Although financial innovations and deregulations are often argued to be one of the main causes of the current global financial crises, there are only a few cross-country empirical evidences. Using several proxy variables for different types of innovations and regulations of a total of 132 countries, this thesis analyzes the effects of various types of financial innovations and regulations on several types of financial crisis such as currency crisis and banking crisis, for countries with different income levels. The thesis shows that financial innovation in the form of securitization has a negative effect on a country’s financial stability, while stronger regulations in the form of restrictions on bank activities and entry requirements are positively associated with the financial stability. However, judicious implementation of financial regulations is required to cope with the financial crisis because some types of regulations, if implemented simultaneously, have countervailing effects and may exacerbate the financial crisis.

Although financial innovations and deregulations are often argued to be one of the main causes of the current global financial crises, there are only a few cross-country empirical evidences. Using several proxy variables for different types of innovations and regulations of a total of 132 countries, this thesis analyzes the effects of various types of financial innovations and regulations on several types of financial crisis such as currency crisis and banking crisis, for countries with different income levels. The thesis shows that financial innovation in the form of securitization has a negative effect on a country’s financial stability, while stronger regulations in the form of restrictions on bank activities and entry requirements are positively associated with the financial stability. However, judicious implementation of financial regulations is required to cope with the financial crisis because some types of regulations, if implemented simultaneously, have countervailing effects and may exacerbate the financial crisis.

The power of financial innovations to impact societies at global scales compels us to ask how innovation occurs, how it is governed and how to support the responsible initiation and emergence of such innovation in society. This thesis focuses on investigating and comparing current approaches to, and limitations of, the governance of financial innovation and perceptions of responsible financial innovation in three very different institutional settings: a large, global asset management company; a SME developing disruptive, technology - related platforms and services based on big data and associated analytics supporting customer relationship management in the banking and retail sectors; and a global insurance broker. To date there has been almost no published empirical research into the processes and governance of financial innovation in such corporate settings. The initial hypothesis that financial innovation is not governed (internally, externally) was not supported by the empirical data: rather these suggest the existence of formal and informal mechanisms for innovation governance. As suggested in the literature, financial innovation was observed to be largely incremental in nature and involve multiple stakeholders, co-ordinated internally by an ‘innovation owner’ (e.g. an individual, a group of individuals or a department). The research suggests that while there is broad statutory (regulation) and non-statutory governance of the financial sector, there is limited direct regulation of financial innovation per se. Despite this, contextual regulation (e.g. EU) and industry standards set an important governance frame within which innovation was observed to occur, complemented by a range of organizational innovation governance approaches, which ranged from completely informal, ad hoc (‘de facto’) processes to formal staging innovation management tools. It was not possible to generalize across sectors, emphasizing the need for more empirical work in other organizations in order to understand innovation management and governance across the financial sector as a whole. Responsible financial innovation is an emerging concept associated with a very small body of academic literature. The case study data show responsible financial innovation to be perceived as an ‘interpretively flexible umbrella’ term, underpinned by a value system that leads to quantifiable positive outputs (e.g. creating customer satisfaction). The research suggests that several ‘competencies’ (e.g. compliance, learning, communication, monitoring, and ownership) were perceived as relevant to responsible financial innovation by respondents. Themes emerging from the study mirrored to some extent the seven framings suggested by Armstrong et al. (2012) and Muniesa and Lenglet (2012) and the four dimensions of responsible innovation proposed by Owen et al. (2013); these however were very narrowly framed, especially with regard to second-order reflexivity (e.g. on the normative purposes and functions of finance in society). While dimensions of anticipation, reflection, deliberation and responsiveness (Owen et al., 2013) were evident to varying degrees in the cases these were narrowly configured (e.g. around ethics of data monetization, or on anticipation of operational risks), with deliberation often being internally focused, or including only a limited range of external stakeholders. These observations cause me to argue that current mechanisms for governing financial innovation are not sufficiently robust to support their responsible emergence in society. I conclude that any framework for responsible financial innovation should endeavor to broaden the scope for stakeholder engagement and make use of multi-level governance mechanisms (including committees in the innovation and governance process), while continuing to acknowledge the importance of contextual legislation in the framing of innovation trajectories. I recommend the initiation of a cross sector and independent institution for systematic financial innovations assessment, the establishment of formal cross-sector fora and communication channels to facilitate engagement with external stakeholders, and the codification of responsible financial innovation competencies into contextual legislation.

