Thesis advisor: Philip E. Strahan / My dissertation consists of two chapters. In the first chapter, I show that the growing trend in financial services digitalization has introduced a new dimension along which commercial banks compete, with consequences for the local economy. Small community banks (SCBs) are slow to implement mobile technologies and lose deposits to larger, better-digitalized banks following mobile infrastructure improvements. This dynamic negatively affects their small business lending, for they have historically relied on information and liquidity synergies with deposits to maintain their competitive advantage in such markets. Larger banks and FinTech firms prove to be imperfect substitutes in this setting, and the local economy benefits less from digitalization in areas where SCBs had an important presence before its advent. The second chapter, co-authored with Prof. Rawley Heimer, focuses on the outcomes of consumers' efforts to achieve restitution for disputed financial services. We find that complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from low-income and Black zip codes are 30% less likely to be resolved with the consumer receiving financial restitution. The gap in financial restitution was scarcely present under the Obama administration, but grew substantially under the Trump administration. We attribute the change in financial restitution under different political regimes to companies anticipating a more industry-friendly CFPB, as well as to the more industry-friendly leadership of the CFPB achieving less financial restitution for low-income and Black filers. The financial restitution gap cannot be explained by differences in product usage nor the quality of complaints, which we measure using textual analysis. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Legal Status of the Financial Arbiter in Comparison with Selected Regulatory and Control Institutions in the Czech Republic and EU The topic of my thesis is legal status of the Financial arbiter in the Czech Republic. It represent a specific institution for out-of-court settlement of financial disputes between providers of some financial services and their clients. The Financial arbiter does not substitute the role of courts; instead it operates alongside the judicial system and offers to the clients of financial institutions swift and free of charge alternative to the legal proceedings, which emphasizes reconciliation. In the opening chapter of this thesis I looked into the theoretical concept of this institution and characterized it as an administrative authority sui generis. In order to obtain better understanding of the institutional status of the Financial arbiter, I further compared the Financial arbiter with similar institutions in the Czech Republic and the EU. I consider the separation from the Czech National Bank and the creation of the Financial arbiter bureau, which is a government department, as a major change in the legal status of the Financial arbiter. The arbitration proceeding represents an alternative to the legal proceedings. It can be initiated only by a client`s complaint, for...

Au Canada, en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis, on voit de nombreux groupes religieux prendre des initiatives susceptibles d'influencer les règles qui régissent la société civile. Pour certains, cette instrumentalisation de la religion à des fins politiques ébranle l'exercice des libertés et des droits fondamentaux. Dernièrement, les médias ont beaucoup parlé de la création des tribunaux d'arbitrage musulman appliquant le droit musulman pour régler des litiges d'ordre familial et financier au Canada, l'Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis. En fait, l'idée voulant que les parties privées s'entendent de leur plein gré pour soumettre leurs différends religieux islamique à un arbitre religieux musulman appliquant le droit musulman n'est pas nouvelle. à titre d'exemple, plusieurs communautés juives ont mis en place des tribunaux d'arbitrage rabbinique, chargés de régler les différends d'ordre civil entre particuliers juifs en vertu du droit rabbinique. C’est exactement ce précédent qui a incité des communautés musulmanes à emboîter le pas.Pour mieux comprendre les tenants et aboutissants de ces questions, nous avons choisi d'explorer l'arbitrage du point de vue interne, c’est à dire du point de vue des sources islamiques, pour ensuite l'examiner du point de vue externe, c’est à dire du point de vue de l'ordre juridique étatique dans lequel il est appelé à s'insérer (liberté de religion et le multiculturalisme). Le fonctionnement des tribunaux d'arbitrage musulmans mérite un examen attentif. Il conviendra donc de s’interroger sur le processus d'arbitrage, la reconnaissance et l’exécution des sentences arbitrales islamiques et sur le rôle de l'ordre public en la matière, avec l'idée d'envisager d'un point de vue normatif, un dialogue constructif et inclusif. / In Canada, England and United States, many religious groups have been organizing to implement policies that would influence the manner in which civil society is run. It has been argued that this use of religion for political gain threatens to undermine hard won entitlements to equality and basic human rights. Much media has recently focused on the issue of the formation of arbitration islamic tribunals that would use Islamic Law to settle familiy and financial matters in Canada, England and United States. In fact, the idea of privates parties voluntarily agreeing to have their islamic religious disputes resolved by an muslim arbitrator using the islamic law is not new. For example, other religious groups including several Jewish communities have created Jewish arbitration tribunals in order to resolve civil matters between individuals using Talmudic law, and setting a precedent for Muslim communities to do the same.After having explored arbitration from an internal perspective, in other words from islamic sources, we will examine this from an external perspective, in other words the national legal system into which it must be inserted (Religious Freedom and Multiculturalism). The functioning of islamic arbitration tribunals merits close examination. This therefore raises questions as to the arbitration process, the recognition and enforcement of islamic arbitral awards, and on the role of public policy in this respect, with the idea to envisage from a normative perspective, a constructive and inclusive dialogue