Syene: Documents Pertaining to Jews in Egypt in the Persian Period by Bezalel Porten Zev Garber bezalel porten, From Migdol to Syene: Documents Pertaining to Jews in Egypt in the Persian Period [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2020). Pp. xxvi + 178. Paper ₪98/$29. This informative book is an abridged version Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt [Hebrew] (4 vols.; Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem–Department of the History of the Jewish People, 1986–99). P.’s book is a collection of important documents written in Aramaic on papyri and dating from the sixth and fifth centuries b.c.e. pertaining to the Jewish community on the island of Elephantine ( , Yev) near Aswan on the Nile, on the border between Upper Egypt and Nubia (Kush/Sudan). The Elephantine papyri are caches of legal documents and letters documenting a Jewish community that included mercenaries whose twofold task was to protect the Egyptian border with Nubia (Kush) and also to ensure the safe passage of products coming from and going to Nubia. Adjacent to the Jewish settlement at Elephantine was the Aramean garrison at Syene (Aswan), on the eastern bank of the Nile. While less evidence is available for this Aramean garrison, extensive records document life within the Jewish garrison at Elephantine. In Elephantine, the Jews built a temple for YHW (“Yahweh”), which resembled Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. During the fifth century b.c.e., contemporary with the Persian rule of Egypt, the temple was destroyed by Egyptian adherents of the Nubian god Khnum, represented as a ram-headed man, whose land included Elephantine. No doubt the Egyptians were offended by festival ram offerings in the Jewish temple, which justified their role in its destruction, following which the Jewish settlement dispersed and dissolved. The fate and faith of Jews in Egypt in the period of Persian conquest coupled with Judean exile, destruction, and return to Zion are a basic motif in this collection. The name of the book is extracted from the first of five oracles in Ezekiel (29:1–16; 29:17–30:19; 30:20–26; 31:1–18; and 32:1–32) concerning Egypt: “Assuredly, I (God) am going to deal with you and your channels, and I will reduce the land of Egypt to utter ruin and desolation from Migdol [northeast border of Egypt, to the east of Tahpanhes, commanding the road to the land of Israel] to Syene [Aswan], all the way to the border of Nubia” (Ezek 29:10 NJPS/1985 JPS). Living in Judea and ingathering to Zion, rejection of Egypt and wandering in exile following the Babylonian conquest and destruction of the First Jerusalem Temple (587 b.c.e.) constituted the strong advice of Jeremiah in the name of God, but the people did not listen (Jeremiah 42–44). Condemnation (e.g., idolatry, cult of the queen of heaven, [End Page 323] Jer 44:1–11), defeat, and destruction remain the fate of choosing Egypt over Judea. And ingathering by the will of God is the prophetic remedy (see Isa 11:11–16; 49:8–13; Zech 10:10; etc.). P.’s book, part of Encyclopaedia Miqra’it (Biblical Encyclopaedia Library 17) contains a short bibliographic list, eight illustrations of documents but no chronological list or maps. Editor Shmuel Aḥituv contributes an informative introduction on the beginning of the Judean diaspora in Egypt. The Hebrew translation and drawing of the documents are by Ada Yardeni (d. 2018). Three archives have emerged from Elephantine: two family archives with eleven and thirteen legal documents, respectively, and one communal archive consisting of ten letters and one list. Chapter 1, “The Jedaniah Archive (Communal)” is named after the leader of the Jewish community at the end of the fifth century b.c.e., Jedaniah son of Gemariah, probably a cousin of the two sons of the woman Mibtahiah whose private archive is covered in chap. 2 of the book. Ten documents of the communal archive have been brought together because they were addressed to Jedaniah, were written by/for him, or concern events in which he was involved. Included is a fragmentary letter from an unknown...

Saqqara: research 2020

In the 2020 campaign, research started in 2018 at the eastern bank of the Dry Moat was continued, which resulted in the discovery of a rock-cut structure south of the Corridor 1. Also, the rock-cut chapel being part of a 6th Dynasty funerary complex situated south of the tomb of Merefnebef was explored. In both areas, burials of the Upper Necropolis were also found. An important part of the programme were conservation activities.

Calibration of the depth invariant algorithm to monitor the tidal action of Rabigh City at the Red Sea Coast, Saudi Arabia

Abstract Rabigh is a thriving coastal city located at the eastern bank of the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. The city has suffered from shoreline destruction because of the invasive tidal action powered principally by the wind speed and direction over shallow waters. This study was carried out to calibrate the water column depth in the vicinity of Rabigh. Optical and microwave remote sensing data from the European Space Agency were collected over 2 years (2017–2018) along with the analog daily monitoring of tidal data collected from the marine station of Rabigh. Depth invariant index (DII) was implemented utilizing the optical data, while the Wind Field Estimation algorithm was implemented utilizing the microwave data. The findings of the current research emphasis on the oscillation behavior of the depth invariant mean values and the mean astronomical tides resulted in R 2 of 0.75 and 0.79, respectively. Robust linear regression was established between the astronomical tide and the mean values of the normalized DII (R 2 = 0.81). The findings also indicated that January had the strongest wind speed solidly correlated with the depth invariant values (R 2 = 0.92). Therefore, decision-makers can depend on remote sensing data as an efficient tool to monitor natural phenomena and also to regulate human activities in fragile ecosystems.

