Western Banks Research Articles

Chinese currency exceptionalism: The curious internationalisation of the renminbi

AbstractThe People's Republic of China (PRC) lacks the macroeconomic conditions to internationalise its currency, the renminbi (RMB). Despite tight controls on capital markets in China, the international use of the RMB has increased significantly with the RMB becoming the fifth most used currency in global trade and financial markets. We argue that the internationalisation of the RMB has followed an unusual process, differing from the more typical features depicted in the literature on currency internationalisation. The RMB has internationalised despite the reluctance of the Chinese government to liberalise the country's current and capital accounts and its financial market. We argue that the investment role of money—overlooked or downplayed in this literature—is the main driver of RMB internationalisation. The Chinese government has created specific investment channels for non‐Chinese investors that allow a controlled flow of capital to enter China's securities markets. The major players promoting the international use of the RMB are Western banks, the investment fund industry and financial services firms that have included Chinese securities in their indices. In the absence of structural conditions to expand the RMB's international use, we suggest that agents matter the most in this phase of limited RMB internationalisation.

Risk and reward: unraveling the link between credit risk, governance and financial performance in banking industry

Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating role of corporate governance (CG) on the relationship between credit risk (CRs) and financial performance (FP) of banks listed in the Palestine Securities’ Exchange (PEX) and Amman Securities’ Exchange (ASE). Design/methodology/approach This study used a hypothesis-testing research design to collect data from the annual reports of 21 banks listed on (PEX) and (ASE). Secondary data, annual reports and disclosures were used between from 2009 to 2019. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used, along with correlation analysis to evaluate linear relationships between variables. Data was collected based on panel data, the VIF was used to test multicollinearity and binary logistic regression was used to develop the research model. Findings The regression results showed the association between CR and firm performance depends on the measurement of each factor applied. The results showed mixed results between loans to total assets (LTA) and nonperforming loans to total loans (NPLs) with FP. LTA has a significant and positive effect on TOBINSQ and return on equity (ROE), but an insignificant and positive effect on return on assets (ROA). On the other hand, NPLs have a significant and negative effect on ROA, whereas NPLs have a weak and positive effect on TOBINSQ. However, there is an insignificant and positive effect of NPLs on ROE. Moreover, the results demonstrated that CG moderated the relationship between CRs and FP of banks. The practical contribution of this paper, for bank policymakers and authorities, the study’s implications are noteworthy. Understanding the varied impacts of different CR measures on FP can help regulators and policymakers design more tailored and effective risk management frameworks for banks. Research limitations/implications This study had limitations that future research might be able to address. First, the small size of the sample used in the study included 21 banks listed on the PEX and ASE. Likewise, the ASE and PEX are considered developing stock exchanges, so the results of this study may differ from those of other stock exchanges. Second, only CRs were considered in this study when examining the association between the profitability of Palestinian banks and ASE. Other studies can be undertaken on other nonfinancial risks, such as operational risk, to measure the differences between them and examine their effects on the profitability of Palestinian and Jordanian banks. Other studies might be performed to compare CRs and its impact on profitability in Palestinian and Jordanian banks with those in other Western and Eastern banks. Furthermore, in addition to TOBINSQ, ROA and ROE, researchers can use other financial indicators to measure profitability. This will contribute to substantiating the present study’s findings. Originality/value Although several studies have examined the relationship between CRs and FP in developed and developing countries, the results have been mixed. However, this study is one of the few studies that examined the moderating role of CG in association with CRs and FP, especially on Palestinian and Jordanian contexts. Finally, the findings offer policymakers and practitioners of Palestinian and Jordanian contexts.

Corporate governance and risk management: An evaluation of board responsibilities in western and Islamic banks

This research aims to explore the role of the board in cor-porate governance (CG) and risk management within the context of Islamic banking. Given the global reach of fi-nancial institutions, it is important to compare and evalu-ate the unique position of Shari’ah committees or Shari’ah Supervisory Board (SSB) in addressing the unique risks of Islamic banks. Using a comparative analysis, this study evaluated risk management guidelines in the CG codes of the United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. It found that board were ultimately responsible for risk management, regardless of the governance structure, and Shari’ah-related risks fell under the board’s purview. An innovative blend of Western CG frameworks and Islamic principles enhanced governance robustness through the strategic collaboration between board and SSBs.

