This thesis studies the relationships between systematic risk, financial indicators and the financial crisis from the perspective of international airlines. The thesis uses the CAPM beta of airline stock as the proxy for airline systematic risk and explores its relationships with six financial indicators and the financial crisis which broke out in the second half of 2008. The findings of 28 international airlines over the period of 1997 to 2002 and 2007 to 2012 indicate that (1) airline systematic risk is negatively related to profitability and positively related to size, and these relationships hold over time periods, (2) the negative relationship between airline systematic risk and operational efficiency exists while it changes the sign over recent time periods, (3) airline systematic risk positively responds to financial leverage while its significance is influenced by samples used, (4) the positive relationship between airline systematic risk and liquidity is only significant over the first period, (5) no findings suggest airline systematic risk is related to growth. Moreover, the relationship between airline systematic risk and the financial crisis is not straight-forward because of lacking clear-cut judgment of the financial crisis year for airlines. Moreover, this thesis also tries panel data methods and finds both the same and different results compared with the model without panel data methods.

Mobile financial services, specifically mobile money, has the potential to expand access to financial services to millions of unbanked people in South Africa. As such, it looks very promising in terms of financial inclusion. However, concerns exist that mobile money can be detrimental to financial integrity since there are several proven risk factors linked to mobile financial services. These risk factors make mobile money very susceptible to money laundering. The potential for abuse and the need for appropriate controls is therefore something which cannot be ignored. While the South African legislator has made provision for comprehensive anti-money laundering preventative measures by means of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, there exists no South African legislation explicitly concerned with mobile money. It is therefore difficult to determine what the regulatory stance is in terms of mobile money in South Africa. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is, however, currently focusing attention on the effect which mobile money may have on financial integrity. The latest FATF Recommendations make provision for several anti-money laundering controls which are specifically applicable to mobile money, including controls regarding money or value transfer services and new technologies. While it is always difficult to balance financial integrity and financial inclusion, the risk-based approach makes it possible for governments to implement effective antimoney laundering measures, thereby preserving financial integrity, without the need to compromise on financial inclusion objectives. The fact that South Africa has not fully adopted a risk-based approach is a problem which needs to be addressed if mobile money is to deliver on its promises for financial inclusion, without being detrimental to financial integrity. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Mobile financial services, specifically mobile money, has the potential to expand access to financial services to millions of unbanked people in South Africa. As such, it looks very promising in terms of financial inclusion. However, concerns exist that mobile money can be detrimental to financial integrity since there are several proven risk factors linked to mobile financial services. These risk factors make mobile money very susceptible to money laundering. The potential for abuse and the need for appropriate controls is therefore something which cannot be ignored. While the South African legislator has made provision for comprehensive anti-money laundering preventative measures by means of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, there exists no South African legislation explicitly concerned with mobile money. It is therefore difficult to determine what the regulatory stance is in terms of mobile money in South Africa. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is, however, currently focusing attention on the effect which mobile money may have on financial integrity. The latest FATF Recommendations make provision for several anti-money laundering controls which are specifically applicable to mobile money, including controls regarding money or value transfer services and new technologies. While it is always difficult to balance financial integrity and financial inclusion, the risk-based approach makes it possible for governments to implement effective antimoney laundering measures, thereby preserving financial integrity, without the need to compromise on financial inclusion objectives. The fact that South Africa has not fully adopted a risk-based approach is a problem which needs to be addressed if mobile money is to deliver on its promises for financial inclusion, without being detrimental to financial integrity. / LLM (Import and Export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter uses credit card data to estimate the impact of increasing minimum payments on delinquency, payments, spending, and write-offs. The identification strategy exploits an unusual institutional feature: borrowers can use their account to make purchases with both revolving loans (on which minimum payments increased) and term loans (on which there was no change). Payment increases by delinquent borrowers are insufficient to match increasing minimums, resulting in lower cure rates and an increase in write-offs. Affected borrowers migrate away from these accounts by decreasing charges and increasing payments, consequently lowering the interest earned by the bank. The second chapter analyzes the response of consumption, debt, and delinquency to an anticipated increase in cash-on-hand in the presence of liquidity constraints. It uses account-level data from a North American bank that allows clients to make purchases using credit card and term loans on the same account. Term loans are paid off in a predetermined number of equal monthly installments. The end of a term loan therefore generates a predictable increase in cash-on-hand relative to months in which payments were required. Consistent with a model in which consumers are potentially liquidity constrained, consumers \textit{ex-ante} identified as unconstrained do not increase their credit card expenditures, constrained consumers increase both their credit card expenditures and balance, and consumers for whom the credit card is the marginal source of funds decrease their balance. The propensity to take out a new term loan increases for all consumers, whether constrained or not. About 4% of unconstrained consumers delay taking out a new term loan until the original loan is repaid, contrary to theoretical predictions. Paying off the term loan reduces financial delinquency and the probability of default. The third chapter analyzes the comovement of personal savings and income using administrative data provided by a North American bank that records the sum of monthly direct deposit income into its clients' checking accounts. It investigates how permanent and transitory income changes are smoothed by checking account balances. Transitory income changes, whether positive or negative, have only transitory effects on checking account balances, suggesting that consumption is excessively sensitive to them compared to theoretical predictions. Permanent income changes lead to permanent adjustments in consumption and modest permanent adjustments in checking account balances, consistent with theoretical predictions. There is evidence of anticipation of future income changes as much as three months in advance.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / South Africa’s Financial Sector Charter of 2003 to 2008 contributed in many ways to financial inclusion of the excluded masses, resulting in a decrease in proportion of excluded excluded from over 50% in 2003 to 23.5% in 2010. Commercial banks around the world have been known to bank the unbanked or downscale using various models. The report investigates the motivation for commercial bank downscaling in South Africa, leading to the various models of downscaling chosen by the Big 4. The reports finds that commercial banks in South Africa are moving away from fragmented methods of engagement of the bottom of the pyramid due to the large market which exists at that segment. This market accounts for on average 50% of the banks’ clients which indicates that banks have been dealing with this market for some time. The recent rise of a Microfinance bank has been credited as the stimulus for the more aggressive approach that banks have taken in recent years. Bank employees believe they have the resources and support to explore models of serving the market profitably while external stakeholder to the bank believe the banks are not geared for the market due to their cost structures and mentality and are therefore not fully exploring the potential in the market.

