The financial industry and more specifically Retail banking is a very competitive industry. The profit margins are shrinking with the entrance of newcompetitors into the market place. During the last two to three years various foreign banks have opened offices in South Africa, cherry picking the high net worth customers fromthe traditional high street banks. The product range between these banks is the same, maybe at times presented in a different wrapping. The one differential factor between the various banks is service and the quality thereof. The researcher, being a banker, decided to investigate how to improve the quality of service which is the main problemof this study. The secondary problems or subproblems are: * How to solve service breakdown? * How to retain customers after a service breakdown? The researcher first did a literature survey focusing on the key drives of this research namely: * Improving quality service. * Problem resolution. * Customer retention. An empirical investigation was also undertaken focusing on the personal market segment and the high net worth individuals. The demarcation of the survey was restricted to a specific area on the South Coast of KwaZulu Natal, and in particular the retail market and three specific branches on the South Coast, namely: * Scottburgh; * Margate, and * Port Shepstone. The main finding of the empirical survey indicates an average service rating of 8.38, which is in excess of the financial institution’s national service objective of 8.22 for 2001. This indicates that in most areas the service quality of this financial institution is good. The results fromthe literature survey as well as the empirical investigation indicated that service quality can only be achieved through a collective effort from all role players within the bank. The resolution of service breakdown needs to be controlled and managed to rectify breakdowns effectively within specific time limits that are acceptable to the individual customer. The barriers to retain customerswill become less effective should the financial institution not be able to restore or improve service quality for their customers.

While experiencing exponential growth worldwide, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are key factors in business today. The ubiquitous nature of the mobile phone in South Africa and the use of wireless technologies facilitate business in areas where current fixed infrastructure is limited or non-existent, thereby aiding in the development of rural areas. This descriptive study determines what factors will extend the use of mobile phone technology in business. The literature indicates business advantage can be gained from incorporating technology into a strategic framework but in so doing must consider the complexities of the technology and its lifecycle. Currently, e-mail and Internet access would be the most likely applications of data use via Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). As a technology-based study the methodology used e-mail to deliver a survey targeting staff from the three cellular network operators in Port Elizabeth. The mobile industry and Port Elizabeth were both considered good indicators of technology use and the progression of infrastructure throughout South Africa. The findings indicate that although most mobile phones have the features required by users, the current use of associated data applications is low. Email is the most appropriate application and expected to be significant in 2006. The technology is of strategic importance and can be applied to make idle time productive. Successful use depends on the removal of barriers. In the case of e-mail and Internet access; the most significant of these is the complexity of the initial set-up. Despite the complexity of technology evolution and the challenges of effective business application, substantial gains can be still be realised. Currently, technology is best deployed to meet specialised needs. The expected introduction of third generation technologies herald’s higher data transfer rates, providing the opportunity for more generalised application in business in the immediate future.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Business Administration), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / Although numerous articles have been published globally on microfinance (MF), essentially highlighting the need to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), none of these, to the knowledge of the researcher, specifically explore in profundity the formulation process of financial monitoring policies (FMPs), their implementation, and the challenges MFIs encounter in implementing these policies. The wave of distressed and failing of MFIs in Ghana and the loss of hard-earned thrift deposits of the poor, therefore demand for this investigation. This study consequently viaducts the gap and contributes to the debate by reviewing the specific financial policies pertaining to MFIs, their formulation, implementation of such policies, and the challenges MFIs encounter relating to those policies. Also introduced into the MF research arena, is the concept of implementation theory to move knowledge frontier forward. Further, the outcome will be of particular relevance to all emerging economies who view MFls as praxis for poverty alleviation, employment creation and addressing inequality. The study adopted a mixed research approach, with both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from a sample of 65 MFIs in Accra through a self-administered, Likert-scaled questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 24.0, with results presented in frequency tables, figures, correlation tables, and cross-tabulations. The findings reveal that FMPs exist for MFIs in Ghana – Accra, particularly. However, regulation formulation is shown to be lopsided, with implementation of FMPs, and monitoring and supervision thereof, also found to be deficient. The results further indicate that using minimum capital as a tool to ensuring efficiency in the sector, is a major obstacle to overcome to create an impetus for regulatory non-compliance. Based on the findings, the research recommends consideration by policymakers and MFI monitoring units to create a semi-autonomous institution, the National Microfinance Promotion Authority, to regulate and supervise the MFIs in Ghana. It is also recommended that research focus be shifted to policy implementation regarding MF operations. / D

M.Comm. / Financial Condition Reporting is the new proposed risk-based approach to calculating the solvency requirements of the short-term insurance companies in South Africa by the regulator, the Financial Services Board. A risk-based approach to calculating capital requirements is currently the most popular in the developed nations with the United States of America being the champion of this. Australia has implemented its own version of the risk-based capital approach and the United Kingdom has implemented ICAS which is a prelude to Solvency II to be implemented by the European Union. It is unknown how Financial Condition Reporting in South Africa will affect the levels of competitiveness of the short-term insurance industry. Qualitative study was done firstly to develop an understanding of the regulation of financial services and secondly to get an appreciation of how the regulation of financial services affects the levels of competition within the industry. Due to the fact that different people (organisations) have different views on the proposed financial reporting, qualitative data methods provide participants with an opportunity to discuss their reasons. The intention of the researcher was to get as much information as possible from the interviews and hence one of the data collection techniques employed was the use of a tape recorder.. Generally all participants indicated that Financial Condition Reporting was more than welcome in the short-term insurance industry. It was evident that this will force the board of directors of short-term insurance companies to be involved in the risk management of the organisation. In turn this will allow an in-depth understanding of the risks that the organisations are facing. i Financial Condition Reporting will certainly not come without costs; these could either be the cost of implementing the internal models as this will inevitably require the use of qualified actuaries or the capital required as dictated by the prescribed model as this is an industry average. Both costs can result in some companies merging or some being bought out and this could change the scales of competition within the short-term insurance industry.

