The objective of this study was to explore the historical expansion of the international operations of the Canadian chartered banks; to compare and contrast the exhibited growth pattern with that of the major commercial banks of the United States; to draw implications for the future pattern of world banking; and to see the role of the Canadian banks in that pattern. The analysis was limited largely to the post-World War II era and was conducted primarily in terms of the operating forms employed in other countries by the banks. The foreign-based vehicles described were the representative office, agency, branch, wholly-owned subsidiary, affiliate and multinational joint venture. The approach was essentially qualitative in character with a number of hypotheses introduced to explain the findings but with no effort made to statistically test these hypotheses. Specifically, hypotheses were tendered to account for the exhibited increasing internationalization of the banks; to explain why they go abroad to set up foreign "offices"; to explain why they might choose a particular country or area; and to account for the selection of a particular operating form for this location. The study relied upon several principal sources of information in order to develop the hypotheses offered. Standard governmental publications and the annual reports of the selected Canadian and U.S. banks were significant data sources and a number of articles from various periodicals were found to be especially relevant. Vital information was acquired by correspondence with the selected banks of each country and through personal interviews with executives in the International Divisions of these institutions. To facilitate the investigation of overseas involvement, and to enable more effective comparisons and contrasts to be developed the world was divided into seven geographic regions. It was found that the banks of both countries have experienced increasing internationalization of activity during the past 25 years with the U.S. banks enjoying more extensive "office" representation in other countries. The findings indicated that the greater number of U.S. customers abroad, measured in terms of U.S. foreign direct investment abroad, may be the most important contributory factor. The chartered banks, on the other hand, generally appeared to be motivated more by the volume and direction of Canadian external trade and the value and sources of foreign investment in Canada as the prime forces behind their increasingly "international flavour" and movement into certain countries or areas. The study indicated that bank policy was a pervasive, universal force influencing the exhibited extent of internationalization of the number and variety of "offices" abroad of the individual banks, particularly in terms of the variety of vehicles employed and the locations selected as a base of operations. On the other hand, it was indicated that restrictive Canadian banking legislation may be a force limiting the banking activity of the chartered banks in certain areas while New York and California state legislation has facilitated the overseas expansion of the U.S. banks. The respondents were asked to name the principal persistent problems which their banks experienced during the conduct of their international operations. On the basis of these perceived difficulties and from the findings of the study to that stage implications were drawn concerning the future pattern of international banking particularly as it pertained to the chartered banks. The findings indicated that the trend toward increasing internationalization could be expected to continue for the banks of both countries with the U.S. institutions continuing to be more intensively represented on a wider scale geographically. The range of operating vehicles is not expected to increase but it appears that the affiliate and multinational joint venture may become relatively more important. Significant changes in international operating methods and management techniques are expected to be forthcoming from the increased application of computer technology, especially through the centralization of information. On the other hand, the future can be expected to bring greater decentralization of authority through expanded regional organization. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Thesis (M.Com. (Economics & Economic History)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce (Financial Markets)

