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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
91

The history and development of the Kimberley Africana Library and its relationship with the Kimberley Public Library

Holloway, Rosemary Jean 09 1900 (has links)
The study investigates the establishment and development of the Kimberley Africana Library and its mother institution, the Kimberley Public Library within the broader social, economical and political environment in which they took place. The history of these institutions is inextricable until 1984 when the public and Africana sections of the Library were separated and the Kimberley Africana Library was opened to the public in 1986. It was the exceptional collections of Africana and rare books which distinguished the Kimberley Public Library and the main factor which bound the history of these two institutions. The Kimberley Public Library and its progeny the Kimberley Africana Library are the products of a new industrialised era which came about after the discovery of diamonds in South Africa. They emanated from an environment which produced the new wealth of the country, an almost uncharted region which was relatively new to the established British colonies. In order to place the origins of and motivation for the establishment of the Kimberley Public Library and the Kimberley Africana Library in perspective, it is necessary in this study also to include an overview of the development of the diamond mining industry in Kimberley. This development, peculiar as it was to Kimberley, gave rise to the type of social and cultural milieu in which the Public Library was founded by the immigrants to this area. Also included in the study is a brief survey of the development of the library movement in South Africa and the role played by the Kimberley Public Library in the growth of this movement and in the expansion of public library services to the people of the country. The history of the Kimberley Public/Africana Library which covers a period of more than a century is divided into three distinct periods, namely that which deals with the institution as a Subscription Library from 1882 until 1960 and, from 1961 as a free library under the jurisdiction of the Kimberley Municipality and affiliated to the Cape Provincial Library Service. The third period concerns the dichotomisation of the Kimberley Public Library and the establishment of the Kimberley Africana Library in 1986 to house the Library’s renowned collection of Africana and rare books. This section also deals with the period after 1994 when the Kimberley Libraries functioned under the new political dispensation in South Africa. Emphasis is laid on the formation, nature and scope of the Africana Collection which was the raison d’etre for the establishment of the Kimberley Africana Library and the most significant of the items in the collection are broadly described. The study concludes with an assessment of the challenges the Kimberley Africana Library faces and suggests ways and means of resolving these. An Appendix entitled The Founders and the Builders is added in order to elaborate on the exceptional contributions of several prominent Committee members and Librarians who controlled and managed these institutions from their inception in 1882 until 2008. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)
92

Ανάπτυξη συστημάτων δημοσιεύσεων/συνδρομών σε δομημένα δίκτυα ομοτίμων εταίρων / Content-based publish/subscribe systems over DHT-based Peer-to-Peer Networks

