Financial Services Corporation Research Articles

ITIL process management to mitigate operations risk in cloud architecture infrastructure for banking and financial services industry

Banking and Financial Services Corporations need to update information systems with logic and data of various applications on everyday basis to remain consistent with change in economy and business activity. This helps to work with latest information included in information system available in current economic and business scenario. This enables information systems and empowers work force to complete tasks in rapidly changing flow of monetary resources. With several employees in Banking and Financial Services Corporations using cloud infrastructure and reporting incidents arising in using cloud infrastructure, it is of prime importance to fix incidents reported within specific timelines. IT change management process is followed in order to adhere to IT governance & compliance framework and reduce risk of failure while performing changes in cloud infrastructure. With incident management and change management processes are aligned to keep cloud infrastructure available and secure, they become integral part of IT operations everyday activity. To make ITIL processes efficient, further organization specific policies are developed. With global standards and organization level controls in place, there are failures in IT incident and change management processes and implementation. In this paper, we have identified the risk arising due to incident management and change management processes that lead to emergency changes being implemented on cloud infrastructure architecture and discussed the steps to mitigate risks to bring greater responsibility and accountability for cloud services providers.

Increasing Workplace Diversity

While many firms have set ambitious goals to increase diversity in their ranks, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on effective ways to reach them. We use a natural field experiment to test several hypotheses on effective means to attract minority candidates for top professional careers. By randomly varying the content in recruiting materials of a major financial services corporation with more than 10,000 employees, we find that signaling explicit interest in employee diversity more than doubles the interest in openings among racial minority candidates, as well as the likelihood that they apply and are selected. Impacts on gender diversity are less sharp and generally not significant. [End Page 73] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrapreneurship reactor: how to enable a start-up culture in corporations

Start-ups successfully deliver creative results, and their success highlights the need for corporate engagement with innovation (Weiblen and Chesbrough in California Management Review 57(2): 66–90, 2015). To assess insights on corporate high-involvement innovation activities, we developed and applied an intrapreneurship model within a multinational financial services corporation in Germany. Successful implementation requires that individuals have the autonomy to act as corporate entrepreneurs (i.e., intrapreneurs). To this end, we introduced a model for implementing and analysing intrapreneurship so corporations could develop a start-up culture. The corporation studied hosted an innovation competition called the Appathon, where competing teams developed app prototypes, and the winning team received funding for continued development. Afterwards, we completed qualitative and quantitative research by interviewing and surveying the competition participants to examine practical intrapreneurship and corporate and individual innovation. Our findings highlight the challenges surrounding the development of high-involvement innovation management routines (Bessant in High involvement innovation, 2003).

To Control or Be Controlled: Predicting Types of Offending in a Corporate Environment Using Control-Balance Theory

This study seeks to determine the extent to which Tittle’s control balance (CB) theory (CBT: 1995) accurately predicts different types of deviance within a corporate setting (in this case, a financial services corporation). CB theory contends that deviance is the result of a control imbalance between the amount of control a person exerts and the amount to which they are subject. Control deficits result in repressive deviance (including most types of predatory crime). Control surpluses result in autonomous deviance (including many types of white collar offending). We exploit a unique dataset consisting of the internal investigations of fraud conducted by a large United States-based financial services company to explore these concepts in the corporate sales environment. Consistent with the theory, we find that a control surplus predicts certain autonomous deviance while a control deficit explained some repressive forms of criminality. Results also indicate that a control imbalance is incremental in nature and not simply a balanced/non-balanced condition. Further discussion revolves around implications, limitations, and future research.

Increasing Workplace Diversity: Evidence From a Recruiting Experiment at a Fortune 500 Company

The persistent lack of workplace diversity in management and leadership may lead to organizational vulnerabilities. White males occupy most high-profile positions in the largest U.S. corporations whereas African Americans, Hispanics, and women are clearly underrepresented in leadership roles. While many firms and other organizations have set ambitious goals to increase demographic diversity, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on effective ways to reach them. We use a natural field experiment to test several hypotheses on effective means to attract minority candidates for top professional careers. By randomly varying the content in recruiting materials of a major financial services corporation with over 10,000 employees, we test different types of signals regarding the extent and manner in which the employer values diversity among its workers. We find that signaling explicit interest in employee diversity can reverse the ethnicity gap in rates of interest and applications, and that it has a strong positive effect on interest in openings among racial minority candidates, the likelihood that they apply, and the probability that they are selected. These results uncover an effective method for disrupting monocultures in management through a minor intervention that influences sorting among job-seekers into high-profile careers.

The Association of Employee Engagement at Work With Health Risks and Presenteeism.

