<p>The paper examines the approach taken by Russian government to control money laundering by creating the preventive framework which has undergone significant changes over the past six years. With respect to the prevention of money laundering, the discussion involves a review of international standards and norms which constitute the global AML regime. Recognizing the need for adding the domestic dimension to the studies of international regimes with the help of two-level game theory, the paper further analyzes the preventive pillar of the domestic AML regime in Russia in comparison with the global standards. It concludes that the federal law, which is the cornerstone of the domestic AML regime, as well as institutional framework created in Russia, both formally comply with the international norms.</p><p>The analyses of the practical implementation of the AML legislation in the financial institutions focus on legislative base for the regulated, behavioral patterns of the banks in the AML prevention, and the conflicts and debates, lately emerged within the domestic AML regime. This paper aims to show how new regulations have influenced both domestic AML regime and its main actors. The paper concludes that the existent domestic regime lacks interaction and communication between its actors which leads to the breach of the main principle and goal of a regime – cooperation.</p><p>The paper argues that the representatives of banking community in Russia could play the role of epistemic community proposed by the cognitive theory of international regimes. Given the functions of epistemic community it could foster better understanding of the context and purposes of the AML regime, thus, decreasing uncertainty and facilitating cooperation between the parties. The paper will conclude with the recommendations on the future research about how risk-based approach to banking regulation of the AML prevention rather than traditional rule-based compliance method can be effective.</p>

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2003.

Habilitation - Universität, München, 2008/09. / Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität München, 2008/09. Includes bibliographical references (p. [403]-435) and index.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify and appraise within the Ghanaian environment the level of regulations in combat of money laundering and terrorism financing, the extent of the regulation and the effectiveness of the regulations or laws. Method: Research methodology will be based on qualitative data collection and analysis approach which will consider the gathering of information personally by the researcher including interviews based on structured or semi-structures questions to potential respondents Theory: The theory considered various concepts of money laundering that exist. The chosen concepts identified the various typologies of the money laundering, the negative effects and the regulations adopted in the fight against money laundering in the light of internationally accepted standards. Analysis: The analysis was modeled around four set of issue as a means of evaluating the money laundering regulations in Ghana. They include extent of nation’s vulnerability to Money Laundering; existing Laws or Regulations; the Conformity of Laws or regulations to international standards and an overview of the new anti-money laundering law. Conclusion: Research and analysis revealed that the nation is susceptible to money laundering though it has existing regulations to combat the menace. The forms of money laundering are many and there seems to be very little public knowledge about money laundering. Financial sector of the economy is expanding and there is a need for a more rigorous means for the combat of laundering as its effect on the sector could be disastrous. The New Anti – Money Laundering law, Anti – Money Laundering Act 2008, Act 749 is timely but it has not been operational, the Financial Intelligence Center is yet to be set up since the enactment of the act in January in 2008; as at the time of writing this conclusion there is a new government in power and this government is yet to constitute a full cabinet of ministers or substantive ministers of state hence it is quite impossible to estimate when the Financial Intelligence Centre; according to France (BoG) during my interview with her, she mentioned that the Center is to be formed under the supervision of Ministry of Finance. Not withstanding, the yet to be formed Center, there has been some exiting laws or regulations from Bank of Ghana for the financial institutions in combat of money laundering and terrorism financing. 83% respondents agreed that there are existing regulations and Laws but only one respondent representing 17% indicted that those laws can best be cosmetic. The forms of existing regulations identified are as follows: The (KYC) Know Your Client or Know Your Customer Policy; (PEP) Politically Exposed Persons Policy; (CDD) Customer Due Diligence; (EDD) Enhanced Due Diligence and also regulations for banks to adopted a policy of setting threshold for which any cash or cheque deposit into an account should register to an investigate unit of the bank, such that any amount above the threshold raises an alarm for further investigation and so is any huge withdrawal request. In evaluating the existing regulations, two main assessment points were use as yardstick. They are conformity to international standards and effectiveness of the laws or regulations. Ghana is a member of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in West Africa (GIABA) which has formulated some for steps member countries to follow in their design of their internal policies in combat of Money Laundering. These steps are based on the 40 recommendation and the 9 special recommendations. Clearly it is noted that the few regulations or directives from Bank of Ghana conform to the FATF recommendations. For example • The (KYC) Know Your Customer directive, (CDD) Customer Due Diligence directive and (EDD) Enhanced Due Diligence directive that Bank of Ghana issued to the banks conform with Recommendations 4 to 12 of FATF. • The (PEP) Politically Exposed Persons directive which enables the banks deal with political figures of other countries is an international co-operation and a need for mutual legal assistance, these two conforms with the FAFT Recommendation 35 and FAFT recommendations 36 to 39 and again of FATF Recommendation 40. • The policies on threshold level also conforms to FAFT recommendations 17 to 21 as depicted in the literature review. From the examples given above there are clear indications that the regulations conform to international standards. The effectiveness of the regulation was set to detail or show how wide enough the regulation is in tackling the menace a stake, it should equally involve the institutions that will regulate, implement and enforce the regulations and finally the regulations should be enforced or to be seen a such. However the general picture is that the Laws or Regulations prior to the new Act 749 hasn’t been too effective. The respondents who agreed that there are existing laws or regulations once again agreed there are some lax in the enforcement of the regulations. Roi (SFO) believes that if there is any regulation at all, they can only be said to be just cosmetic. / ftontoh@yahoo.com; +233244284956;+233244212902