Impact of Structural and Non-Structural Measures on the Risk of Flash Floods in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Case Study of the Gash River, Kassala, Eastern Sudan

Sediment precipitation in riverbeds influences the effectiveness of structural and non-structural measures for flash flood mitigation and increases the potential for flooding. This study aimed to disclose the effectiveness of the implemented measures for flood risk mitigation in Kassala town, eastern Sudan. We employed remote sensing (RS) and GIS techniques to determine the change in the Gash River riverbed, the morphology, and the leveling of both the eastern and western sides of the river. Flood model simulation and a 3D path profile were generated using the digital elevation model (DEM) with a data resolution of 12.5 m from the ALOS BILSAR satellite. The main purpose of this study is to extract the layer of elevation of the riverbed on both the western and eastern banks and to determine the variations and their relationship to flood occurrence and mitigation. The construction of dikes and spurs near Kassala town has led to sediment precipitation, causing the riverbed to rise. The results show that it is now 1.5 m above the eastern Kassala town level, with a steep slope of 2 m/km, and the cross-section area at Kassala bridge has shrunk, which indicates that the bridge body will partially impede the river’s high discharge and increase the potential for flood risk in the study area. The eastern part of Kassala town has a higher likelihood of flooding than the western side. This study suggests redesigning structural measures like widening the Gash River, extending Kassala bridge for normal water flow, strengthening early warning systems, and implementing soil conservation activities for normal water flow.

О ВОЗМОЖНЫХ ИСТОКАХ ОБРАЗА ДРАКОНА В ИКОНОГРАФИИ МЕДНОГО ЗМИЯ ЭПОХИ ВЫСОКОГО СРЕДНЕВЕКОВЬЯ

The article considers the issue of possible Jewish influence on the formation of the image of the Copper Serpent in the artistic culture of Western Europe in the 11th – 12th centuries. For many centuries, textual mention and pictorial image of the scene of the exaltation of the Copper Serpent was tacitly taboo due to the difficulty of explaining the creation of the statue by Moses after receiving a ban from the Lord on the creation of idols. Active reference to the subject became possible only during the Crusades in the context of Christian typological exegesis, where the Copper Serpent is understood as a prototype of the Crucifixion. The development of the iconography of Num. 21:6–9 on the western and eastern banks of the Rhine occurred independently of each other, resulting in the formation of two distinct pictorial types. Herewith, on the west bank, especially in the territories of northern France and modern Belgium, the image of a winged dragon sitting on a column became widespread. According to the author, such a type attempts to ontologize the complicated image of the divine messenger, through whom the people of Israel were granted salvation from death. In that iconography the serpent itself is understood as Christ, which makes it impossible to depict him in the form of an ordinary snake, which in most cases is a symbol of sin and death. Most probably, the authors of the first iconographic programs of the type turn to the Jewish original source in search of possible ways of depiction, supported by Middle Eastern and directly Jewish art. Following such hypothesis, the dragon in the image of the Copper Serpent is Saraf or Seraphim, i.e. the embodiment of the angelic rank visible to humans.

Time-Lag Response of Landslide to Reservoir Water Level Fluctuations during the Storage Period: A Case Study of Baihetan Reservoir

