Magister Commercii - MCom / The literature on financial inclusion and poverty connections has received considerable attention recently. There exist a scarcity of local studies examining the relationship between financial inclusion (FI) and poverty. Precisely, there is a lack of local studies who previously used FinScope data to investigate the mentioned relationship in South Africa. This study is motivated to fill the gap. To achieve the aims, the study will source data from FinScope (a secondary data) for the periods of 2011 and 2016. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices were used to measure the level of poverty, while the lower-bound poverty (LBPL) line was used to differentiate the poor from the non-poor. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was also applied to derive the financial inclusion index (FII). Probit regressions were run to measure the likelihood of being poor and being financially excluded. Ordinary Least Squares were run to identify the nature of the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables. Lastly, bivariate regression was also run to test the relationship between poverty and financial exclusion.

The study focused on examining the saving and investment behaviours of South Africans. There has been no extensive research in existing literature that has focused on this area of study. This study intends to extend the understanding of what factors contribute to the decisions individuals make about saving and investment. The primary research objective was to explore and empirically test the statistical significance of income, education and gender related to the use of suitable financial products and investigate optimal ways to save and invest. This was a quantitative study which used secondary data obtained from the Human Science Research Council database gathered through a structured questionnaire. A sample of 2,972 individuals across the country participated in and completed the survey. The results illustrated that low-income participants saved less through informal saving schemes than high-income participants, but the statistical significant difference between these groups is too small. The findings also showed that less-educated participants used predominantly more formal saving products than highly educated participants and the statistical significant difference between these groups is large. Finally, the findings highlighted that females make better investment choices than males, but the statistical significant difference between these groups is too small. This study illustrated that low savings and investment in South Africa is influenced by the type of financial products used and also demographic factors such as income, education and gender. / Mini Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Financial Management / MCom (Financial Management) / Unrestricted

The Effects of the Financial Crisis on the Regulation of Financial Markets with a Focus on Securitization Abstract The thesis investigates the influence of the financial crisis on financial markets regulation, with a focus on securitization. In its first part, it attempts to identify the causes of the financial crisis from years 2008 and 2009. It builds up the attention onto the regulatory tendencies of the 20th century from the Great Depression until the 2008 financial crisis. Then it focuses on the monetary policy of central banks, especially the FED in the USA and its influence on the mortgage market.The following part contains a brief description of the development of the US mortgage market and the start of mortgage loan securitization. The chapter of financial crisis also addresses the role of rating agencies in the securitization system and their impact on the creation of toxic assets. The main part of the thesis is dedicated to securitization, where it is analyzed its economic essence, legal definitions and process of securitization, which is further divided into traditional and synthetic securitization. In order to disucuss the synthetic securitization more in depth, one chapter is dedicated to credit derivatives. The securitization process is conluded with the release of ABS as a securitization...