This thesis has two aims; to explore the economic notions of trust to develop a coherent understanding of trust within economics and to apply this understanding to the operation of money and banking. There has been a recent explosion of work about trust within economics but little consensus. This thesis explores this body of work by first developing a framework based on the different perceptions of the work of Adam Smith. The framework argues that the academic discipline of economics can be understood as mirroring the discussions of the work of Adam Smith. The Academic discipline of economics can be seen as comprising of approaches that only consider behaviour as relating to self-interested and those approaches that have adopted a stance that includes both self-interest and social, organic behaviour. The beginning of this thesis explores the notions of trust offered by Behavioural Game Theory and Institutional Economics and argues that the notions of trust developed using the institutional framework offer a richer conceptualisation and are more widely applicable to other areas addressed by economics. This concludes by developing a theory of trust in the institutional tradition based on the work of Simmel and draws a distinction between trust as applied to agency and confidence applied to structure. After drawing a distinction between trust and confidence based on agency and structure, this thesis then uses this theory to address the understanding of the operation of money and then banking. Money, or more specifically the operation of money as influencing behaviour, can be understood as being a complex institution with both agency and structural elements allowing a coherent understanding of money and trust. The same can be said of trust and banking, but a very different model develops as banks are organisations rather than complex institutions. This thesis concludes by considering the current financial crisis and the policy responses using the trust and confidence framework. Trust has been an important concept for money and banking, but without a satisfactory framework for analysis. The contribution of this thesis is to have developed a coherent framework for analysing trust, and applying it to money and banking.

The study examined school district expenditures in Texas and their correlations with student achievement. The following research question guided this study: Which resource allocations produce statistically significant correlations between the resource allocation variances among school district and student achievement? An ordinal logistic regression analysis included 1009 school districts in the State of Texas, 18 of 26 possible finance function codes provided per-pupil dollar amounts, and 9 of 11 possible demographic categories were utilized for the study. The study held the school district as the unit of analysis. The statistical model was used to regress the dollar amounts categorized by financial function codes and percent student demographics to determine if a relationship existed with the dependent variable of the Texas Education Agency’s defined accountability rating during the 5-year time period—2004-2008. At the national level, there is a long-standing debate over whether the amount of money allocated to education affects student achievement. The literature review presents two sides of the debate concerning whether financial resources make a difference with regard to student achievement as represented through district-level accountability ratings. The research revealed that specific school district resource allocations by function code are statistically significant with regard to district level accountability measures through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability system. However, the odds ratios temper the impact of the significance. The research also revealed that demographics are statistically significant in the State of Texas accountability system. / text