Αικατερινίδης, Ιωάννης 18 April 2008 (has links)
Τα τελευταία χρόνια οι εφαρμογές συνεχούς μετάδοσης ροών πληροφορίας στο διαδίκτυο έχουν γίνει ιδιαίτερα δημοφιλείς. Με τον συνεχώς αυξανόμενο ρυθμό εισόδου νέων αντικειμένων πληροφορίας, γίνεται ολοένα και πιο επιτακτική η ανάγκη για την ανάπτυξη πληροφορικών συστημάτων που να μπορούν να προσφέρουν στους χρήστες τους μόνο εκείνες τις πληροφορίες που τους ενδιαφέρουν, φιλτράροντας τεράστιους όγκους από άσχετες για τον κάθε χρήστη, πληροφορίες. Ένα μοντέλο διάδοσης πληροφορίας ικανό να ενσωματώσει τέτοιου είδους ιδιότητες, είναι το μοντέλο δημοσιεύσεων/συνδρομών βασισμένο στο περιεχόμενο ( content-based publish/subscribe) Βασική συνεισφορά μας στο χώρο είναι η εφαρμογή του μοντέλου δημοσιεύσεων/συνδρομών βασισμένου στο περιεχόμενο (content-based publish/subscribe) πάνω στα δίκτυα ομοτίμων ώστε να μπορέσουμε να προσφέρουμε στους χρήστες υψηλή εκφραστικότητα κατά την δήλωση των ενδιαφερόντων τους, λειτουργώντας σε ένα πλήρως κατανεμημένο και κλιμακώσιμο περιβάλλον. Ο κορμός των προτεινόμενων λύσεων σε αυτή τη διατριβή είναι: (α) η ανάπτυξη αλγορίθμων για την αποθήκευση των κλειδιών των δημοσιεύσεων σε κατάλληλους κόμβους του δικτύου με βάση τις συνθήκες στο περιεχόμενο που έχουν δηλωθεί και (β) αλγορίθμων δρομολόγησης δημοσιεύσεων στο διαδίκτυο έτσι ώστε να ((συναντούν)) αυτούς τους κόμβους οι οποίοι περιέχουν συνδρομές που ικανοποιούνται από την πληροφορία της δημοσίευσης. Οι προτεινόμενοι αλγόριθμοι υλοποιήθηκαν και εξετάσθηκαν ενδελεχώς με προσομοίωση μελετώντας την απόδοσή τους με βάση μετρικές όπως: η δίκαιη κατανομή του φόρτου στους κόμβους του δικτύου από τη διακίνηση μηνυμάτων κατά την επεξεργασία των συνδρομών/δημοσιεύσεων, ο συνολικός αριθμός μηνυμάτων που διακινούνται, ο συνολικός όγκος επιπλέον πληροφορίας που απαιτούν οι αλγόριθμοι να εισέλθει στο δίκτυο (network bandwidth), και ο χρόνος που απαιτείται για την ανεύρεση των συνδρομών που συζευγνύουν με κάθε δημοσίευση. / In the past few years the continuous data streams applications have become particularly popular. With the continuously increasing rate of entry of new information, it becomes imperative the need for developing appropriate infrastructures that will offer only the information that users are interested for, filtering out large volumes of irrelevant for each user, information. The content-based publish/subscribe model, is capable of handling large volumes of data traffic in a distributed, fully decentralized manner. Our basic contribution in this research area is the coupling of the content-based publish/subscribe model with the structured (DHT-based) peer-to-peer networks, offering high expressiveness to users on stating their interests. The proposed infrastructure operated in a distributed and scalable environment. The proposed solutions in this thesis are related to the development and testing: (a) of a number of algorithms for subscription processing in the network and (b) of a number of algorithms for processing the publication events. The proposed algorithms were developed and thoroughly tested with a detailed simulation-based experimentation. The performance metrics are: the fair distribution of load in the nodes of network from the distribution of messages while processing subscriptions and publication events, the total number of messages that are generated, the total volume of additional information that is required from the algorithms to operate, and the time that is required for matching publication events to subscriptions.
93

A comparison of capital rules governing financial assistance by a company in South African and English company law

Andargie, Abyote Abebe 28 October 2013 (has links)
The Companies Act of 71 of 2008 makes a number of important changes to the rules relating to capital maintenance. In line with the objectives of the Companies Act of 71 of 2008, section 44 of the Act has removed the prohibition on the provision of financial assistance by a company which was contained under the previous section 38 of the Companies Act 61 of 1973. Despite the repeal of the prohibition, a transaction which involves the provision of financial assistance by a company for the acquisition of or subscription of its own securities still needs to be effected in accordance with the requirements and conditions that are provided under the Act and Memorandum of Incorporation. To explore the new developments, within this study, the provision of financial assistance in terms of section 44 of the Companies Act of 2008 is, therefore, analysed in detail. On the other hand, the UK Companies Act of 2006 repealed the prohibition on the giving of financial assistance by private companies in most circumstances. It, however, retained the prohibition to public companies only because of the requirements of the Second Company Law Directive (77/91/EEC). This study also explores the rules of financial assistance by a company under the UK Companies Acts in detail. Though the source of financial assistance by a company both in South Africa and in English Company laws is rooted in the English decision of the Trevor v Whitworth case, currently these countries have adopted what is deemed appropriate and significant in their own countries. This study, therefore, examines and compares the rules governing the provision of financial assistance by a company in the company laws of these two countries. / Mercantile Law / LL.M. (Commercial law)
94

