Central banks engage in a multiplicity of activities. Their current roles are historically determined, in that each central bank came into being at a certain stage of its country's development and has exercised its functions consistently with its nation's development objectives. Consequently, central bank functions vary in degree and from place to place. However, despite the different conditions under which they operate, most central banks exhibit a tendency to conform to an almost identical pattern, particularly in respect of those practices and principles developed by the Bank of England, which came to be accepted as traditional central bank functions. This thesis takes up the traditional central bank functions and compares them with the new and expanding roles of central banks in the developing world. The tool for illuminating this review is the important issue of government immunity. As agents of their governments, central banks sometimes breach their contractual obligations and then the issue of immunity comes up. In determining the immunity of foreign states, their agents and instrumentalities, the courts characterize their activities as either private or public acts. This process of characterization has proved difficult in its application to central bank activities. This is because there is no uniform central bank function. Consequently, it is difficult to determine when a central bank is performing a central bank function. The restrictive immunity approach presupposes that central bank functions could easily be characterized as either commercial or central bank functions. However, a contrary view is presented in this thesis. This thesis takes the position that central bank activities are not uniform and therefore cannot be subject to a general theory of restrictive immunity. A comparative approach is adopted in analysing the different evolutionary patterns of central bank development, the scope of protection that central banks enjoy under the current law in sovereign immunity in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and other international conventions. The study ends with an appraisal of the scope of central bank immunity and the problems associated with the characterization process and concludes that in the absence of uniform central bank functions, and an agreement on the proper sphere of governmental activity, the restrictive immunity approach is inadequate for the resolution of central bank immunity issues. Consequently a programme of bilateral treaties is suggested as a better alternative. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

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It has been estimated that the Apollo Program, which placed a man on the moon, each year produced enough paper work, that if put on one stack, would reach to the moon. The forthcoming Space Shuttle Program will require even more documentation; however, present plans call for very little paperwork. The necessary documentation will instead be created, updated and retained in a large computer data base with access throughout the country. Present technology will support this system. The banking industry has been faced with a similar problem in the processing of demand deposit records (checks) and other repetitive tasks. Banks have made progress in automating certain tasks, but up to this date, theystill have a paper intensive system. Present technology would support a new system centered around large computer data bases. Any computer system that would service fourteen thousand banks and processes twenty-two billion checks annually would be a significant event in the electronic data processing industry. It might also effect the way business is done in this country. This paper was undertaken to explore the progress in bank automation and how it will effect the banking industry, the electronic data processing industry and the average citizen.

Operational risk was identified as one of the primary risk types that a bank faces. Neglected for many years, there is a growing awareness in the banking industry that the management of operational risk is crucial for their future existence. The effective management of operational risk, however, requires a structured approach. This study, therefore, investigates the management of operational risk by way of a literature study and empirical research in order to develop a framework for a structured approach to operational risk management in banking. The framework comprises the primary risk factors of operational risk, namely: people, processes, systems and external events, as well as a definition of operational risk. The operational risk exposures that apply to the aforementioned primary risk factors are identified. It, furthermore, illustrates that operational risk management is an ongoing process that consists of risk identification, risk evaluation, risk control and risk financing and addresses the methods that could be applied in the management process. As operational risk management in the banking industry is still in a development stage it is believed that this study could assist banks with establishing formal operational risk management processes. The framework demarcates the area of operational risk properly and provides insight into all the activities that should be performed in the operational risk management process, but the following issues still require further research: • The practical implementation of methods for the quantification of operational risk and determining a capital charge for it; • The effect of the requirements of corporate governance on banks as it relates to the management of operational risk; and • The interaction between operational risk and the other primary risk types to ensure an effective, enterprise-wide risk management process. The framework that has been developed could also be applied to any other enterprise as operational risk management is not unique to banks and the basic principples are generic. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

This thesis examines the impact of policy-induced consolidation on banks' performance. The Nigerian bank consolidation of 2004/5 was one of the regulatory reforms initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to tackle the country's deteriorating and weak banking sector by increasing the equity capital of banks and with the aim of making the banks more robust and resilient to shocks. This study utilises Impact evaluation technique to measure the effect of the policy intervention in the banking market, using the data of the Nigeria banks and banking industry from 2000 to 2010. Banks' performance were analysed based on eight performance indicators that served as bench marks with which the degree of success of bank consolidation policy were measured. The eight indicators are thus tied to the policy objectives which primarily are to enhance the bank's profitability, efficiency and riskiness. The measure of change in bank performance post-policy provides some informative evidence about the impact of the policy intervention. Methods of assessment therefore measure the change in performance of the banks (broadly classified into 3 distinct groups based on their mode of consolidation) in the post-policy period and compare it with their pre-policy performance, examining the trends and changes and making inferences based on appropriate statistical tests. Our analysis provides evidence that the policy-induced consolidation through bank recapitalisation has significant impact on most of the banks' performances. We find that policy effect on banks' performance is mixed; while some outcomes are in accordance with the policy objectives of enhancing profitability, efficiency and riskiness of the banks, others are contrary to the objectives. Some results also suggest that the policy did not have significant effect on the banks' performance. The research findings underscore the importance of time in measuring 3 performance change, as well as mode of consolidation, as they influence bank performance and determine the extent to which possible gain from consolidation would be realised and by extension the policy objectives achieved. This is because, apart from mode of consolidation, the policy effects on bank's performances were found to be largely affected by time, that is, whether the assessment is short term or medium term. For instance, the effect of the policy in all the banking group's risk performance indicators within the first two years (short-term) post-policy, was found to be positive (improved), while the policy effect changed significantly and adversely when the measurement was extended to five years post-policy period (medium term). Similarly, our results indicate that the policy effects on the banking group's performances differ substantially. Other factors also shown to influence the policy effects on banks' performances include: bank ownership, size and the number of banking firms in a consolidated bank. However, we find strong evidence that contrary to the general notion that bank consolidation leads to concentration of market, Nigeria policy-induced bank consolidation did not result in concentrated market rather it lowered banking market concentration, because it created relatively equal-sized banks in the post-policy period. Also we are able to distinguish in our analysis between the changes in banks performance that were as a result of the policy from the changes that would have occurred anyway, by estimating the change in performance in the post-policy as a result of persistence of banks performance in the pre-policy period, and this was found to be positive and statistically significant especially for the standalone and the merged group's profit returns.

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published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

M.Com. (Economics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (in the field of ICT Policy and Regulation). 9th August 2016. / Digital transformation on a national level is a framework that has been applied to a number of different contexts. Studies in both developed and developing countries have exhibited digital transformation in a manner that reflects its applicability across contexts and scenarios. However, this research explored what happens when the same is applied to organizational contexts in a developing country. The research did not divert too far from the national application of a digital transformation framework, but merely sought to incorporate the organizational perspective, and the different considerations that arise in commercial banks in Kenya; an area which was previously under-explored. A conceptual framework was developed to study only particular elements of digital transformation from qualitative analysis and different sources of data. The findings of this study illustrated that there is a huge uptake of technologies in these commercial banks, but also notes a significant number of limitations that currently exist. The report concludes with proposals as to how these limitations can be addressed through various recommendations, and also considers other avenues for improvement, and future research that can later be applied other contexts. / GR2017