Are share price reactions to rights offerings sensitive to different economic conditions?
ABSTRACT This study examines short-term stock price reactions to announcements of equity rights offerings in Singapore between 1983 and 2003 and investigates whether economic factors lead to different price reactions. The results show that the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) associated with rights issues differ significantly across economic...

Central banks and payment instruments: a serious case of schizophrenia.
Abstract: This article analyses the competition between cash and payment cards against the backdrop of the dual role of central banks--as issuers of cash and as institutions with a mandate to foster the efficiency of payment systems in general. It is argued that this dual role results in a...

Financing entrepreneurs: better Canadian policy for venture capital.
The Study in Brief Innovation and growth depend in large part on entrepreneurship, which in turn may require financing in the form of venture capital investment. In Canada, Labour-Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations (LSVCCs) have become the dominant source of venture capital. There is reason for...

Islamic banking goes global: it began as a theological dream, but Islamic banking has become a practical reality across the Middle East. The question now is, how far will Sharia boards and western regulators let it spread?
FROM DISCREET OFFICES IN THE City of London to a tree-lined street in the small American town of Ann Arbor, Islamic banking and financial institutions are successfully winning regulatory approvals to operate alongside conventional western-style institutions. The success of these institutions rests in part with the fact...

Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence.
Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence. Tim Parks. Profile Books. [pounds sterling]15.99. xiii + 273 pages. ISBN 1-86197-791-3. In this history of the rise and fall of the Medicis' financial empire the novelist turned historian takes a look at the rise of modern banking and finance...

Evaluating cost performance of banks in the Asia pacific.
This paper aims to evaluate the cost efficiency of banks in the Asia-Pacific region and test whether the operating performance of banks in poorer economies improves with the inclusion of environmental proxies. Our basic cost efficiency model finds that Australia and Singapore are the most cost efficient banking economies....

Banks in small communities in Canada: 1998-2004.
Abstract This paper examines changes in the provision of fundamental services to smaller communities in Canada. The research analyzes changes in the network of Canadian banks over the period 1998 to 2004 for the 874 places in Canada that reported populations of less than 50,000 inhabitants in...

The rise and rise of an equity culture: another buoyant year for the Saudi Arabian economy in 2005 is reflected in robust investor confidence and a booming stock market riding high on the back of the hydrocarbons boom, increasing optimism and the continued growth of industrial and infrastructural investments.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE Capital Market Law in July 2004, economic liberalisation efforts, a vastly improved foreign direct investment (FDI) regime, and the reduction of corporate taxes from 45% to 20%, as well as a string of private sector initial public offerings (IPOs), have injected momentum, which is laying...

Off to a slow start: offering federal exemptions to captives to encourage the administration of ERISA-regulated benefits has met an unexpectedly tepid response. Many companies are still interested in creating captives, especially if they can find simpler approval options.
Last year, when the U.S. Labor Department approved an expedited procedure for granting exemptions to captives looking to administer ERISA-regulated benefits such as life insurance, disability or retiree medical benefits, many observers thought this would fuel the growth for employee-benefits programs based in captives. But it hasn't...

International banks target Middle East: increasing numbers of international banks are moving into commercial and banking operations in the Middle East region, taking advantage of new liberalisation laws.
THE DECISION OF UK BASED banking giant HSBC to pursue a majority stake in Iraq's Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank confirms a trend. International banking groups have been stepping up their interests in the Middle East over the past couple of years, both by setting up local subsidiaries and...