A methodology for neural spatial interaction modeling

Fischer, Manfred M., Reismann, Martin January 2002 (has links) (PDF)
This paper attempts to develop a mathematically rigid and unified framework for neural spatial interaction modeling. Families of classical neural network models, but also less classical ones such as product unit neural network ones are considered for the cases of unconstrained and singly constrained spatial interaction flows. Current practice appears to suffer from least squares and normality assumptions that ignore the true integer nature of the flows and approximate a discrete-valued process by an almost certainly misrepresentative continuous distribution. To overcome this deficiency we suggest a more suitable estimation approach, maximum likelihood estimation under more realistic distributional assumptions of Poisson processes, and utilize a global search procedure, called Alopex, to solve the maximum likelihood estimation problem. To identify the transition from underfitting to overfitting we split the data into training, internal validation and test sets. The bootstrapping pairs approach with replacement is adopted to combine the purity of data splitting with the power of a resampling procedure to overcome the generally neglected issue of fixed data splitting and the problem of scarce data. In addition, the approach has power to provide a better statistical picture of the prediction variability, Finally, a benchmark comparison against the classical gravity models illustrates the superiority of both, the unconstrained and the origin constrained neural network model versions in terms of generalization performance measured by Kullback and Leibler's information criterion.
95

Economic analysis of wireless sensor-based services in the framework of the Internet of Things. A game-theoretical approach