The level of university students' financial literacy has been discussed in Congress, opinion pieces in the media and the increasing level of student debt has been used to suggest their financial illiteracy. This study investigated the financial literacy of graduating university seniors by comparing their financial literacy level with their debt level. The difference in financial literacy levels of business majors, minors and non-business majors was assessed. The relationship between graduating university seniors' financial literacy level and their credit card and student loan debt was also reviewed. Gender, employment status, ethnicity, family income and college major were similarly examined to see if they were predictors of financial literacy levels and debt levels. Although financial literacy is frequently discussed in the national arena there is no clear definition of financial literacy; this ambiguity has led to multiple definitions. In this study, financial literacy was defined as "an individual's ability to obtain, understand, and evaluate the relevant information necessary to make decisions with an awareness of the likely financial consequences" (Mason & Wilson, 2000). The Jump$tart questionnaire (Mandell, 2004) was used to calculate participants' financial literacy level. The study found that the majority of the students had a high level of financial literacy with an average financial literacy score of 72.56% and with students majoring in business performing significantly better than non-business students. The use of debt level as an indicator of financial literacy level was found to be incorrect. No relationship was identified between financial literacy level and credit card debt or student loan debt. The study also found that demographic factors could not be used to predict financial literacy level and debt level. It was found that the majority of participants learned about managing money either on their own or at home from family members. More than half of the participants expressed an interest in taking a personal finance class but less than 20% were aware that this course was offered at their university. More effective methods are recommended to ensure that students become more aware such courses being offered on campus.

Economic remittances are money transfers worldwide from migrants to their country of origin. This study aimed to examine which significance the remittance has for the sender. How do the senders describe their experiences of remittances, what strategies are used in the process of remitting and how has the migrants’ social and economic situation in the host country been affected by remitting? The issues were answered through six semi-structured interviews with remitting migrants. The theoretical approach consisted of the concepts transnational social space, reciprocity and social exclusion. The findings were that remittances had great value to the senders with both negative and positive outcomes. Strategies formed to live up to expectations to remit were group wise, long-term and practical. Remittances had an impact on choices regarding recreational activities, housing and employment. Our conclusion is that remitting is an important act to maintain the bond to the country of origin, despite economic and social sacrifices. Being a participant in dual social worlds in which social and economic conditions differ shapes the experienced requirement to remitt.  Remittance cannot be seen as a sole factor for placing senders in social exclusion, though it can limit the sender economically and socially.

The purpose of this thesis is to argue that the core of a monetary economy is a network of triangular contracts between banks, firms, workers and capital goods suppliers. Not only does this network give rise to the creation and valuation of money but it is the organising feature of modern economies, giving rise to both episodes of stability and crises. In constructing this argument I consider both orthodox and heterodox points of view. We analyse equilibrium models of money, and find that while money can exist in sequence economies with frictions, models of this type give no justification for its creation, valuation or holding for any significant duration, either theoretically or experimentally. Models that introduce dated goods and trading frictions to motivate the issue of risk-spreading ‘bundled’ debt are more promising for money creation, although they still cannot explain the the holding and valuation of money. Using the concept of team-production of Alchian and Demsetz and that of ‘hostage-taking’ in contracts owing to Williamson, we demonstrate how the issue of a token of generalised purchasing power from a team-production contract can enhance output and consumption. This conclusion motivates an original monetary theory of production that integrates the insights of Post-Keynesian monetary theory and the triangular contracts of the Circulation Approach and expresses them in a way that shows consistent asset and liability matching through a balance sheet approach. The creation and valuation of money and the determination of interest are embedded within the central processes of this economy. The features of the monetary production economy we analyse are in contrast to the mainstream proposition that the economy as a whole is rendered coherent by the existence of a unique and stable equilibrium determined by the utility-maximisation of households and the profit maximisation of firms. Apart from their inability to describe the economy in aggregate, such models treat money as an afterthought that is in no way core to their conception. We set the triangular contracts within a rigorous stock-flow framework of the type developed by Godley and Lavoie and argue that the shifting of the level of impact of uncertainty and failed expectations induced by money leads to specific patterns of economic disruption. These patterns are independent of the specific behavioural characteristics of households and firms and so are robust to policy changes that leave the institutions of the monetary production economy intact. We briefly assess current monetary policy and alternatives in the light of these findings.

This 14-year longitudinal study extends previous research on money in marriage by using multiple measures of money to predict seven dimensions of marital quality. Data collection began when the couples were newlyweds and extended through the first decade and a half of marriage, thus making it possible to examine the effects of money on marital quality across time. Overall, the findings indicate that money affects marital quality. Specifically, low income was associated behavioral negativity over the entire course of the fourteen year study. Low-income couples who were content with their financial situations were more satisfied than low-income couples that were unhappy about their financial situation. The effects of money on marriage increased over time such that by the time couples were nearly a decade a half into marriage couple’s income was associated with both positive marital behaviors and marital satisfaction. Similarly, the link between financial satisfaction and marital satisfaction emerged over time. The implications of these findings as well as directions for future research are discussed. / text