Fluctuations in reservoir water levels exert a strong triggering effect on landslides along reservoir banks, constituting a long-term concern in the safe operation of hydroelectric projects and in the prevention and management of geological disasters. While existing research has investigated the impact of periodic water level changes on the deformation of reservoir bank landslides, observation and detection of such deformation are challenging, with noticeable gaps in understanding how these deformations respond to water level changes during the water impoundment period. To address this, our study targets the Baihetan Reservoir, leveraging 567 ascending and descending LiCSAR data and LiCSBAS (the small-baseline subset within LiCSAR) technology to construct a time series of ground deformations in the study area from 2019 to 2023. The TLCC (Time Lag Cross Correlation) model was employed to examine the time-lag response pattern of reservoir bank landslide deformations to reservoir water level changes during the impoundment period. Our findings indicate a clear time-lag response in reservoir bank landslide deformations to water level changes during the impoundment process. The rise in water levels emerged as a primary factor influencing the instability of reservoir bank landslides. During the half-year impoundment period of the Baihetan Reservoir, a time lag of 5–7 days was observed between landslide deformations and increases in water levels, with landslides on the eastern and western banks exhibiting differing time-lag response patterns. Our study illuminates the time-lag effect between water level changes during reservoir impoundment and reservoir bank landslide deformation monitoring. By proposing a quantitative analysis methodology utilizing LiCSBAS technology and the TLCC model, our findings can inform decision-making in the field of disaster prevention and reduction in reservoir engineering.

China's rise and the reshaping of sovereign debt relief

Abstract China has become the world's largest bilateral creditor to low- and middle-income countries, and yet its participation in collective debt-relief frameworks led by western multilateral institutions—the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Paris Club—has not met those institutions' expectations. Prevailing discussion perceives China's ‘reserved’ participation as free-riding on or contesting the international sovereign debt regime. This article advances ongoing discussion by drawing a historical parallel between China's current debt-relief approach and that of the United States and the multilateral institutions during and after the debt crisis of the 1980s. The article finds that towards the end of the 1980s, the US transitioned from practicing a new money approach—continued financing for existing projects—to a haircut approach—increasingly writing off debts. Around the same time, multilateral institutions started to become more acceptive of debt forgiveness. Yet China's policy banks, the main financiers of its overseas projects, have been primarily practising a commercially oriented, new money approach. China's rise has therefore revitalized an approach that western private banks once commonly practised and weakened the current international sovereign debt regime that took shape in the post-1980s decades.

Глобальная роль доллара и тенденции дедолларизации мировой экономики в новых условиях

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the role of the dollar in the world economy and its formation as a world reserve currency. Based on the methodology of the school of world-system analysis (J. Arrighi, S. Amin, I. Wallerstein, R.S. Dzarazov), the author reveals the mechanism for using the dollar as one of the instruments of unequal exchange between the center and the periphery of the economy within the American systemic capital accumulation cycle. Based on a comprehensive empirical analysis, an assessment is made of the trends in the dedollarization of the world economy in the 21st century. It was found that despite the devastating consequences of the global crisis of 2007–2009. caused by the hypertrophied development of the financial sector of the US economy during the global crisis, the dollar retained a key role in the international reserves of states, in trade and exchange operations in the world economy. In particular, the Russian economy, despite the statements of the authorities about moving towards abandoning the dollar, nevertheless remained highly dependent on it, only partially replacing US dollars with the euro. Real de-dollarization 2022-2023 in Russia became a necessary measure for business, and was associated with the partial blocking of Russian correspondent accounts in Western banks.

Traditional Economy in Northern Nigeria: Pre-1968 Economic Activities of the Gungawa of Yauri and Borgu Emirates

This paper examines what some scholars of Economic History such as A.G. Hopkins described as ‘Domestic Economy’ or what others like T.B. Ingawa and G.O. Ogunremi referred to as ‘Pre-Colonial Economy’ of African people. The Economic History of a people is an account of how the people in a particular place or a community earned their living in the past. The primary focus of this paper is an examination of economic activities of the Gungawa before their forceful resettlement from their traditional homeland on the numerous islands and banks of River Niger in Yauri and Borgu Emirates to the eastern and western banks of the river as a result of the construction of Kainji Dam. Although discussions in the paper centre on the pre-colonial period, the scope of the paper is extended to almost two decades after colonial period because the resettlement in 1968 produced everlasting consequences on the pre-1968 economic activities of the Gungawa.