Sanchis Cano, Ángel 25 May 2018 (has links)
El mundo de las telecomunicaciones está cambiando de un escenario donde únicamente las personas estaban conectadas a un modelo donde prácticamente todos los dispositivos y sensores se encuentran conectados, también conocido como Internet de las cosas (IoT), donde miles de millones de dispositivos se conectarán a Internet a través de conexiones móviles y redes fijas. En este contexto, hay muchos retos que superar, desde el desarrollo de nuevos estándares de comunicación al estudio de la viabilidad económica de los posibles escenarios futuros. En esta tesis nos hemos centrado en el estudio de la viabilidad económica de diferentes escenarios mediante el uso de conceptos de microeconomía, teoría de juegos, optimización no lineal, economía de redes y redes inalámbricas. La tesis analiza la transición desde redes centradas en el servicio de tráfico HTC a redes centradas en tráfico MTC desde un punto de vista económico. El primer escenario ha sido diseñado para centrarse en las primeras etapas de la transición, en la que ambos tipos de tráfico son servidos bajo la misma infraestructura de red. En el segundo escenario analizamos la siguiente etapa, en la que el servicio a los usuarios MTC se realiza mediante una infraestructura dedicada. Finalmente, el tercer escenario analiza la provisión de servicios basados en MTC a usuarios finales, mediante la infraestructura analizada en el escenario anterior. Gracias al análisis de todos los escenarios, hemos observado que la transición de redes centradas en usuarios HTC a redes MTC es posible y que la provisión de servicios en tales escenarios es viable. Además, hemos observado que el comportamiento de los usuarios es esencial para determinar la viabilidad de los diferentes modelos de negocio, y por tanto, es necesario estudiar el comportamiento y las preferencias de los usuarios en profundidad en estudios futuros. Específicamente, los factores más relevantes son la sensibilidad de los usuarios al retardo en los datos recopilados por los sensores y la cantidad de los mismos. También hemos observado que la diferenciación del tráfico en categorías mejora el uso de las redes y permite crear nuevos servicios empleando datos que, de otro modo, no se aprovecharían, lo cual nos permite mejorar la monetización de la infraestructura. También hemos demostrado que la provisión de capacidad es un mecanismo válido, alternativo a la fijación de precios, para la optimización de los beneficios de los proveedores de servicio. Finalmente, se ha demostrado que es posible crear roles específicos para ofrecer servicios IoT en el mercado de las telecomunicaciones, específicamente, los IoT-SPs, que proporcionan servicios basados en sensores inalámbricos utilizando infraestructuras de acceso de terceros y sus propias redes de sensores. En resumen, en esta tesis hemos intentado demostrar la viabilidad económica de modelos de negocio basados en redes futuras IoT, así como la aparición de nuevas oportunidades y roles de negocio, lo cual nos permite justificar económicamente el desarrollo y la implementación de las tecnologías necesarias para ofrecer servicios de acceso inalámbrico masivo a dispositivos MTC. / The communications world is moving from a standalone devices scenario to a all-connected scenario known as Internet of Things (IoT), where billions of devices will be connected to the Internet through mobile and fixed networks. In this context, there are several challenges to face, from the development of new standards to the study of the economical viability of the different future scenarios. In this dissertation we have focused on the study of the economic viability of different scenarios using concepts of microeconomics, game theory, non-linear optimization, network economics and wireless networks. The dissertation analyzes the transition from a Human Type Communications (HTC) to a Machine Type Communications (MTC) centered network from an economic point of view. The first scenario is designed to focus on the first stages of the transition, where HTC and MTC traffic are served on a common network infrastructure. The second scenario analyzes the provision of connectivity service to MTC users using a dedicated network infrastructure, while the third stage is centered in the analysis of the provision of services based on the MTC data over the infrastructure studied in the previous scenario. Thanks to the analysis of all the scenarios we have observed that the transition from HTC users-centered networks to MTC networks is possible and that the provision of services in such scenarios is viable. In addition, we have observed that the behavior of the users is essential in order to determine the viability of a business model, and therefore, it is needed to study their behavior and preferences in depth in future studios. Specifically, the most relevant factors are the sensitivity of the users to the delay and to the amount of data gathered by the sensors. We also have observed that the differentiation of the traffic in categories improves the usage of the networks and allows to create new services thanks to the data that otherwise would not be used, improving the monetization of the infrastructure and the data. In addition, we have shown that the capacity provision is a valid mechanism for providers' profit optimization, as an alternative to the pricing mechanisms. Finally, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to create dedicated roles to offer IoT services in the telecommunications market, specifically, the IoT-SPs, which provide wireless-sensor-based services to the final users using a third party infrastructure. Summarizing, this dissertation tries to demonstrate the economic viability of the future IoT networks business models as well as the emergence of new business opportunities and roles in order to justify economically the development and implementation of the new technologies required to offer massive wireless access to machine devices. / El món de les telecomunicacions està canviant d'un escenari on únicament les persones estaven connectades a un model on pràcticament tots els dispositius i sensors es troben connectats, també conegut com a Internet de les Coses (IoT) , on milers de milions de dispositius es connectaran a Internet a través de connexions mòbils i xarxes fixes. En aquest context, hi ha molts reptes que superar, des del desenrotllament de nous estàndards de comunicació a l'estudi de la viabilitat econòmica dels possibles escenaris futurs. En aquesta tesi ens hem centrat en l'estudi de la viabilitat econòmica de diferents escenaris per mitjà de l'ús de conceptes de microeconomia, teoria de jocs, optimització no lineal, economia de xarxes i xarxes inalàmbriques. La tesi analitza la transició des de xarxes centrades en el servici de tràfic HTC a xarxes centrades en tràfic MTC des d'un punt de vista econòmic. El primer escenari ha sigut dissenyat per a centrar-se en les primeres etapes de la transició, en la que ambdós tipus de tràfic són servits davall la mateixa infraestructura de xarxa. En el segon escenari analitzem la següent etapa, en la que el servici als usuaris MTC es realitza per mitjà d'una infraestructura dedicada. Finalment, el tercer escenari analitza la provisió de servicis basats en MTC a usuaris finals, per mitjà de la infraestructura analitzada en l'escenari anterior. Als paràgrafs següents es descriu amb més detall cada escenari. Gràcies a l'anàlisi de tots els escenaris, hem observat que la transició de xarxes centrades en usuaris HTC a xarxes MTC és possible i que la provisió de servicis en tals escenaris és viable. A més a més, hem observat que el comportament dels usuaris és essencial per a determinar la viabilitat dels diferents models de negoci, i per tant, és necessari estudiar el comportament i les preferències dels usuaris en profunditat en estudis futurs. Específicament, els factors més rellevants són la sensibilitat dels usuaris al retard en les dades recopilats pels sensors i la quantitat dels mateixos. També hem observat que la diferenciació del tràfic en categories millora l'ús de les xarxes i permet crear nous servicis emprant dades que, d'una altra manera, no s'aprofitarien, la qual cosa ens permet millorar la monetització de la infraestructura. També hem demostrat que la provisió de capacitat és un mecanisme vàlid, alternatiu a la fixació de preus, per a l'optimització dels beneficis dels proveïdors de servici. Finalment, s'ha demostrat que és possible crear rols específics per a oferir servicis IoT en el mercat de les telecomunicacions, específicament, els IoT-SPs, que proporcionen servicis basats en sensors inalàmbrics utilitzant infraestructures d'accés de tercers i les seues pròpies xarxes de sensors. En resum, en aquesta tesi hem intentat demostrar la viabilitat econòmica de models de negoci basats en xarxes futures IoT, així com l'aparició de noves oportunitats i rols de negoci, la qual cosa ens permet justificar econòmicament el desenrotllament i la implementació de les tecnologies necessàries per a oferir servicis d'accés inalàmbric massiu a dispositius MTC. / Sanchis Cano, Á. (2018). Economic analysis of wireless sensor-based services in the framework of the Internet of Things. A game-theoretical approach [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/102642 / TESIS
96

