Currently, many systems improve transparency and efficiency in the transmission and utilization of financial information. For example, Electronic Data Gathering And Retrieval (EDGAR), which is used by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in USA is an electronic filing system for listed companies to submit financial documents. After validation, those documents are disseminated electronically to investors. Securities Markets Automated Research Training and Surveillance (SMARTS), developed in Australia, is a market monitoring system, which detects market behavior, trading patterns, and aberrant trading activities. Also, many financial information retrieval and analysis systems support searching, retrieval, and analysis of financial information, one such example is BOOM. Boom collects, organizes, analyzes and delivers financial information to their subscribers. However, these systems are designed to support vertical perspective of market information transmission, which may be duplicated and error prone, and can be collaborated to provide a more complete view of information for market monitoring and investment decision. / This dissertation is aimed to integrate the financial information in a horizontal perspective---an Integrated Trading Environment is proposed which has five systems to provide the needed functionality. In which, two surveys were conducted on the adoption of on-line trading by both investors and brokers in order to develop strategies for launching the online trading system. To cooperate with the strategies, a knowledge-based financial information infrastructure was proposed in the new trading environment. With the support of proposed Financial Information to Knowledge Transforming Model (FIKTM), a XML-based data integration architecture was constructed to improve the market transparency and efficiency. / Lau Sau Mui. / "August 2002." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-10, Section: B, page: 4873. / Supervisor: Jerome Yen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-219). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

South African home users of the Internet use the Internet to perform various everyday functions. These functions include, but are not limited to, online shopping, online gaming, social networking and online banking. Home users of online banking face multiple threats, such as phishing and social engineering. These threats come from hackers attempting to obtain confidential information, such as online banking authentication credentials, from home users. It is, thus, essential that home users of online banking be made aware of these threats, how to identify them and what countermeasures to implement to protect themselves from hackers. In this respect, information security awareness (ISA) programmes are an effective way of making the home users of online banking aware of both the threats they face and the countermeasures available to protect themselves from these threats. There are certain legal requirements with which South African banks have to comply when implementing ISA initiatives. Non-compliance or failure to demonstrate due care and due diligence should a security incident occur will result in financial penalties for the bank as well as possible brand damage and loss of customers. Banks implement international best practice recommendations in an effort to comply with legislation. These include recommendations for information security awareness. This research investigated both information security best practice recommendations and information security legal requirements for information security awareness. A selected list of information security best practices was investigated for best practice recommendations while a selected list of information security legislation was investigated for legal requirements imposed on South African banks. A gap analysis was performed on both these recommendations and requirements to determine whether the implementation of best practice recommendations resulted in compliance with legal requirements. The gap analysis found that the implementation of best practice recommendations does not result in compliance with legal requirements. Accordingly, the outcome of this research highlighted the importance of understanding the legal requirements and ensuring that adequate controls are in place with which to achieve compliance. / Business Information systems / Msc. (Information systems)

South African home users of the Internet use the Internet to perform various everyday functions. These functions include, but are not limited to, online shopping, online gaming, social networking and online banking. Home users of online banking face multiple threats, such as phishing and social engineering. These threats come from hackers attempting to obtain confidential information, such as online banking authentication credentials, from home users. It is, thus, essential that home users of online banking be made aware of these threats, how to identify them and what countermeasures to implement to protect themselves from hackers. In this respect, information security awareness (ISA) programmes are an effective way of making the home users of online banking aware of both the threats they face and the countermeasures available to protect themselves from these threats. There are certain legal requirements with which South African banks have to comply when implementing ISA initiatives. Non-compliance or failure to demonstrate due care and due diligence should a security incident occur will result in financial penalties for the bank as well as possible brand damage and loss of customers. Banks implement international best practice recommendations in an effort to comply with legislation. These include recommendations for information security awareness. This research investigated both information security best practice recommendations and information security legal requirements for information security awareness. A selected list of information security best practices was investigated for best practice recommendations while a selected list of information security legislation was investigated for legal requirements imposed on South African banks. A gap analysis was performed on both these recommendations and requirements to determine whether the implementation of best practice recommendations resulted in compliance with legal requirements. The gap analysis found that the implementation of best practice recommendations does not result in compliance with legal requirements. Accordingly, the outcome of this research highlighted the importance of understanding the legal requirements and ensuring that adequate controls are in place with which to achieve compliance. / Business Information systems / Msc. (Information systems)