Глобальная роль доллара и тенденции дедолларизации мировой экономики в новых условиях

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the role of the dollar in the world economy and its formation as a world reserve currency. Based on the methodology of the school of world-system analysis (J. Arrighi, S. Amin, I. Wallerstein, R.S. Dzarazov), the author reveals the mechanism for using the dollar as one of the instruments of unequal exchange between the center and the periphery of the economy within the American systemic capital accumulation cycle. Based on a comprehensive empirical analysis, an assessment is made of the trends in the de-dollarization of the world economy in the 21st century. It was found that despite the devastating consequences of the global crisis of 2007–2009. caused by the hypertrophied development of the financial sector of the US economy during the global crisis, the dollar retained a key role in the international reserves of states, in trade and exchange operations in the world economy. In particular, the Russian economy, despite the statements of the authorities about moving towards abandoning the dollar, nevertheless remained highly dependent on it, only partially replacing US dollars with the euro. Real de-dollarization 2022-2023 in Russia became a necessary measure for business, and was associated with the partial blocking of Russian correspondent accounts in Western banks.

Problems and trends in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine

The article deals with entrepreneurship as one of the main spheres of the national economy and an important component of its competitiveness. The role of domestic entrepreneurship in the structural reorganization of the economy is determined. It is determined in the irreversibility of Ukraine’s entry into the European economic system. The article analyzes the opinions of financial experts on the unpreparedness of Western banks and companies to lend to Ukrainian businesses in the context of the ongoing economic crisis and military operations. The article considers and suggests that small and medium-sized business owners use modern sources of financing for their business projects, such as franchising and crowdfunding. The author defines the essence and real content of domestic entrepreneurship and its compliance with modern civilization standards. Entrepreneurship is considered in terms of its participation in the formation of political and economic relations in the country, in the search for effective legal mechanisms to ensure the comprehensive development of small and medium-sized businesses. The author establishes the connection between entrepreneurship and the increase in the number of owners of resources and means of production. This gave impetus to the corresponding formation of the middle class in society, which is the key to political and economic stability in any democratic country. Social and societal processes and their impact on the formation of small and medium-sized businesses are outlined. The influence of business on these processes is considered from the point of view of business as a social phenomenon. Amendments and additions to some laws regulating the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises are reviewed. The main directions of development of entrepreneurship in Ukraine at the present stage are determined. It is determined that the development of domestic small and medium-sized businesses is in line with global trends in the formation of a flexible market economy and a combination of both different forms of ownership and different business models.

Slope Stability Analysis of Vertical Unsupported Slopes near West Approaches of Al-Alam Bridge

There are vertical slopes on the western banks of Tigris near Al-Alam Bridge in Tikrit, Iraq. These slopes are not supported and are located near an important road at Tikrit University. This study aims to find a safety factor (FOS) of the slope to prevent failure, besides its effect on human and financial losses. The study consists of two parts: the first part studied the layers of the slope and found the soil resistance coefficients. The second part analyzed the stability of the natural slope itself under the impact of the water level change of the Tigris River and the external loading. The analysis was done by a program called (PLAXIS 3D), which depends on the finite element method. The finite element method is a numerical approach that searches for approximate solutions and solves problems by dividing the problem into several triangular elements linked to each other by points called (nodes). The results showed that the vertical slope stability at the natural state with no influences indicated was in a semi-stable state with a factor of safety equal to (1.04865). The factor of safety decreased by (0.423%) with rising the river level until it reached (1.04074) at (93 m a.s.l.[1]). As for the applied external loads condition, the factor of safety for imposed (50,150 and 250 kN/m2) decreased by (4.738%), then the soil body failed when the factor of safety was (0.9902). In the critical state, the soil body failure at this stage and the factor of safety became equal to (0.98769) with decreasing by (5.812%).

Ecological status of Lake Nasser Khors, Egypt, before operating the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Lake Nasser is an artificial reservoir that represents the national freshwater reserve of Egypt and has a number of khors (side extensions) along its eastern and western banks. These khors covered approximately 79% of the lake’s total surface area and have an important effect on water quality and fish production in the lake. This study aimed to monitor and assess the water quality, distribution, and structure of the biotic community, including phytoplankton, zooplankton, macrophytes, epiphytes, and macrobenthos in two main khors (Tushka West and Dahmeit) during postflood and preflood periods. There was urgency associated with the study, as it was the last opportunity before the storing of the water behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which had begun to fill in July 2020. Although the study confirmed that the water quality of Lake Nasser was good, it is classified as a eutrophic lake (depending on the levels of Chlorophyll-a and nutrients). This study found that pH, NO2, SiO4, NH4, PO4, and temperature were the factors with the greatest effect on the biota community, especially in Dahmeit Khor. In contrast to the phytoplankton and macrobenthos, the highest total density of zooplankton and epiphytic microalgae were detected during the postflood period. This study could be useful in monitoring possible changes in the Lake Nasser environment after the complete filling of the GERD reservoir.