Employee engagement is a key factor in work performance and employee retention. The current study seeks to examine the relationship between employee engagement and health risks and productivity. In 2012, employees of a global financial services corporation participated in a health risk appraisal (HRA) which measured employee engagement, health risks, and on-the-job productivity loss (presenteeism). Three engagement categories were created. The highest engaged employees had significantly fewer health risk factors (69.7% overall low-risk status; 1.91 average health risks) and significantly less presenteeism (7.7%) than the mid engagement (67.9% low-risk, 1.98 risks, 9.2% presenteeism) and worst engagement (55.0% low-risk, 2.53 risks, 14.0% presenteeism) groups. Work engagement appears to be good for both the organization and the individual. Organizations may wish to make use of strategies which increase employee engagement.

Association Between Employee Dental Claims, Health Risks, Workplace Productivity, and Preventive Services Compliance.

This study examined differences in health risks and workplace outcomes among employees who utilized preventive dental services compared with other employees. A retrospective observational study of employees of a large financial services corporation, with data from health risk appraisal questionnaires, medical claims, pharmacy claims, and dental claims. Employees with no dental claims were significantly more likely to have a variety of health risk factors (such as obesity and tobacco use), health conditions (such as diabetes), absenteeism, and lost on-the-job productivity, and were significantly less likely to be compliant with clinical preventive services compared with those with preventive dental claims. Employees with preventive dental claims had fewer health risks and medical conditions and better health and productivity measures. Study employees underutilized free dental care; employers should incorporate preventive dental care awareness into their worksite wellness programs.

The Association Between Changes in Employee Sleep and Changes in Workplace Health and Economic Outcomes.

Sleep disturbance is negatively associated with workplace productivity. This study sought to identify whether or not changes in sleep from 2012 to 2013 were associated with changes in health risks, medical conditions, or workplace economic outcomes. Employees of a Fortune 100 financial services corporation were categorized based on changes in self-reported hours of sleep from 2012 to 2013 and compared based on their health risk factors, medical conditions, health care costs, and productivity measures. Consistently poor sleepers had more health risks and medical conditions compared to consistently optimal sleepers. Sleep improvers had a significant reduction in lost on-the-job productivity while consistently poor sleepers and downgraders had significantly more lost productivity compared to optimal sleepers. Employers may wish to incorporate sleep education initiatives as part of their overall health and wellness strategy.

Association Between Employee Sleep With Workplace Health and Economic Outcomes.

Poor sleep can impact occupational functioning. The current study examines health risks, medical conditions, and workplace economic outcomes associated with self-reported hours of sleep among employees. Employees of a global financial services corporation were categorized on the basis of their self-reported average hours of sleep. Differences in health care costs, productivity measures, health risks, and medical conditions were analyzed by hours of sleep while controlling for confounding variables. A strong U-shaped relationship between health care costs, short-term disability, absenteeism, and presenteeism (on-the-job work loss) and the hours of sleep was found among employees. The nadir of the "U" occurs for 7 or 8 hours of sleep per night. Worksite wellness programs often address health risks and medical conditions and may benefit from incorporating sleep education.

Mitigating information disclosure from point-of-sale devices in South Africa

The advantages of flexibility and convenience offered by point-of-sale (POS) terminals or online banking sites have urged more and more South African consumers to opt for cashless payments. Although financial services corporations have very strict regulations relating to cashless purchases, and go to great lengths to reduce credit card fraud, legitimate POS transaction receipts may offer an easy method for fraudulent online transactions. The flexibility and convenience of cashless payments methods have made them very popular. But in spite of strict regulation, legitimate point-of-sale (POS) transaction receipts may offer an easy method for fraudulent online transactions. Sensitive credit card information is disclosed on certain POS transaction receipts that can be used by criminals to successfully complete fraudulent online shopping transactions. Dr Suné von Solms of Johannesburg University examines the impact of these findings and proposes recommendations to protect against possible information disclosure in POS devices.

Job resources and employee engagement: a cross-national study

Purpose– In light of increasing globalization of workforces, the purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effect of country on the relationship between job resources and employee engagement.Design/methodology/approach– Questionnaire responses from 19,260 employees of a large multinational financial services corporation in Mexico, the Netherlands, and the USA are analyzed using regression analyses and a study of effect sizes.Findings– The results show that certain job resources (financial rewards, team climate, participation in decision making) positively influence engagement in all three countries. However, the study also shows distinctions between the strength of relationships between these job resources and engagement per country which are explained through cross-cultural theorizing.Research limitations/implications– National-level variations in relationships between job resources and employee engagement are evidenced, and these can be explained to a considerable extent by applying a cross-cultural theoretical lens.Practical implications– The study highlights the importance for firms to be aware of and learn from the equivalence of constructs and their relationships across countries: although similar relationships were observed across the three countries studied here, the differences may be sufficient to require alternate approaches to appropriate job resources to engender engagement.Originality/value– Although there has been considerable empirical investigation into the relationship between job resources and engagement, little has focussed on different national settings simultaneously.