Assessment of Surface Water Quality in the Damietta Branch of Nile River, Egypt

The major aim of the present study is to evaluate the surface water quality at a part of the Damietta branch, Nile River of Egypt via the measurement of some physicochemical parameters followed by calculation of water quality index (WQI). WQI is considered a simple and effective tool successfully applied for the assessment and investigation of the status and quality of the surface water in any ecosystem. A total of 21 parameters was monitored and measured at ten stations for a year from January to December 2014. Correlation coefficients for physicochemical parameters showed that only turbidity, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia, and silicate had spatial significant variability. Almost the highest average values appeared at station III. The calculated WQI manifested that the highest value was 66.70% at station IX, while the lowest was 56.44 % at station III. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that water quality in the autumn season was higher than the summer months while the spatial significant variability of the WQI confirmed that the St.III. recorded the worst sites, while the sites of the East Bank had; almost the highest average values appeared Generally, most stations found in a medium quality. Damietta branch eastern bank was better than the western one. The mean values of most measured parameters were within the threshold limits in comparison to Egyptian environmental standards regularities (EESR). WQI will be useful mechanism for regular monitoring.

Using Wavelet Transforms to Fuse Nighttime Light Data and POI Big Data to Extract Urban Built-Up Areas

Urban built-up areas are not only the embodiment of urban expansion but also the main space carrier of urban activities. Accurate extraction of urban built-up areas is of great practical significance for measuring the urbanization process and judging the urban environment. It is difficult to identify urban built-up areas objectively and accurately with single data. Therefore, to evaluate urban built-up areas more accurately, this study uses the new method of fusing wavelet transforms and images on the basis of utilization of the POI data of March 2019 and the Luojia1-A data from October 2018 to March 2019. to identify urban built-up areas. The identified urban built-up areas are mainly concentrated in the areas with higher urbanization level and night light value, such as the northeast of Dianchi Lake and the eastern bank around the Dianchi Lake. It is shown in the accuracy verification result that the classification accuracy identified by night-light data of urban build-up area accounts for 84.00% of the total area with the F1 score 0.5487 and the Classification accuracy identified by the fusion of night-light data and POI data of urban build-up area accounts for 96.27% of the total area with the F1 score 0.8343. It is indicated that the built-up areas identified after image fusion are significantly improved with more realistic extraction results. In addition, point of interest (POI) data can better account for the deficiency in nighttime light (NTL) data extraction of urban built-up areas in the urban spatial structure, making the extraction results more objective and accurate. The method proposed in this study can extract urban built-up areas more conveniently and accurately, which is of great practical significance for urbanization monitoring and sustainable urban planning and construction.

Changes and Regional Differences in Urban Land Areas on Both Banks of the Strait of Malacca Based on Remote Sensing

Over the past 30 years, both banks of the Strait of Malacca have experienced rapid economic growth and urbanization. Because of the difficulties in obtaining multi-phase urban land information over a large tropical area, spatial-temporal evolution analysis of the urban land areas in this region has been restricted. In this study, we developed an object-oriented retro-updating method for the rapid extraction of multi-phase urban land information to conduct a comprehensive study of the urban land area changes and to investigate the regional differentiation of both banks of the Strait of Malacca from 1990 to 2018, using grid analysis, zoning statistics, and gradient-direction analysis. The results revealed that from 1990 to 2018, the urban land areas on the eastern and western banks of the Strait of Malacca had increased by 1.51 times and 1.76 times, respectively, and in 2018, the urban land areas on the eastern bank were approximately four times greater than those on the western bank. The urban land areas on the eastern bank exhibit clusters centered around large cities and small strips along roads. Furthermore, the development of the urban land on the western bank was slow. As of 2018, the low development intensity areas on the western bank accounted for 98.73% of the total area, with only Medan achieving a higher development intensity. The development speeds of both banks followed the same zonal law (i.e., decreasing with increasing distance from the coastline). In addition, the urban land areas on both banks were mainly distributed within 60 km of the coast. Over the past 30 years, in decreasing order of their expansion scales, the major ports on both banks of the strait are Port Kelang, the Port of Singapore, Malacca Port, Penang Port, Belawan Port, and Dumai Port. In addition to the Port of Singapore and Dumai Port, which are in leapfrog expansion mode, the other ports exhibit edge-expansion patterns. Finally, investigation of the factors influencing the intensity of the urban land development revealed that natural resource conditions, economic and industrial structures, port development, and government policies all have caused the development of the western bank to lag behind that of the eastern bank.

Circulation patterns and implication for fine sediment transport in a preserved tropical estuary: The case of the Maroni (French Guiana)

Compared to temperate estuaries, tropical ones are less documented. Among them, the numerous estuaries along the Guiana shoreline present at least two original features: they are still preserved from anthropogenic modifications, and their hydro-morphodynamics are influenced by longshore migration of outer coastal mud banks. This study deals with the Maroni estuary, a mesotidal preserved tropical estuary, currently spotting more attention to better anticipate changes related to the development of harbour activities. Field data collected over semi-diurnal tidal cycles in the lower estuary revealed the presence of a turbidity maximum and seasonally contrasted hydro-sedimentary features. A one-year 3D hydrodynamic simulation covering a wide-range of tidal and fluvial conditions was performed to further analyse the seasonal variability of stratification and residual circulation patterns. The estuary is well-mixed for a very low river discharge (lower than 200 m3/s). It becomes partly mixed in both spring and neap tide in case of a moderate river discharge of 700 m3/s. The strongest stratification, which could be associated to a salt wedge near the mouth, appears during neap tides combined with higher discharge. Residual currents along the navigation channel are usually seaward except during neap tides when the discharge is large enough (∼700 m3/s) to generate stratification and landward residual current near the bottom to mid depth until the first km 15 from the mouth. Residual inflow starts from the location of the mud bank and extends along the navigation channel near the eastern bank. The inflow extension matches with observed highly turbid areas and fresh mud deposits, suggesting an outer supply of mud. In summary, this exploratory work allows a first description of current dynamics of the Maroni, and is a first step before a comprehensive study of changes in estuarine circulation and fine sediment transport under different configurations of coastal mud banks.