This thesis provides international evidence relating to the impact of financial liberalisation on banking sector performance. Compared to a large number of studies linking financial liberalisation to economic growth and financial fragility, there is relatively little research at the international level linking financial liberalisation to banking sector efficiency and productivity. The research contributes to the literature by making a systematic, cross-country empirical investigation using domestic and international measures of financial liberalisation and evaluates their impact on bank efficiency and productivity by applying a combination of frontier estimation methods, dynamic panel data regressions and Granger causality techniques. The evidence is based on the use of bank-level accounting data and country-level economic data for a sample of 1536 commercial banks covering 88 countries over the period 2000 to 2009. Apart from using the global frontier for estimation of bank efficiency, empirical analysis is conducted across various levels including the use of separate income-group frontiers to determine the robustness of the findings. Using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) for the estimation of banks’ cost and profit efficiency, the evidence shows that financial liberalisation contributes positively to profit efficiency while the effect on cost efficiency is generally mixed, depending on the measures of financial liberalisation used. Additionally, the results show that while cost efficiency remains, on average, stable during the estimation period (2000-2009), average profit efficiency fluctuates in the pre-crises period (2000-06) but declines sharply during the post crises period (2007-09). Furthermore, accounting explicitly for the influence of risk in banking, the evidence suggests that financial liberalisation, lower cost efficiency and higher profit efficiency of banks all increase the potential for default risk, while the latter also reduces both cost and profit efficiency, providing support for the bad management hypothesis. Additionally, upon accounting explicitly for the role of market power or competition in banking, the evidence suggests that both financial liberalisation and greater market power contribute to higher default risk of banks. On the other hand, greater competition in banking contributes to higher cost but lower profit efficiency of banks under financial liberalisation. The cross-country empirical investigation is also extended to analyse the impact of financial liberalisation on banks’ technical efficiency and productivity growth, using a two-step approach of combining data envelopment analysis (DEA) with panel data regressions. The evidence here suggests that financial liberalisation is robustly and negatively associated with (pure) technical efficiency. Furthermore, the effect on the total factor productivity (TFP) growth (using two-step DEA-type Malmquist method) is positive, although not always statistically significant. The robustness analysis conducted across the different income groups (higher, upper-middle, lower-middle and lower) confirms that the impact on cost, profit and technical efficiency of banks is more pronounced in the more developed (higher and upper-middle) countries than in the less developed countries. In particular, the impact of financial liberalisation is largely insignificant in the lower income countries. This finding generally reflects the greater pace of capital account liberalisation in the higher and upper-middle income countries, where the impact on both cost and profit efficiency is positive. Throughout the analysis, the estimation takes into account country-specific differences in the regulatory, market structure, financial development and macro-economic conditions and the evidence shows that these influences are also mostly significant and robust under financial liberalisation. Hence, the thesis concludes by arguing that financial liberalisation exerts an independent effect on the cost, profit and technical efficiency of banks, while the risks associated with financial liberalisation should be mitigated with better regulatory and institutional structures.

published_or_final_version / Management Studies / Master / Master of Business Administration

M.Comm. / Since the creation of private banking in the 16th century, it has evolved from a discreet service for the wealthy few to a broader base of services provided for high net worth individuals. Private banking today offers a complex, highly diverse array of personalised wealth preservation, -creation and —management services for a growing population of sophisticated and affluent individuals. Such people have multiple needs that range from banking services to investment and estate planning. The high net worth market is one of the most promising areas for banks to generate revenues and fee income. It is therefore not surprising that private banking is one of the highest growth services in the banking industry today. Private banking is not a business for everyone, however. Not all providers have the client base, the service background and product range, the market location, the management culture or the shareholder commitment to succeed. A myriad of service providers are entering the South African market, ranging from trust companies, investment banks, retail banks, stock brokers, treasury operations and foreign players. All these players brand themselves as deliverers of private banking (in the case of licensed banks) or private client (in the case of non-banks) services. A result of the diversity of institutions claiming to be private banks or at the very least deliverers of private client services, is that not only do the products available to clients differ substantially from institution to institution, but also the service delivery mechanism. True private banking is about relationships and the management of those relationships. Almost any service can be delivered but there is always a cost attached to the delivery thereof. The secret to success in the South African private banking market is the balancing of the costs and the level of service delivery to the appropriate target market. At present there are no standard entry criteria and service delivery model to guide institutions that wish to enter the private banking arena. The existing private banks are so diverse in nature that an independent study was necessary to find the common denominators that underpin a successful private bank in South Africa. Private banking in Europe, although not restricted to Switzerland and the United Kingdom, is largely concentrated in these two countries. Private bankers, particularly in Europe, have traditionally focused on "old wealth" or "passive wealth", which is concerned primarily with secrecy, capital preservation, personal service and relationship longevity. Old wealth has tended to be relatively price insensitive. There are two main European private banking styles, dubbed the Zurich and London models.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed October 3, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 352-378)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 91 p. : ill. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-146).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgetown University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 371-387).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--American University, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 411-425).