A Worksite Occupational Health Clinic-Based Diabetes Mellitus Management Program.

This study is an analysis of a workplace diabetes management program offered to employees of a Fortune 100 financial services corporation located in the United States. The 12-month worksite-based educational program was for employees who were at risk for diabetes, had prediabetes, or were diagnosed with diabetes. This employed population, with health benefits, generally had acceptable control of their diabetes at the start of the program. They statistically improved most self-efficacy measures, but improvement in biometric tests at 6 and 12 months were not significantly different from baseline. Mean hemoglobin A1c at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months was 7.2%, 7.2%, and 7.3%, respectively. At 12 months, about 40% of preprogram survey participants completed all screenings and the post-program questionnaire. Disease management programs at the workplace can be an important component in helping employees enhance their knowledge of diabetes and maintain and improve their health.

EMV-based Mobile Payment Protocol for Offline Transaction - With the Ability of Mutual Authentication

The standards for Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) have been widely adopted by current major financial services corporations but there are certain security threats: (1) authentication is one-way only, i.e. from a reader to a card. (2) EMV-compatible contactless smartcards do not encrypt sensitive data in the mobile transactions, which allows attackers to steal the users' personal information. (3) During offline transactions, the merchants cannot verify whether a credit card has been revoked. In 2013, Yang proposed a protocol to enhance the security of EMV standards. Yang's method can perform mutual authentication between a point-of-sale (POS) and a credit card, but the users can exceed the credits after multiple offline transactions. To improve Yang's method, we propose a new offline transaction mechanism that is compatible with the EMV standards. In our scheme, a user is required to apply for a limited and divisible credits from a bank, and stores the credits into his NFC phone's security elements (SE). During an offline transaction, the user has to send his certificate and the specific amount of credits to the merchant. The merchant verifies user's certificate, collects the credits, and redeems the payments from the bank. Our protocol is suitable for the offline environment that accommodates multiple merchants; it prevents exceeding the limitation in multiple offline transactions; and it enhances the security of EMV standards.

Evaluation of a Comprehensive Employee Wellness Program at an Organization With a Consumer-Directed Health Plan

Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) are popular among employers in the United States. This study examined an employee wellness program and its association with employee health in an organization that recently initiated a CDHP. This retrospective observational analysis compared the health risks, employer-paid health care costs, and short-term disability absences of employees of a large financial services corporation from 2009 to 2010. The two-time health risk appraisal participants had a significant improvement in the percentage of employees in the overall low-risk category. The average annual employer-paid medical and pharmacy costs did not significantly change. For employees who improved their health risk category, there was a commensurate change in costs and absences. In a difficult economic climate, this organization began a health promotion program for employees as well as a new CDHP benefit structure. No short-term reduction in health care usage or overall health status was observed.

Reduction in Health Risks and Disparities With Participation in an Employer-Sponsored Health Promotion Program

There is an increasing awareness among employers and health care providers that health care needs to be tailored to address the diversity of the workforce. Population-based data have shown significant differences in health behaviors and health risks among different racial/ethnic groups in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine health risks and changes in health risks over time in an employed population at a financial services corporation. This large financial services corporation is naturally concerned about any disparities in health among employees. The study population consists of employees who participated in the organization's medical plan and also the annual health risk appraisal questionnaire in both 2009 and 2010. Significant demographic differences exist among the four ethnic groups studied: whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. At baseline, African American employees had a significantly higher average number of health risks measured by the health risk appraisal, but they also experienced the greatest improvement in health risks by time 2. There were differences in the health risk profiles of the ethnic groups, with certain risk factors being more prevalent among some ethnicities than among others. The health care costs were not significantly different among the groups studied here. It is likely that other large employers may also find health risk differences among employees belonging to various ethnicities. Future research in this field should seek to understand the reasons behind differences in health among ethnic groups and how best to address them so that all employees can achieve a high level of health and wellness.

Erratum

In the March/April 2012 issue, the sample size reported in the abstract should equal 49,723 in the article: Serxner S, Alberti A, Weinberger S, Medical Cost Savings for Participants and Noparticipants in Health Risk Assessments, Lifestyle Management, Disease Managenment, Depression Management, and in a Large Financial Services Corporation. 2012;26:245–252.