L’émergence de la micro-finance a été vue comme un remède pour un grand nombre de problèmes sociaux issus de la pauvreté en vertu de son efficacité dans l’octroi de crédits, dans l’amélioration de l’équité sociale ainsi que dans la réduction du niveau de pauvreté. Des millions de foyers en dessous du seuil de pauvreté n’ayant pas accès aux services bancaires ont ainsi pu accéder à des services financiers au travers de programmes de micro-finance. Cependant, le développement de la micro-finance ne suit pas un modèle identique pour tous les pays et les Institutions de Micro-finance (IMF) ont eu différents degrés de rentabilité. Beaucoup d’entre elles doivent encore faire face à des contraintes majeures pour fournir de manière efficace des services de micro-finance rentables. L’expansion des programmes de micro-finance reste un grand défi qui fait barrière au développement du secteur de cette dernière. Quelles pourraient être les raisons expliquant cette inefficience ?Cette thèse a pour but de contribuer à l’état des connaissances actuelles ainsi qu’aux recherches sur le développement et les caractéristiques du secteur de la micro-finance en analysant les facteurs stratégiques pouvant avoir un effet sur son développement dans le contexte du Vietnam.Pour ce faire, il sera appliqué à la fois des méthodes de recherche qualitatives et quantitatives.Nous effectuerons une analyse comparative entre l’innovation financière dans le système de micro-finance du Vietnam et deux modèles de référence internationaux : la Grameen Bank et la banque Rakyat d’Indonésie (BRI) afin de déterminer quelles contraintes limitent l’ampleur et la portée des activités de micro-finance au Vietnam ; quels types de modèles de microfinance sont adéquats : que cela soit pour des modèles commerciaux à but lucratif ou pour des projets de micro-finance sociale. Par ailleurs, des analyses empiriques seront portées par les techniques OLS et GMM afin d’examiner l’impact de l’environnement institutionnel ainsi que des facteurs macroéconomiques sur la rentabilité des IMF’s. Les résultats donnent la preuve d’une persistance de la rentabilité et de l’existence d’économies d’échelle en micro-finance. La qualité des prêts semble être un facteur déterminant concernant la rentabilité des IMF’s au Vietnam. Notre analyse confirme également le rôle important de l'État ainsi que le rôle décisif dans l'auto-innovation des institutions de microfinance. / The appearance of microfinance has been known as a remedy for many social ills rooted in poverty because of its efficacy in credit dispensation, social equality enhancement and reduction of poverty. Millions of poor and non-bankable people in developing countries have been provided access to formal financial services through microfinance programs. However, the development of microfinance is not a single model for all country and microfinance institutions (MFIs) have had various degree of sustainability. Many MFIs still face major constraints in their pursuit of effectively delivering microfinance services profitably. Expansion of microfinance programs remains a formidable challenge for the development of microfinance industry. What would be reasons for that inefficiency?This thesis seeks to contribute to the current state of knowledge and research thoroughly on the development and the characteristics of microfinance industry by investigating strategic factors affecting microfinance development in Vietnam context. It applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods.We develop comparative analysis between financial innovation of Vietnam microfinance system and two other international benchmarks namely Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the Bank Rakyat of Indonesia (BRI) to figure out what constraints limit the scale and scope of Vietnam microfinance activities; what types of microfinance models are suitable: whether for-profit commercial models or social microfinance ventures in Vietnam context. Besides, empirical work is carried out using both OLS and GMM techniques to examine the impact of institutional environment as well as macroeconomic factors on MFIs’ profitability. The results present evidence on a dynamic role of profitability and economies of scale in microfinance. Loan quality seems to be a very important determinant of MFI’s profitability in Vietnam. Our analysis also confirms the significant role of State level as well as the decisive role in self-innovation of microfinance institutions.

The thesis is aimed to propose a financial innovation called COCONUT payment system. This innovative payment system is based on a combination of the cash and electronic money, presented as an ATM-like machine for purchase and payment execution, and operated via an electronic account, which allows its users to operate as a credit cards owner. This study commences with a review of the current major payment systems in the United States, followed by an analysis of the strength and weakness of these systems, and then proposes a payment system that combines the most popular two: cash and credit card with a healthier mechanism on financial control to both avoid the recurrence of financial crisis caused by credit crush and keep the current benefits. The COCOCNUT system can be applied not onbly to the market of the USA, but BRIC, developing and under seveloped countries’ market, those regions where cash remains the major payment way. As for the feasibility and the probability of promoting and applying this new system to replace the current systems or to implement in the new markets, the proposed COCONUT payment system, takes into consideration the differences of markets and regional regulations. The COCONUT project also provides trial calculations of its value proposition from the perspective of the project realization.