Nicolae Ceauşescu and the Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977

The miners' strike of 1‐3 August 1977, in the Jiu Valley, Romania's largest coalfield, was a rare example of popular revolt against the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu, although it did not take on an explicitly political character. This article places the strike in its international and domestic, political, and especially economic, contexts. The miners' unrest was the result of deteriorating living and working conditions, as the regime, increasingly in debt to western banks and hit by the global economic downturn, accelerated industrial investment at the expense of other sectors. This mass strike, which mobilised around a third of the miners in a proletarian 'bastion', shook the regime, and even brought Ceauşescu to visit the Jiu Valley in person, and it extracted a range of concessions. However, as archives of the Securitate secret police show, masked methods of repression were used against the miners and their leaders, while concessions were quickly reneged upon. This strike against a 'workers' state' anticipated further breaks in the social pact between the regime and the Romanian people, culminating in the fall of Ceauşescu in December 1989.

Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa

Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa

All Societies Die: How to Keep Hope Alive by Samuel Cohn

This ambitious, concise book makes the critical argument that the world is exhibiting many of the signs of terminal illness that have preceded the collapse of nation-states, empires, and civilizations. Along the way, Cohn examines an impressive and eclectic range of heterogenous social phenomena—state collapse in Somalia, the rise of drug cartels in Colombia, and the decline of corporate taxation in the United States—and historical episodes (in Roman Palestine, Byzantium, and the French Revolution). The book will inevitably draw comparisons with other recent classics about the decay of “democracy” or the decline of great powers.1The book’s structure is as unconventional as it is engaging. Cohn prefers chapter sizes of three to five pages; each of his fifty-seven short chapters offers a historical anecdote, analytical observation/assertion, or related research finding. In the final third of the book, the previous elements are combined into a twelve-point circular diagram that reveals a reinforcing cycle of institutional and environmental degradation, fiscal erosion, corruption, delegitimization, violence, and collapse. The four primary triggers that initiate the cycle are environmental degradation, landlessness, long-wave economic decline, and a downturn in female status. Curiously, even though the individual components draw from various historical examples, Cohn does not allow readers to use his historical material to assess how far along we are on our path to eventual “societal death.” An appendix that explains and defends the book’s freewheeling comparisons between different types of polities—empires, nation-states, civilizations, and world systems—might have been better placed as a preface or framing chapter.Any grand, sweeping argument inevitably makes a host of stylistic assumptions and omissions. But a few of Cohn’s asides are gratuitous and/or mistaken. For example, Cohn terms Azerbaijan as a “peaceful Muslim country,” despite its renewal of conflict with Armenia in 2021 (15). Nor is Morocco at peace, given its decades-long protracted conflict with the Polisario Front over Western Sahara. Cohn’s short overview of the European colonial interaction with the Global South misses the opportunity to outline recent cross-disciplinary research about different institutional legacies and webs of economic entanglement. Perhaps most frustrating is that despite some of Cohn’s majestical synthesis, the main diagram treats the component processes and phenomena as purely internal or external to the political units, rather than mapping their evolving transnational architectures. For example, Cohn treats bribery as a domestic issue, even privileging civil-service reform as the preferred institutional cure, but strangely for a globally oriented book, he omits any discussion of how ruling kleptocrats have looted their countries in Africa, Latin America, Eurasia, and Asia with the assistance of Western lawyers, accountants, shell-company providers, and banks. Kleptocracy has degraded institutional capacity and accountability in countries like Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Angola, Russia, and Equatorial Guinea more than have debt-cycles and the repatriation of profits by multinational companies.Many of the book’s recommendations that are otherwise laudable tend to focus excessively on messaging and demonstrating commitment as opposed to overcoming entrenched interests and institutional barriers. Meeting the challenge of our impending demise by “changing the culture” and proselytizing a renewed commitment to “societal survival” seems merely to underline the urgent micro- and macro-problems that Cohn identifies.

