The banking industry has been a pioneer in adopting electronic markets with exchanges, clearinghouses, and multilateral trading facilities having become the backbone of today’s globally integrated financial transactions. While most banks use the services of these electronic markets to handle interbank processes, they still strive for bilateral relations in the field of customer-facing processes. This position paper argues that the financial crises, the changing behavior of customers, upcoming innovations based on information technology (IT) and financial services offered by non-banks are strong drivers towards more customer-orientation in the financial industry. A large variety of banking IT innovations has emerged and illustrates that traditional banks are expected to have less power to impede competition at the customer interface and in consequence need to re-position themselves. Building on these developments on the one hand and existing electronic market infrastructures in the banking industry on the other, the concept of a customer-oriented financial market infrastructure is proposed as a possible future solution. The impact is illustrated using a competitive analysis of the banking industry and analogies to the media industry where new entrants from the computing industry have caused disruptive changes. Besides describing the threat to existing banks, the position paper also discusses the perspectives for banks.

The diploma thesis "Estimation of the election results by respondents and its usage" discuss the methods of predicting the election results based on election expectations of individuals and shows how people form their expectations and how exact these expectations are. First short summary of existing methods of election results predictions and its limitations is presented - it also deals with pre-election surveys and its ambitions to predict the election results. The rest of the thesis focuses only on the prediction of the election results based on election expectations of individuals: prediction markets and aggregated estimations of respondents. Concept Wisdom of Crowds, from which both approaches originate, is presented together with concrete examples of application of the predictions based on opinions of prediction markets participants and respondents of the pre-election surveys. Results of the foreign studies confirm that the prediction markets predict the election results very well and with higher accuracy than the pre-election surveys. Current studies also positively evaluate the estimation of the election results done by respondents. Respondents are usually able to predict the election results, even several weeks before the elections. Last part of the thesis is based on my own quantitative...

El comerç electrònic a internet està controlat essencialment per actors privats, en la seva majoria empreses i associacions empresarials dels sectors econòmics vinculats a les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació. Aquests actors, en ocasions veritables autoritats, exerceixen el seu poder sobre els mercats electrònics a través de marcs normatius i de configuracions tècniques que els permeten establir les condicions de funcionament de les infraestructures, els codis i els continguts d'internet. El control de les estructures de poder al ciberespai per part d'actors privats es realitza amb l'aquiescència i el suport d'algunes autoritats públiques, especialment les d'Estats Units. Aquest control ha reduït els riscos que amenaçaven l'expansió dels mercats electrònics, però al mateix temps ha contribuït a que internet deixi d'ésser un espai predominantment públic, obert, lliure i gratuït per convertir-se en un espai predominantement privat, tancat, controlat i de pagament. / El comercio electrónico en internet está controlado esencialmente por actores privados, en su mayoría empresas y asociaciones empresariales de los sectores económicos vinculados a las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación. Estos actores, en ocasiones verdaderas autoridades, ejercen su poder sobre los mercados electrónicos a través de marcos normativos y de configuraciones técnicas que les permiten establecer las condiciones de funcionamiento de las infraestructuras, los códigos y los contenidos de internet. El control de las estructuras de poder en el ciberespacio por parte de actores privados se realiza con la aquiescencia y el apoyo de algunas autoridades públicas, especialmente las de Estados Unidos. Este control ha reducido los riesgos que amenazaban la expansión de los mercados electrónicos, pero al mismo tiempo ha contribuido a que internet deje de ser un espacio predominantemente público, abierto, libre y gratuito para convertirse en un espacio predominantemente privado, cerrado, controlado y de pago. / Electronic Commerce on the Internet is controlled essentially by private actors, most of them companies and business associations of the economic sectors related to information and communication tecnologies (ICT). These actors, sometimes like true authorities, use their power on the electronic markets trough normative frameworks and technical standards allowing them to establish the rules of infrastructures, code and content of the Internet. Public authorities, especially in the United States, have offered the private sector their acquiescence and suport in order to control the power structures of the cyberspace. This control has reduced the risks threatening the expansion of the electronic markets, but at the same time it has contributed to the transformation of the Internet, so that a predominantly public, open, free and cheap space is becoming a predominantly private, restricted, controlled and expensive space.