The objective of this thesis is to compare measures of consumer protection and its level in insurance and banking services in the EU. The premise is that the measures are very similar because both areas are subject to financial services law and as such they are similarly regulated. The first part of this work analyses and examines Insurance Distribution Directive and its contribution to consumer protection. The thesis compares Insurance Distribution Directive with Insurance Mediation Directive which is the legislation in force as of the time of writing this thesis. The second part of the thesis analyses, examines and compares Consumer Credit Directive and Mortgage Credit Directive and their contribution to consumer protection. The third part of the thesis compares the two previous parts and describes the reasons for different approaches taken in the researched legislation. The result of the analysis is that the measures taken for consumer protection are indeed very similar with differences originating from the nature of the services. The most elaborated directive which ensures the highest level of consumer protection is Mortgage Credit Directive and it is due to the significance of mortgage credit for lives of consumers and for the economy. Insurance Distribution Directive offers higher level of...

L’office du juge est organisé par le Code de procédure civile au sein des principes directeurs : le juge est tenu de trancher le litige en droit et qu’il dispose, pour ce faire, de la faculté du relevé d’office de moyens de droit. Cette mission soulève une difficulté particulière en droit de la consommation, et notamment au regard du droit des clauses abusives et du crédit à la consommation : ces domaines impliquent la prise en compte du déséquilibre contractuel dû à la faiblesse du consommateur. L’office du juge est confronté à la nécessité de protéger cette « partie faible », ce qui pose la question de savoir si le juge dispose ou non de la faculté du relevé d’office. La difficulté de la réponse à y apporter ouvre une riche controverse (Partie 1) ; le législateur, au gré des réformes, et le juge, au gré des revirements, vont enrichir cette dernière pour finalement aboutir à une consécration du relevé d’office du juge (Partie 2).Le juge national avait d’abord clairement désapprouvé l’exercice du relevé d’office au nom de la notion d’ordre public de protection. La controverse était finalement soumise à l’appréciation du juge communautaire qui avait permis une consécration de la faculté du relevé d’office. Poussé par la jurisprudence communautaire, le législateur français avait fini par s’aligner sur cette exigence. Puis c’est une nouvelle impulsion de la jurisprudence communautaire qui va à nouveau remettre en cause le droit interne par la consécration d’une obligation du relevé d’office pour le juge. La nouvelle loi « Hamon » du 17 mars 2014 et la jurisprudence interne récente ne témoignent pas d’une réelle satisfaction des exigences posées par le droit communautaire.Il faut saisir, de l’ensemble de cette construction laborieuse de la jurisprudence et de la législation interne, la difficulté que pose la question du relevé d’office du juge en droit de la consommation, qui appelle de prochaines évolutions. / The office of the judge is organized by the rules of the Code of civil procedure: the judge must solve the litigations in law, and that, in order to do that, he benefits from the right to raise his own motion. This mission raises a particular difficulty in consumer law, especially regarding the law of the unfair clauses and consumer credit: these fields imply taking into consideration the contractual imbalance due to the weakness of the consumer. The office of the judge is confronted to the necessity to protect this « weak party », which raises the question of knowing if the judge has the right to raise his own motion. The difficulty of the answer opens a rich controversy (Part 1): the legislator, at the whim of the reforms, and the judge, at the whim of the reversals, will enrich this latter to finally come to a recognition of the right to raise the motion of the judge (Part 2).First the national judge clearly disapproved the exercising of the right to raise one's own motion in the name of the concept of public order of protection. The controversy was finally submitted to the assessment of the Community judge who enabling a recognition of the right to raise the motion of the judge. Driven by the Community jurisprudence, the French legislator finally lined up with this requirement. Then, a new impulse of the Community jurisprudence will question again the national law by the recognition of the duty of the judge to raise his own motion. The new law « Hamon » of march 17th 2014 and the recent internal jurisprudence are not evidence of a real satisfaction of the requirement set down by the Community law.We must embrace, from this laborious construction of the jurisprudence and internal legislation, the difficulty raised by the question of the right for the judge to raise his own motion concerning law consumption, which calls for future evolutions.