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Financial Performance of Banking Sector Operating in GCC Countries

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the industries around the world, since the banking sector is one of the most important contributors to an economy, it has been selected for this research. The literature has limited studies associated with the performance of banks in the GCC countries during the pandemic using secondary quantitative data. The Gulf region which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates has been specified in the research to identify how the pandemic has affected the banking sector. The research was conducted on secondary quantitative data of 20 banks which has been analyzed using descriptive statistics and graphical analysis to look at the changes in profitability of the banks. The results indicate that the overall performance of banks has been affected as evidenced by lower ratios in terms of profitability, credibility, and financial leverage. Although, the ratios became steadily decreased just after the pandemic started. The topic has been covered for western countries or Islamic banks only using different methodologies, however, for GCC countries and secondary quantitative data of both Islamic and conventional banks, the studies are limited.

Beating capitalists at their own game? Foreign traders and western negotiation studies in late-socialist Hungary

ABSTRACT While the history of regime changes and the eventual embrace of pro-market reforms in Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s is well-known, we know little about the socialist bureaucrats who implemented and often modified abstract party declarations on the relationship of socialist states to the West or to market reforms. Equally underexplored are the cultural stereotypes that guided East-West negotiations and the training of Eastern European technocrats who became negotiators with Western governments and corporations. Through the examination of the personal archives of socialist Hungary’s key “negotiation expert” and leading foreign trade advisor, János Nyerges, this article documents the attempt of Hungarian policy elites to beat Western corporations, banks, and governments at their own game – capitalism – by importing and adopting Western business negotiation practices, while leaving the communist party’s monopoly on power intact.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ИСЛАМСКОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ И ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ ИСЛАМСКОГО БАНКИНГА

The article discusses the features of the functioning of the Islamic economy, which has specific tools for functioning on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. After centuries, these mechanisms have been effectively used by the banking sector, meeting the needs of the development of the world economy. An attempt is made to compare modern banking terminology with traditional concepts of Islamic banking. Historical examples of the use of Islamic instruments of financial and economic activity are given, as well as objective facts and figures that indicate the huge volumes of assets regulated by elements of Islamic banking in Islamic and Western countries. The special role of the so-called Islamic windows in numerous Western banks is noted.

Facies Analysis and Paleoenvironmental Assessment of the Upper Campanian Hartha Formation in Y and J Fields Northwestern Zagros Basin, Iraq

The Upper Campanian Hartha Formation represents potential Cretaceous hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir rocks across the Y and J oilfields northwestern Zagros Basin, northern Iraq. The study objective is depositional environment which affects reservoir properties by tool, lithofacies, core, thin section, and logs, using petrel (V.2016) and strat software, facies distribution, grains, and diagenetic processes control and enhance reservoir properties which can plan platform production and minimize risks in choosing production wells location at two fields scale The current study is concerned with lithofacies and microfacies of the Hartha Formation within two fields in northern Iraq. Several subsurface well-log data, core, and cutting samples have been used in order to prepare thin sections that were subjected to sedimentological (lithofacies, and grain-size) examination. The petrography investigation revealed five rock-units including Hr. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the thickness of 89 m in the Y-A field and increasing to up to 140 m in the J-B field might be due to erosion or tectonic uplift of the topography in Y subbasin. Which is locally sub-basin within study fields western banks of Tigris river as gentle slope ramp depositional condition with Spectrum microfacies from lime-mudstone to packstone texture with rudest and benthic debris enhances by diagenesis, dolomitization, dissolution moldic porosity, fracture; dolostone is more effective in the upper section of the formation in A than B Wells. Many factors, such as cementation, compaction, and pore-filling autogenic minerals, decrease reservoir quality, and their effects are similar in wells A and B.