Psalms, Hymns, and Commercial Songs: Tradition and Innovation in James Lyon's "Urania"

La Spata, Adam 08 1900 (has links)
This dissertation asserts the value of James Lyon's Urania to the field of American music history as a vital contribution to the development of music in the British colonies prior to the War for Independence. While previous scholarship acknowledges Urania's importance as the first publication in America to contain music by a native-born composer, this study argues that its subscription list and selection of anthems (both of which were new to the field of American music publishing) contribute to the status this compilation is due. The confluence of the English chapel tradition and American singing school tradition contributes to the theological universality and accessibility of its twelve anthems. An introductory chapter discusses the secondary literature upon which this study is based - notably that of Oscar Sonneck and Richard Crawford - and posits applications for the idea presented herein beyond the field of musicology. Chapter 2 provides biographical information on James Lyon and contextualizes Urania within the broader framework of the English chapel tradition and the American singing-school tradition. Chapter 3 discusses the marketability of music in colonial America and explores the biographies of the subscribers to Urania using modern databases. Chapter 4 concerns the confluence of music and sacred text by placing Urania as a spiritual and cultural descendant of the theological universality preached during the Great Awakening. It concludes with an analysis of the anthems, taking into account both text and music. Chapter 5 concludes the study by showing how Urania affected music in the generations after its publication. My dissertation concludes with four appendices. Appendix A is an annotated list of Lyon's subscribers. Appendix B parses out basic information on the anthems, notably the texts. Appendices C and D provide critical notes and editions of the anthems, respectively.
97

IT’S IN THE DATA : A multimethod study on how SaaS-businesses can utilize cohort analysis to improve marketing decision-making