published_or_final_version / abstract / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts

There is a large body of research that indicates that international equity markets co-move over time. This co-movement manifests in various instruments, ranging from equities and bonds to soft commodities. However, this co-movement is more prevalent over crisis periods and can be seen in returns and volatility transmission effects. The recent financial crisis demonstrated that no local market is immune to transmission effects from international markets. South African financial market participants, such as investors and policymakers, have a vested interest in understanding how the equity market in particular and the economy in general react to international financial crises. This study aims to contribute an improved understanding of how the South African equity market interacts with international equity markets, by identifying the degree of price and volatility transmission before, during, and after an international financial crisis. This was done by investigating the possibility of changes in price and volatility transmissions from the Asian financial crisis (1997–1998), the dotcom bubble (2000–2001) and the more recent subprime financial crisis (2007–2009). An Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (E-GARCH) model was employed within the framework of an Aggregate Shock model. The results indicate that during the international financial crises studied, the JSE All Share Index was directly affected through contagion effects inherent in the returns of the originating crisis country. Volatility transmissions during international financial crises came directly from the originating crisis country. Finally, the FTSE 100 Index was the main exporter of price and volatility transmission to the JSE All Share Index. / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This thesis is a collection of essays where I explore and extend the study of the role of financial frictions for the determination of asset prices, financial stability, and economic resilience. The frictions included in the analysis are individual and aggregate uncertainty, agent heterogeneity, money, liquidity and default. The first essay is an empirical study that motivates my research objectives. This work starts with the exploration of the role of liquidity on asset prices, specifically on sovereign bonds of emerging countries. I present a comprehensive model where I developed a novel methodology for finding the role of liquidity in the determination of asset prices during the financial crisis. In the second essay, illuminated by the empirical findings, I apply and expand the general equilibrium theory of money, default and financial stability. The contributions at the theoretical level are the extension of two-period model with discrete state space to the infinite horizon dynamic stochastic setting, and the inclusion of liquidity restrictions. In the third essay, I further extend this framework, allowing for production technology and endogenous market liquidity. Given the theoretical setting, I have analyzed the responses of financial stability and economic performance variables to real and financial shocks. Finally, in the fourth essay I produce an empirical application of this work. I apply a novel semi-parametric financial stability metric, and evaluate its relevance for the determination of asset prices, in the presence of liquidity restrictions. As a result, this thesis suggest plausible explanations for financial and economic issues that conventional models have not dealt with adequately.

Cloud computing at a high level comprises of the availability of hardware, software and technical support via a network protocol to a remote client on a pay-per-use basis. Businesses using Cloud resources has been increasing steadily in the very recent past and the number of Cloud service providers (CSP) are increasing as well. The challenges that characterize a Cloud data center include: on-demand service, elasticity, resources pooling, broad network access, service meters. As the customer base is in creasing and their resource requirement and usage pattern has been becoming highly volatile, proper utilization of the resources and generating revenue by appropriately charging the clients for their uses has become an even more challenging research problem. In other words, Cloud resource pricing has emerged as an important and pressing problem to study for ever increasing utility of Cloud computing. Literature review reveals that there are economy-based models (cash flow, net present value etc.) used for charging mechanism suggested by many researchers. Most of these models are rigid that they are not build with the core of Cloud - elasticity in mind. Also, the economic models do not provide flexibility of the economy of scale to either increase or decrease the resource requirement and appropriately charge for such increase or decrease in resource use. For my thesis, I have designed and developed a Cloud resources pricing model that satisfies two important constraints: the dynamic ability of the model to provide a high satisfaction guarantee measured as Quality of Service (QoS) - from users perspectives, and profitability constraints - from the Cloud service providers perspectives. I have employed financial option theory and treated the Cloud resources as underlying assets to capture the realistic value of the Cloud Compute Commodities (C3). I have priced the Cloud resources using my model. Through this research, I show that the Cloud parameters can be mapped to financial economic model and that this model can be effectively implemented for resource pricing purpose. I discuss the results of pricing Cloud Compute Commodities (C3) for various input parameters, such as the age of the resource and quality of service. / February 2016

This study will furnish the reader with general and specific investment advice as taken from questionnaires sent to a group of men who specialize in giving investment and financial advice -- financial analysts.