Do job applicant credit histories predict performance appraisal ratings or termination decisions?

In this study the authors investigated the criterion validity of job applicant credit report history in predicting subsequent performance appraisal ratings and termination decisions for 178 employees at a large financial services corporation. Predictors extracted from applicant credit reports, such as number of times late with payments, had no relationship with either performance appraisal ratings or termination decisions. The authors therefore recommend caution in using credit report data for making selection decisions.

Medical Cost Savings for Participants and Nonparticipants in Health Risk Assessments, Lifestyle Management, Disease Management, Depression Management, and Nurseline in a Large Financial Services Corporation

To compare changes in medical costs between participants and nonparticipants in five different health and productivity management (HPM) programs. Quasi-experimental pre/post intervention study. A large financial services corporation. A cohort population of employees enrolled in medical plans (n = 49,723) [corrected]. A comprehensive HPM program, which addressed health risks, acute and chronic conditions, and psychosocial disorders from 2005 to 2007. Incentives were used to encourage health risk assessment participation in years 2 and 3. Program participation and medical claims data were collected for members at the end of each program year to assess the change in total costs from the baseline period. Analysis . Multivariate analyses for participation categories were conducted comparing baseline versus program year cost differences, controlling for demographics. All participation categories yielded a lower cost increase compared to nonparticipation and a positive return on investment (ROI) for years 2 and 3, resulting in a 2.45∶1 ROI for the combined program years. Medical cost savings exceeded program costs in a wide variety of health and productivity management programs by the second year.

The Association Between Achieving Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-C) Goal and Statin Treatment in an Employee Population

Statin medications are recommended for patients who have not achieved low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goals through lifestyle modifications. The objective of this retrospective observational study was to examine statin medication usage patterns and the relationship with LDL-C goal levels (according to Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines) among a cohort of employees of a major financial services corporation. From 1995 to 2004, a total of 1607 executives participated in a periodic health examination program. An index date was assigned for each study participant (date of their exam) and statin medication usage was determined from the pharmacy claims database for 365 days before the index date. Patients were identified as adherent to statins if the medication possession ratio was > or =80%. In all, 150 (9.3%) executives filled at least 1 statin prescription in the 365 days prior to their exam. A total of 102 statin users (68%) were adherent to statin medication. Among all executives who received statin treatment, 70% (odds ratio [OR] = 2.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.82, 2.90) achieved near-optimal (<130 mg/dL) and 30% (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.15, 2.76) achieved optimal (<100 mg/dL) LDL-C goals, which is significantly higher than the rates among statin nonusers (55% and 21%). Adherent statin users were more likely to achieve recommended near-optimal LDL-C goals compared to statin nonusers (overall P = 0.002; adherent: OR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.662, 4.550), while nonadherent statin users were more likely to achieve the optimal goal compared to statin nonusers (OR = 2.223; CI = 1.145, 4.313). Statin usage was associated with improvements in LDL-C goal attainment among executives who participated in a periodic health examination. Appropriate statin medication adherence should be encouraged in working populations in order to achieve LDL-C goals.

Is it Possible to Re-Privatize the U.S. Financial System?

Since the 1930s, when the U.S. Congress interposed government regulation of banks for market discipline, the role of the state in the American financial system has steadily grown. While politicians and executives from the financial services industry characterize the relationship as a “partnership,” the degree of control exercised by state and federal government over banks and other financial intermediaries has grown enormously over the years - even as the influence exercised over Washington by the largest banks has increased to the same degree. The growth of government involvement in finance, coupled with the growing federal debt and the rising political sway of the large, “too big to fail” banks that act as dealers in U.S. government debt, raise troubling questions about the future of American democracy. This paper briefly reviews the growth in the role of the government in regulating and supporting the operations of banks and other financial intermediaries since the Great Depression and before. The paper concludes by asking whether this socialization of the risks taken by financial institutions and risk in general, and the growing political power of some of the largest financial services corporations in the world, can be reversed or even should be if consolidation and ever larger banks are the norm. About the Author: Christopher Whalen is cofounder of Institutional Risk Analytics (IRA), the Los Angeles based provider of risk management tools and consulting services for auditors, regulators and financial professionals. Whalen leads IRA’s risk advisory practice and consults for global companies on a variety of financial and regulatory issues. He volunteers as a regional director of Professional Risk Managers International Association and is a board adviser to I-OnAsia, a global business security and risk consultancy based in Hong Kong. Whalen currently edits The Institutional Risk Analyst, a weekly news report and commentary on significant developments in and around the global financial markets. He has testified before Congress and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on a variety of issues and contributes articles and commentaries to publications such as The International Economy, American Banker and The Big Picture.