Empirical evidence indicates that companies that reduce information asymmetry by increased voluntary disclosures achieve several benefits, such as lower cost of capital, improved pricing, and liquidity of their shares. Despite the possibility of such benefits, many studies report varying degrees of voluntary disclosure behaviour that is attributable to various factors. Recent studies indicate that investors’ investment horizon has a significant effect on actions taken by management. Companies with predominantly short-horizon investors spend less on research and development, invest in shorter-term projects that are less profitable than longer-term projects, and are more likely to manipulate earnings to meet short-term earnings expectations. This study investigates whether investors’ investment horizon has an effect on the quality of companies’ information environment. Long-horizon investors should be familiar with their investee company’s risks and rewards, using both their own internal information gathering processes and the cumulative information disclosed by management over time. Moreover, over the course of a long-term relationship, they can become familiar with management’s capability to deliver long-term sustainable returns. Long-horizon investors should therefore be less concerned with short-term fluctuations of earnings and management’s public explanations and disclosures thereof. I hypothesise that higher (lower) proportions of long-horizon investors are associated with lower (higher) quality voluntary disclosure. The shareholder familiarity hypothesis was tested in this study, using an ordinary least squares regression. Voluntary disclosures were observed via the channel of companies’ websites. A checklist was compiled of best practices for online investor relations, and content analyses were conducted on the websites of 205 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Shareholder familiarity was proxied by shareholder stability, measured over nine years. The stability measure was lagged by one year to create a temporal difference between the shareholder profile and disclosure behaviour. I found that companies with a profile of unstable investors that are larger, younger, dual-listed and have a Big4 auditor have higher quality online investor relations practices. The hypothesis of a negative association between shareholder familiarity and voluntary disclosure quality is therefore accepted. This study extends the theory on information asymmetry and voluntary disclosure by providing evidence supporting the argument that investor horizon is a predictor of voluntary disclosure quality. The dictum of more is better does not hold in all scenarios. It is important for financial directors and investor relations officers to establish the investment horizon profile of their respective companies’ shareholders before they embark on extensive disclosure programmes. / Financial Intelligence

by Po Chun-Wong. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Incldues bibliographical references (leaves 110-113). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.vi / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / The Hong Kong Securities Market --- p.1 / The Way How Listed Securities are Traded --- p.4 / The Low Participation Rate of Individual Investors and Its Adverse Consequences --- p.9 / The Services Provided by Stockbrokers --- p.10 / How Listed Securities are Promoted --- p.10 / Internet and Online Financial Information Services --- p.14 / Online Securities Trading via the Internet --- p.18 / The Pros and Cons of Dealing Securities on the Internet --- p.20 / "The Listed Companies, Stockbrokers and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's Presence on the Internet" --- p.34 / Chapter II. --- THIS STUDY --- p.38 / Purpose of the Study --- p.38 / Justification of the Study --- p.38 / Scope of the Study ………………… --- p.39 / Chapter III. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.40 / Research Design --- p.40 / Sample Selection --- p.41 / Survey Design --- p.42 / Questionnaire Development --- p.43 / Timing of the Study --- p.43 / Chapter IV. --- ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS --- p.44 / Response Rate --- p.45 / Demographics of the Samples --- p.45 / Stock Trading Behaviour --- p.48 / Computer Usage --- p.53 / Internet and Web Usage --- p.54 / "Data Privacy, Censorship & Security of Transaction" --- p.62 / Attitude of Online Securities Trading --- p.66 / Chapter V. --- LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY --- p.67 / Non-Response Bias --- p.67 / Response Bias --- p.67 / Sample Selection Bias --- p.69 / Language Used in Questionnaire --- p.69 / Chapter VI. --- COMPARISON OF STUDIES --- p.70 / Hong Kong Internet User Survey 1996 --- p.70 / GVU's 6th WWW User Survey --- p.72 / "Find/SVP's “The American Home Financial Services Survey""" --- p.77 / IntelliQuest Information Group --- p.80 / Chapter VII. --- RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.81 / Market Segmentation --- p.81 / Market Positioning and Strategy --- p.82 / Other Recommendations --- p.88 / Directions for Future Studies --- p.92 / Chapter VIII. --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.94 / APPENDICES --- p.96 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.110