This study investigates the indicators of the number of ATMs (automated teller machines) in the provinces of Turkey by examining two banks: T.C. Ziraat Bankasi and T. iS Bankasi. The study depends on annual panel data from 1990 to 2004 for seventy-three provinces of Turkey. The information about the number of ATMs of the two banks is gathered after a study in the archives of the banks. In this study it is concluded that the number of ATMs of T. iS Bankasi and T. C. Ziraat Bankasi in the previous year and the total number of branches of the banks in Turkey are the indicators of ATM adoption for both of the banks concerned. However, population has a negative sign for T. C. Ziraat Bankasi which is a state bank whereas it has a positive sign for T. iS Bankasi which is a quasi-private bank. The findings also indicate that the ATM number of T. iS Bankasi is more sensitive to the number of total bank branches.

During the last two decades there has been an explosion in the number of complex financial instruments that are traded on the financial markets. Naturally, being able to value the increasing number of traded complex financial instruments has an academic interest. Such valuation methods are, however, certainly not only of interest to academics. For agents on the financial markets, it is of crucial importance to be able to assess the value of new exotic securities. This is equally true for financial services firms that construct and promote the instruments, borrowers that sell the products for the financing of their activities and investors that buy the products. Many new financial instruments have attributes that make Contingent Claims Analysis (CCA) superior to other currently known valuation methods. CCA is a technique for determining the price of an asset whose payoffs depend upon the evolution of one or more underlying state variables. One problem that often arises when this framework is used is that it is not possible to find a closed-form solution for the price. Numerical methods must therefore be relied on. Furthermore, in many cases and especially in cases where there is more than one underlying state variable, which many complex financial instruments require for accurate valuation, numerical methods become computationally laborious. Hence, research concerning and development of efficient numerical methods that can be used in the CCA context is important. This dissertation consists of four different papers (papers A to D). Paper A provides discussion of the process of financial innovation. A lengthy appendix is attached to paper A. In this appendix, more thn 100 more or less complex financial instruments are described briefly. Papers B to D have a common theme, which is valuation of complex financial instruments with the help of CCA and numerical methods. The research task of paper B is to answer a question that has unclear status in academic literature. The question is "How do errors (or different modelling choices) in boundary conditions affect solutions when the implicit finite difference method is used?". In papers C and D, numerical methods which can be used to price financial instruments with several underlying state variables are developed and tested. The methods in paper C are finite difference methods, and the method in paper D is a lattice (or tree) approach. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

Financial innovation is a process that is not fully understood because of ~ts nebulous nature and the difficulties in determining its causes and effects. The pace of financial innovation has increased rapidly in recent years. With this increased level of new financial instruments and processes has also come the realisation that financial innovation may well influence the successful application of monetary policy. Under certain circumstances monetary policy may hampered or may be rendered ineffective by financial innovation. This dissertation examines the nature and causes of financial innovation and its implication for the successful application of monetary policy both internationally and in South Africa. / Economics / M. Com (Economics)

Financial innovation is a process that is not fully understood because of ~ts nebulous nature and the difficulties in determining its causes and effects. The pace of financial innovation has increased rapidly in recent years. With this increased level of new financial instruments and processes has also come the realisation that financial innovation may well influence the successful application of monetary policy. Under certain circumstances monetary policy may hampered or may be rendered ineffective by financial innovation. This dissertation examines the nature and causes of financial innovation and its implication for the successful application of monetary policy both internationally and in South Africa. / Economics / M. Com (Economics)

Our thesis aims to help the market participants to understand the source of the risk in green bonds market. We estimate the liquidity risk effects in green bonds' yield spreads as well as controlling for credit risk, bond-specific chracteristics and macroeconomic variables. Both of our liquidity measures suggest that green bonds are more liquid than investment grade US corporate bonds. We find that liquidity effect in green bonds' yield spreads is pronounced, and the result is robust after controlling for potential endogeneity bias. The power of green bonds' liquidity premium is about 10 to 100 times as strong as speculative grade German bonds and investment grade US corporate bonds respectively. In addition to the lack of clear risk profile in green bonds market, our three-stage least squares regression shows that credit risk influences the liquidity risk of green bonds, this indicates that credit risk is a potential source of private information that affects the high liquidity of green bonds. This result has an implication for policy as the credit risk and liquidity risk could be the pitfalls in green bonds market.