Britain has the most active and developed Islamic banking sector in the European Union. This sector is set to grow with both Islamic and non-Islamic banks now offering a range of Sharia compliant products. However, are these banks meeting the service quality needs of their customers? Previous studies on service quality within Islamic banks have been restricted to Muslim-based countries and whilst English Muslims will have the same religious beliefs, their values may have been altered by the western society in which they live and work. Hence existing service quality tools are likely to be unsuitable for this market. Using mixed methods, this research developed a modified SERVQUAL model for measuring service quality in English Islamic banks. The resulting instrument is intended to help the managers of Islamic banks based in England to measure their service quality and focus their attention on the service quality dimensions that matter most to Muslim customers Items for the new service quality instrument were taken from the original SERVQUAL model, previous studies that modified SERVQUAL and eight focus groups conducted with members ofthe English Muslim community. The resulting instrument was tested via a questionnaire with more than 300 Muslims in England resulting in the EIBSQ, an English Islamic Banking Service Quality tool. This measures service quality as perceived by English Muslims. Using factor analysis, the instrument includes thirty-four items, which are grouped into five dimensions. The five dimensions are: responsiveness, credibility, Islamic tangibles, accessibility, and bank image. One of the key contributions ofthis thesis is the proposed EIBSQ. Previous studies using SERVQUAL reveal that the use of this original scale in an international context raises a legitimate concern about validity across borders and the scale construct as items can be affected by different contexts. To the researcher's knowledge, very few service quality models have been developed for the Islamic banking industry and none exists to measure the quality of service and customer satisfaction for the English Islamic banking industry.

The research has three objectives. The first is to investigate the extent of publishing delay and its determinants in Libya. The second is to find out how useful the annual report is to five user groups in Libya namely the Tax Authority, Academics, Auditors, Banks and the Auditing Authority. Finally, the research also seeks to determine the impact publishing delay has on banks, Tax and Auditing Authorities. A sample of 33 companies over two year period was used to determine the extent of publishing delay and its determinants. The results indicate that the average publishing delay is 154.86 days. The results of the ordinary least square regression analysis indicate that company size, profitability, company age, number of accountants, accountant qualification, and audit opinion are significantly associated with publishing delay. However, the type of accounting system is not associated with publishing delay. The results of the usefulness of the annual report indicate that the balance sheet is regarded as the most important followed by the profit and loss account, auditors' report, management report and the funds flow statement. The results also suggest that there are significant differences in the perceived usefulness of 'on-time' and 'late' annual reports in terms of predictive value, confirmatory value and faithful representation. The results of the impact of the publishing delay on banks, Tax authority and Auditing authorities are as follows. Loans advanced by banks on the basis of 'on-time' annual reports are more likely to be repaid than those made on the basis of 'late' annual reports. The Tax Authority collect less revenue from companies whose annual reports are produced late compared to those whose annual reports are produced on time and Auditing Authority is more likely to issue a qualified audit report if the annual report is produced late compared to one produced 'on-time'. The results have important implication for the Libyan Authorities in terms of what actions they should take to reduce the publishing delay. Reduction in publishing delay is likely to increase the usefulness of the annual report and reduce the impact the delay is having on banks, Tax and Auditing Authority.

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This thesis investigates the impact of corporation tax on leverage, systematic risk and leasing by using the changes in corporation tax effected through the corporation tax reform of 1984. I also investigate whether there was any relationship between ownership structure of a firm and its response to the 1984 reform. Whereas theoretical models suggest that corporation tax influences corporate financial policy, extant empirical findings provide inconclusive evidence to support the tax theories of capital structure. The inconclusive findings from earlier studies are attributable to the methodology used and a failure to perfectly isolate the impact of corporation tax from that of other variables that affect leverage. I effectively curb this deficiency by analysing the effects of corporation tax on leverage, equity beta and leasing around the corporation tax reform period by using both cross-sectional and time series analysis. My empirical results show that the corporation tax reform of 1984 affected debt-equity ratios negatively. These findings imply that corporation tax influence firm's capital structure decision. Furthermore, there is evidence that taxable profits increased significantly during the reform period. Effective corporation tax rates and non-debt tax shields are found to substitute each other and both have a significant influence on firms' capital structure decisions. Similar to the findings of previous UK studies, leasing and debt financing are found to be substitutes. The results show further that the corporation tax reform of 1984 increased the attractiveness of leasing to the UK firms. Sector-based-analysis shows that in general UK manufacturing firms have high lease rate than other sectors analysed. Empirical findings show also that effective corporation tax rate has significant effect in firm's systematic risk as measured by equity beta. Concerning the relationship between the responses of firms to the reform and their ownership structures the evidence shows that the changes in debt-equity ratios and investment induced by the corporation tax reform of 1984 was related to managerial ownership. Generally, the findings of this study show clearly that corporation tax is a major factor that influences both cross-sectional and periodic variations in debt-equity ratios.

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In this thesis, the author aimed to describe the specifics of agreements on financial collateral in accordance with section 323a of the act no. 513/1991 Coll. the commercial code, as amended. The Author used a method consiting of describing the purpouses of traditional elements of those security instruments, which are broken and modified by the provisions enabling agreements on financial collateral in the first part of the thesis, and further applied the purposes to the provisions enabeling the agreements on financial collateral itself in the second part of this thesis. As to the additional method of approach, the author judged this security instrument from the point of values and principles, which are the most reflected in its provisions. Author implied that the specifics of an agreement on financial collateral consist in vast differences from the traditional security instruments. These differences lie in the area of formation of such security instrument, the area of rights and duties of the contracting parties during the existence of the financial collateral, as well as the possibilities of the satisfaction of the creditor from the collateral. Author's conclusions may be summarized by the following. Agreements on financial collateral are characteristic by high extent of application of the...