Fridell, Gustav, Cedighi Chafjiri, Saam January 2020 (has links)
Incorporating data and analytics within marketing decision-making is today crucial for a company’s success. This holds true especially for SaaS-businesses due to having a subscription-based pricing model dependent on good service retention for long- term viability and profitability. Efficiently incorporating data and analytics does have its prerequisites but can for SaaS-businesses be achieved using the analytical framework of cohort analysis, which utilizes subscription data to obtain actionable insights on customer behavior and retention patterns. Consequently, to expand upon the understanding of how SaaS-businesses can utilize data-driven methodologies to improve their operations, this study has examined how SaaS-businesses can utilize cohort analysis to improve marketing decision-making and what the prerequisites are for efficiently doing so. Thus, by utilizing a multimethodology approach consisting of action research and a single caste study on the fast-growing SaaS-company GetAccept, the study has concluded that the incorporation and utilization of cohort analysis can improve marketing decision-making for SaaS-businesses. This conclusion is drawn by having identified that: The incorporation of cohort analysis can streamline the marketing decision-making process; and The incorporation of cohort analysis can enable decision-makers to obtain a better foundation of information to base marketing decisions upon, thus leading to an improved expected outcome of the decisions. Furthermore, to enable efficient data-driven marketing decision-making and effectively utilize methods such as cohort analysis, the study has concluded that SaaS- businesses need to fulfill three prerequisites, which have been identified to be: Management that support and advocate for data and analytics; A company culture built upon information sharing and evidence-based decision-making; and A large enough customer base to allow for determining similarities within and differences between customer segments as significant. However, the last prerequisite applies specifically for methods such as or similar to cohort analysis. Thus, by utilizing other methods, SaaS-businesses might still be able to efficiently utilize data-driven marketing decision-making, as long as the first two prerequisites are fulfilled.
98

FINANZIAMENTO DELL'IMPRESA E COAZIONE A SOTTOSCRIVERE. GLI AUMENTI DI CAPITALE IPERDILUITIVI / Highly dilutive rights issues

RESTELLI, ENRICO RINO 13 April 2018 (has links)
Gli aumenti di capitale iperdiluitivi causano rilevanti anomalie di mercato, soprattutto con riferimento ai diritti d’opzione, che sono spesso scambiati a un prezzo notevolmente inferiore rispetto al loro valore teorico. Come evidenziato nel Capitolo I, tali anomalie possono comportare un significativo annacquamento del valore dell’investimento, inducendo così gli azionisti a sottoscrivere le azioni offerte loro nonostante le prospettive reddituali dell’impresa avrebbero consigliato altrimenti (c.d. coazione a sottoscrivere). Al fine di trovare un adeguato equilibrio tra le esigenze di finanziamento dell’impresa e la necessità di tutelare adeguatamente gli investitori, l’ordinamento giuridico offre una pluralità di soluzioni. In quest’angolo visuale, il Capitolo II esamina il divieto di emettere nuove azioni al di sotto della parità contabile (art. 47, Direttiva (EU) 2017/1132) quale limite ex ante alla diluizione massima del valore della partecipazione azionaria, così di ridurre il rischio di comportamenti opportunistici. Similmente, nel Capitolo III si discute della funzione assolta in tali operazioni dalla responsabilità degli amministratori ex art. 2395 c.c. e ci si interroga se - nelle società quotate - l’illiquidità del mercato dei diritti di opzione costituisca un’ipotesi rilevante ai sensi dell'art. 2441, comma 5, c.c., così che tutte le nuove azioni debbano essere emesse al loro valore “reale” (co. 6). / In publicly traded companies, highly dilutive rights issues create market anomalies throughout the whole offer period, especially with respect to rights prices, which quote considerably below their fair value. As pointed out in Chapter I, these anomalies could cause severe losses to non-subscribing shareholders, inducing them to take part in the operation even if financial perspectives of the company would have suggested otherwise (= enforced subscription mechanism). In order to strike a proper balance of enabling companies to raise new capital while simultaneously protecting investors, company law provides an array of regulatory strategies. In this respect, Chapter II analyzes the prohibition on issuing new shares below par value (art. 47, Directive (EU) 2017/1132) as a means to limit the dilution that can be imposed on non-subscribing shareholders, thus hindering opportunistic behaviors. Similarly, Chapter III examines the function and the contents of managers’ liability to investors (art. 2395 Italian c.c.) and discusses whether, in these operations, the illiquidity of rights’ market can be regarded as a restriction of their pre-emption right, imposing that new shares are always issued at their “real” value (art. 2441, par. 5 - 6, Italian c.c.).
99