Financial decisions among college students can be influenced by experiences with credit and debt services. Some college students may use alternative financial services (AFS; e.g., payday loans and check cashing services) to manage their personal finances to maintain a desired level of financial wellness. Fears about credit card usage may prompt the use AFS or overdraft on accounts due to a limited funds. Thus, some financial decisions, and ultimately, wellbeing may be influenced by financial knowledge, access to financial resources and attitudes towards financial services among college students. This study aims to explore factors (i.e., financial abilities, compulsive buying, materialism, knowledge, credit card, and AFS usage) that contribute to the financial wellbeing of college students. Initial findings from a stepwise regression show increased usage of credit cards (β = -0.08) and AFS (β = -0.08) decreases financial wellbeing while lower materialistic (β = 0.27) attitudes increases financial wellbeing.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Administration and Law, in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at the University of Zululand, 2019. / The extent of the damage caused by the 2007/08 global financial crisis (GFC) has forced policymakers all over the world to respond promptly in order to mitigate its effect, a process in which they are still engaged in, particularly in advanced economies. The main objective of this study is to measure systemic risk in African emerging economies and develop a macroprudential regulatory framework to mitigate or limit the effect of such risk. More specifically, the study intends to1) Developing financial stress index (FSI) for the Emerging African economy; 2) Investigate the possibility of Early Warning Signal (EWS) helping in predicting and preventing or minimising the effects of the crisis on financial institutions; 3) Assess the resilience of individual banking companies to adverse macroeconomic and financial market conditions using stress testing technique; 4) Identify the source of fluctuation within the system; 5) Identify and measure systemic risk emanating from the capital flow (surge) as well as its effects on financial stability. This study contributed to the body of knowledge by measuring systemic risk in emerging African economies. To the best of my knowledge, there have not been any studies that have been conducted for the measure of systemic risk with the context of emerging African economies. The target economies include South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya. The first objective of the study is to construct a financial stress index (FSI) for emerging African economies. The FSI which is aimed at revealing the functionality of the financial system a single aggregate indicator that is constructed to reflect the systemic nature of financial instability and as well to measure the vulnerability of the financial system to both internal and external shocks. The result shows that both the domestic and international shocks created uncertainty in the economies under consideration. On the international scene, we have the financial crisis while on the domestic scene; we have slow growth, banking crisis, energy crisis, labour crisis, coupled with political uncertainty. The FSI is also useful and appropriate as the dependent variable in an early signal warning model, and as well be used to gauge the effectiveness of government measures to mitigate financial stress. The models forecasting performance was tested using the ordinary least square methods and it affirmed that the model is reliable and that the FSI can be used for prediction of a future crisis. v The aim of the second objective is to develop an early warning signal (EWS) model to predict the possibility of the occurrence of a financial crisis in emerging African countries. The multinomial logit model built by Bussiere and Fratzscher (2006) was adopted to afford policy makers ample time to prevent or mitigate potential financial crisis. In summary, the result suggests that emerging African economies are more likely to face financial crisis as debts continue to rise without a corresponding capacity to withstand capital flow reversal as well as excessive FX risk due to currency exposure. The result further indicates that rising debt exposure increases the probability or likelihood of the economies remaining in a state of crisis. This result confirms the significance of a financial stability framework that fits Africa’s emerging economies characteristics such as rising debt profile liquidity and currency risk exposure. The third objective is to test the resilience of the financial sector using stress testing technique. Macro stress testing is a multi-step simulation process aimed at estimating the impact of credit risk shock on macroeconomic as well as financial sectors. In this study, a two-step approach was employed in this chapter. The first step involves analyzing the determinants of credit risk in 4 Emerging African economies during the period 2006m1 to 2012m12 using the panel Auto Regressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) model. Second, the vector autoregressive (VAR) models were employed to assess the resilience of the financial system as well as the economy to adverse credit risk shocks. The result shows that all the variables under both the macro and financial model jointly determine credit risk, although when examined on an individual basis only, UMP, IBR, and INF have a significant impact on NPL in the long run. For the macro stress testing, the VAR methodology was employed to stress test the emerging African economy financial sector and the result indicated that there a significant relationship between changes in output gap (GAP) and the nonperforming loans. A significant relationship was also established between inflation and nonperforming loans. In all, South Africa and Nigeria’s financial system seems more resilient to credit losses associated with this scenario without threatening financial stability compared to Kenya and Egypt. The fourth objective examined the sources of capital flows surge and their impact on macroeconomic variables. This study employed a ��−�������� to investigate the source capital flow surge within the system. The main findings of the result indicate that capital flow, which is vi proxied by FDI, is influenced by a wide variety of macroeconomic variables such as inflation, export growth and unemployment. There is therefore need for the implementation of capital controls framework tame massive capital inflows. Nevertheless, such a mechanism should not undermine the impact of capital inflows on employment, growth and financial stability. The fifth objective of the study is aimed at identifying and measuring the sources of systematic risk and its impact on the stability of the financial system using the Conditional Value-at-Risk methodology. The main finding of the study indicates that at the normal and extreme event the banking sector contributes positively and significantly to the real economy for all the countries except for Nigeria at the extreme event or 1 percent quantile. This study, therefore, concludes that the banking sector, stock market volatility contributes greatly to systemic risk in emerging African economies. The individual bank also contributes significantly to systemic risk for all the economies although the magnitudes are relatively different across economies. This finding is of great interest to policymakers since it shows that the banking sectors as well as stock market volatility have a negative impact on the real economy. This result is plausible as the banking and financial sector for most emerging economies constitute a greater proportion of the real economy. There is, therefore, need for a regulatory framework to reduce risk emanating from the banking sector as well as the financial markets. In summary, due to huge capital flows and rising debt level in emerging African economies, there is, therefore, a need for a macroprudential policy that will fit African economies as well as the implementation of capital controls framework tame massive capital inflows. Efforts should be made to reduce the rising debts profile of most countries and that will require a greater level of commitment from their respective government and central banks. However, these should be in the interest of the growth and stability of the financial system and the real economy at large. In the case of the banking sector, since it has a great impact on triggering systemic risk, more effort should be utilized to continue to monitor its performance so that potential risk can be detected early and nip in the bud.