Fundamental changes in the global economy are changing the basis of organisational competitive advantage. The challenge in attaining a competitive advantage is characterised by factors such as increased competition, market volatility, geographically dispersed operations, customer awareness, raising workforce diversity and stringent regulatory regimes. These factors have driven, and in turn have been driven by, an increasing complexity of products, services and the processes that create value, resulting in changes in the structural and functional dimensions of the organisation. Business executives and academics recognise the shift in value creating assets from the traditional land, labour and capital to intangible assets such as knowledge and information becoming the most important resources an organisation can muster.The combination and integration of intangible assets such as human resources, structural and relational resources has been grouped under the umbrella of intellectual capital. This study comprises of a single descriptive case study analysis to ascertain how intellectual capital is managed strategically to gain a competitive advantage in an organisation in the banking and financial services sector in Zambia. Based on document review and semi-structured interviews, this thesis investigated the extent to which an organisation in the banking and financial services sector in Zambia leveraged intellectual capital to gain competitive advantage. In this study it was found that there is a low level appreciation of the intellectual capital phenomenon as a strategic management tool in the participating organisation. However, the organisation has adopted aspects of intellectual capital and has implemented them successfully accounting for the organisation‘s competitive edge in the market.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The aim of this study is to determine the extent to which the UN/OSCAL (United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Development Countries) model of microfinance is being applied in the South African context, its scope for application and recommendations for implementation. The hypothesis is that, the better South African microfinance initiatives conform to the model, the more successful it will be in fulfilling the ultimate mission of microfinance which is to supply financial services to the poor by cutting the cost of outreach with beneficial effects on poverty.. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / This study was on the anticipated impact of GATS on the financial services industry in Africa. The paper examined the possible positive and negative impact of the GATS agreement on the financial services industry in the African countries. The research focused on the banking sector and the insurance sector as the main financial sectors under investigation. / South Africa

The research for this study was guided by the question on whether the financial inclusion improvement strategies of the South African government adequately address the financial inclusion targets, as set out in the National Development Plan. This descriptive non-empirical study was conducted by means of a literature review. The secondary data used for the study were collected from a number of sources, namely: (i) the 2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project report; (ii) the 2014 Global Findex survey; (iii) the InterMedia surveys; (iv) Financial Access surveys; (v) various national FinScope surveys; and (iv) a number of working papers of the World Bank related to financial inclusion. The data revealed that South Africa, with its sophisticated financial sector, was early to adopt policies and initiatives to advance financial inclusion and the country has experienced a noticeable increase in financial inclusion from 61% in 2004 to 87% in 2015. South Africa is 3% away from its National Development Plan goal of 90% financial inclusion by 2030. This indicates that overall, the financial inclusion initiatives adopted by the South African government were successful.

This dissertation consists of three parts. In the first part, we study an oligopoly model in which firms compete across several geographic regions. This networked competition is prevalent in many markets, such energy, metals, and agricultural commodity markets. Firms operating in these industries are constrained by physical limits on production capacities. Our paper provides the first analytical study on firms' competition in industries where players are capacity constrained. We find that a reduction in import-export taxes can have qualitatively different effects on consumer welfare depending on whether or not the impacted firm is capacity constrained. Our results imply that policies that promote free trade (e.g. NAFTA, European Union) may have unintended consequence and reduce the consumer surplus in capacity constrained industries. The second part of this dissertation analyzes the pros and cons of Bitcoin payment systems. The creator of Bitcoin envisioned a decentralized payment system in which mining can be performed by anyone using their home computers. Since it was introduced in 2008, Bitcoin attracted significant attention, both by public media and by investors. This led to a surge in the bitcoin price, and its market capitalization exceeded $170 billion (as of February 2, 2020). With the rise of bitcoin price, firms started to invest in developing efficient hardware to increase their probability of successfully mining blocks. As a result, mining operations became vertically integrated with single firms designing and manufacturing mining chips, and operating them in data centers. These major developments in mining technology bring up the following question: Does Bitcoin's proof-of-work protocol serve its intended purpose of enabling and supporting a decentralized payment system? We propose a two-stage game to answer this question. Firms first invest in research and development to subsequently compete in a Bitcoin mining game. We show that firms fail to capture the surplus created from their research, because higher research expenditures induce a more aggressive mining game. We calibrate our model to rewards and operational costs observed in the Bitcoin system, and quantitatively demonstrate that the mining industry has a tendency towards centralization, against the core principles of cryptocurrencies. The third part of this dissertation studies the emerging robo-advising industry. Roboadvisors are threatening traditional wealth management firms due to their ability to offer lower fees and minimum balance requirements, as well as transparent and systematic advise. Robo-advisors had $300 billion in assets under management during 2016, and are projected to reach $2.2 trillion by 2020. Currently, robo-advising firms employ questionnaires to assess the risk preference of investors. While appealing, the use of questionnaires presents various shortcomings: (i) investors' answers do not account for emotional responses observed when the loss is incurred, (ii) survey responses are subject to noise, and (iii) risk tolerance assessments are sensitive to the specific wording and formats used in questionnaires. To overcome these limitations, we propose a reinforcement learning framework for retail roboadvising. The robo-advisor does not know the investor's risk preference, but learns it over time by observing her portfolio choices in different market environments. We develop an exploration-exploitation algorithm which trades off costly solicitations of portfolio choices by the investor with autonomous trading decisions based on stale estimates of investor's risk aversion. We illustrate how, by correcting for the investor's mistakes, the robo-advisor may outperform a stand-alone investor regardless of the investor's opportunity cost for making portfolio decisions.

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