Legal and regulatory aspects of mobile financial services

Perlman, Leon Joseph 11 1900 (has links)
The thesis deals with the emergence of bank and non-bank entities that provide a range of unique transaction-based payment services broadly called Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to unbanked, underserved and underbanked persons via mobile phones. Models of MFS from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), banks, combinations of MNOs and banks, and independent Mobile Financial Services Providers are covered. Provision by non-banks of ‘bank-type’ services via mobile phones has been termed ‘transformational banking’ versus the ‘additive banking’ services from banks. All involve the concept of ‘branchless banking’ whereby ‘cash-in/cash out’ services are provided through ‘agents.’ Funds for MFS payments may available through a Stored Value Product (SVP), particularly through a Stored Value Account SVP variant offered by MNOs where value is stored as a redeemable fiat- or mobile ‘airtime’-based Store of Value. The competitive, legal, technical and regulatory nature of non-bank versus bank MFS models is discussed, in particular the impact of banking, payments, money laundering, telecommunications, e-commerce and consumer protection laws. Whether funding mechanisms for SVPs may amount to deposit-taking such that entities could be engaged in the ‘business of banking’ is discussed. The continued use of ‘deposit’ as the traditional trigger for the ‘business of banking’ is investigated, alongside whether transaction and paymentcentric MFS rises to the ‘business of banking.’ An extensive evaluation of ‘money’ based on the Orthodox and Claim School economic theories is undertaken in relation to SVPs used in MFS, their legal associations and import, and whether they may be deemed ‘money’ in law. Consumer protection for MFS and payments generally through current statute, contract, and payment law and common law condictiones are found to be wanting. Possible regulatory arbitrage in relation to MFS in South African law is discussed. The legal and regulatory regimes in the European Union, Kenya and the United States of America are compared with South Africa. The need for a coordinated payments-specific law that has consumer protections, enables proportional risk-based licensing of new non-bank providers of MFS, and allows for a regulator for retail payments is recommended. The use of trust companies and trust accounts is recommended for protection of user funds. | vi / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LLD
100

Legal and regulatory aspects of mobile financial services

Perlman, Leon Joseph 11 1900 (has links)
The thesis deals with the emergence of bank and non-bank entities that provide a range of unique transaction-based payment services broadly called Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to unbanked, underserved and underbanked persons via mobile phones. Models of MFS from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), banks, combinations of MNOs and banks, and independent Mobile Financial Services Providers are covered. Provision by non-banks of ‘bank-type’ services via mobile phones has been termed ‘transformational banking’ versus the ‘additive banking’ services from banks. All involve the concept of ‘branchless banking’ whereby ‘cash-in/cash out’ services are provided through ‘agents.’ Funds for MFS payments may available through a Stored Value Product (SVP), particularly through a Stored Value Account SVP variant offered by MNOs where value is stored as a redeemable fiat- or mobile ‘airtime’-based Store of Value. The competitive, legal, technical and regulatory nature of non-bank versus bank MFS models is discussed, in particular the impact of banking, payments, money laundering, telecommunications, e-commerce and consumer protection laws. Whether funding mechanisms for SVPs may amount to deposit-taking such that entities could be engaged in the ‘business of banking’ is discussed. The continued use of ‘deposit’ as the traditional trigger for the ‘business of banking’ is investigated, alongside whether transaction and paymentcentric MFS rises to the ‘business of banking.’ An extensive evaluation of ‘money’ based on the Orthodox and Claim School economic theories is undertaken in relation to SVPs used in MFS, their legal associations and import, and whether they may be deemed ‘money’ in law. Consumer protection for MFS and payments generally through current statute, contract, and payment law and common law condictiones are found to be wanting. Possible regulatory arbitrage in relation to MFS in South African law is discussed. The legal and regulatory regimes in the European Union, Kenya and the United States of America are compared with South Africa. The need for a coordinated payments-specific law that has consumer protections, enables proportional risk-based licensing of new non-bank providers of MFS, and allows for a regulator for retail payments is recommended. The use of trust companies and trust accounts is recommended for protection of user funds. | vi / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

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