Magister Commercii - MCom / People residing in rural areas generally struggle with many socio-economic problems, such as transport, health access, employment opportunities, poverty, inequality, access to essential services and facilities (e.g., piped water, electricity) as well as access to financial services. The global community has over the years came up with progressive measures directed at economic development and improvement of living standards, with one of them being financial inclusion (FI). FI is seen as one of the strategies to eradicate poverty, reduce unemployment and inequality as well as enhancing an inclusive economic growth. This study investigated financial inclusion in rural households of South Africa, using the Finscope data (2011 and 2016), with the aim of examining the extent of financial inclusion in rural households.

In the midst of global economic and financial integration, there are increasing cross-border capital flows between China and the rest of the world. Foreign financial businesses also start to play more important roles in the nation's market after waves of financial reforms. Within such a background, this study aims to investigate the agglomeration and location choice of overseas financial institutions in Chinese cities. Data from the 2004 China Economic Census show that foreign financial establishments, including banks, insurance companies, and other financial service businesses, were mainly agglomerated in coastal cities. In particular, three major urban areas, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, concentrated a majority of overseas financial institutions. Results from regression models show that foreign businesses' location choice is greatly influenced by a city's urban economy, involvement in the global market, and telecommunication infrastructure. However, we do not find a significant link between foreign financial institutions' market entry and the size of domestic financial centers in China.

To examine the barriers faced by the financially excluded, this research investigates financial inclusion as a sub-concept of social inclusion. The study assesses two demand-side barriers confronting the involuntarily financially excluded: financial literacy and self-efficacy. It thus goes beyond previous work that has sought to increase access to financial services by addressing supply-side barriers (specifically accessibility, affordability, availability and eligibility), mainly through various technological advances. Employing a preintervention/ post-intervention field experiment to measure the financial behaviour of individuals, the study monitored the use over a six-month period of an appropriately developed banking offering. Banking was offered to participants from rural areas near four distinct towns in Ghana, following the provision of training on financial literacy and selfefficacy. The results showed that regardless of whether participants received training in both, either or neither, they did not use their bank accounts for their financial transactions or savings. Secondarily, the results indicated that although financial literacy training may improve the financial knowledge of individuals, it does not necessarily lead to increased confidence on the part of the individual with regard to using formal financial services. In contrast, although the self-efficacy training (both on its own and together with financial literacy) did not translate into financial inclusion, participants reported that it had provided them with skills to guide their financial decision-making. Moreover, limited qualitative results obtained from participants indicated that they find the cash economy in which they operate adequate to their needs as members of their communities. As the main findings of this study suggest that developing the financial knowledge and attitude of the financially excluded, having addressed supply-side barriers of financial inclusion, still does not encourage the use of an appropriately developed banking offering, the explanation for the (non-)usage of banking products must lie elsewhere. The structure of an economy has to be seen as central to financial inclusion in that the influence of the cash economy and the informal economy mean that financial inclusion is not a precondition for social inclusion. This has serious implications for policy in sub-Saharan Africa. It may be that financial inclusion should be regarded as a result of an improving economic situation, rather than a contributory cause. Stakeholders should consider financial inclusion alongside and as part of policy initiatives designed to improve educational levels, digital skills, and a general understanding of the formal financial and, indeed, economic system. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

Magister Commercii - MCom / In this thesis I explored the teaching of debt literacy, a sub-topic of Financial Literacy Education. To do this, I used an arts-based framework to experiment with teaching debt literacy using poetry. Prior to the main poetry intervention, I explored several arts-based approaches such as frozen scenes, image theatre and drama-based pedagogies but I eventually settled on using poetry. Poetry as an arts-based approach to research within the field of financial literacy education is the research design. These two poems are produced as knowledge artefacts that can be used in further research studies or even by current students as teaching aids.

Over the years, investors demand greater transparency on how their funds are being invested. Whilst in the past it would have been enough for investment firms to seek primarily financial returns against all else; it is now becoming more common for investors to demand some form of positive impact above and beyond financial returns. In response to this, many strategies that seek more than just financial returns have been developed and impact investing being one such strategy. This research explores how fund managers and, or investors operating in the impact investment space communicate their practices to stakeholders in order to obtain an understanding of what they understand impact investing to be, and for those who may be investing for impact, understand the type of impact they seek to attain and also to appreciate how impact is being measured. The research findings suggest that despite much effort being put into the development of impact investing as a distinctive field, there are still a number of issues to iron out particularly with how companies communicate impact. The confusion and use of related terminology interchangeably is also an issue that is found to be detracting instead of adding to the development of the field.