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This dissertation consists of four papers, each with an application of a discrete dependent variable model, censored regression or duration model to a credit market phenomenon or monetary policy question. The first three essays deal with bank lending policy, while the last one studies interest rate policy by Central Banks. In the first essay, a bivariate probit model is estimated to contrast the factors that influence banks’ loan granting decision and individuals’ risk of default. This model is used as a tool to construct a Value at Risk measure of the credit risk involved in a portfolio of consumer loans and to investigate the efficiency of bank lending policy. The second essay takes the conclusions from the first paper as a starting point. It investigates if the fact that banks do not minimize default risk can be explained by the existence of return maximization policy. For this purpose, a Tobit model with sample selection effects and variable censoring limits is developed and estimated on the survival times of consumer loans. The third paper focuses on dormancy, instead of default risk or survival time, as the most important factor affecting risk and return in bank lending. By means of a duration model the factors determining the transition from an active status to dormancy are studied. The estimated model is used to predict the expected durations to dormancy and to analyze the expected profitability for a sample loan applicants. In the fourth paper, the discrete nature of Central Bank interest rate policy is studied. A grouped data model, that can take the long periods of time without changes in the repo rate by the Central Bank into account, is estimated on weekly Swedish data. The model is found to be reasonably good at predicting interest rate changes. / Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

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The National Credit Act aggressively addresses problems in the South African credit market. The purpose of the NCA is to promote socio-economic and ethical values that will serve to protect consumers, through the application and enforcement of various laws. The research was conducted in the Durban area. Literature was surveyed with the aim to determine the views of Durban consumers concerning the National Credit Act. The study adopted an exploratory and quantitative research method using a survey (questionnaire) as its main data-collection instrument. This was administered via email. The sampling technique used is a non-probability sampling with a target population comprising of natural persons in the Durban area, who have been affected by credit. Data were analysed using the SPSS statistical package, which was appropriate for this research since its nature was quantitative rather than qualitative. Significance and correlations were the basis of the data analysis in this research and cross-tabulations were used in order to enable presentation of results. Only the variables that were relevant to the research questions were used for further analysis after the significance tests were done. The findings on the research reflected that most of the respondents had higher education degrees, which indicated that the research covered well-educated people; most respondents were satisfied with the way the NCA was explained when it was introduced, although the research highlighted a need for further consumer awareness of the Act to eliminate major default. Some recommendations that include the further research on the same topic with a larger sample were made. It is concluded that it is necessary to make improvements on the Act. / MBA. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:52:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-12-13T00:00:00Z / A crescente oferta de crédito no Brasil, principalmente do crédito para pessoa física, ampliou o acesso da baixa renda ao financiamento para aquisição de bens e serviços. Este trabalho é sobre o impacto do materialismo, valor dado aos bens materiais e às propriedades, na atitude ao endividamento e no nível de dívida para financiamento do consumo nas famílias de baixa renda do município de São Paulo. Estudos anteriores encontraram efeito significativo do materialismo na atitude ao endividamento, definida como a favorabilidade dos indivíduos para contrair dívidas, e também no volume de dívida. Os indivíduos com altos níveis de materialismo seriam mais favoráveis ao endividamento como meio de satisfazer seus desejos por bens e, por este motivo, acumulariam maiores volumes de dívida. É razoável supor, porém, que os fatores psicológicos, como materialismo ou atitude ao endividamento, sejam capazes de explicar uma parte da dívida das famílias de baixa renda. Grande parte da dívida, principalmente nestas famílias, é provavelmente decorrente de fatores econômicos, reunidos, neste trabalho, no índice de vulnerabilidade. Das relações entre os construtos materialismo, atitude ao endividamento, vulnerabilidade e dívida para financiamento do consumo, construiu-se o modelo de pesquisa do trabalho e as cinco hipóteses de investigação. Na sua operacionalização, optou-se por um modelo quantitativo, em que cada construto foi medido por escalas e índices adaptados de estudos anteriores; e por um levantamento de campo, realizado com 389 famílias da baixa renda do município de São Paulo. A análise dos dados coletados apoiou a manutenção de três das hipóteses de investigação, uma delas apenas parcialmente; e levou à rejeição de outras duas. As principais conclusões são que o materialismo tem efeito direto sobre a atitude ao endividamento, mas indireto sobre a dívida; que o efeito mais relevante sobre a dívida vem da vulnerabilidade das famílias, mas no sentido inverso do esperado, ou seja, quanto menor a vulnerabilidade. Das relações entre os construtos materialismo, atitude ao endividamento, vulnerabilidade e dívida para financiamento do consumo, construiu-se o modelo de pesquisa do trabalho e as cinco hipóteses de investigação. Na sua operacionalização, optou-se por um modelo quantitativo, em cada construto foi medido por escalas e índices adaptados de estudos anteriores; e por um levantamento de campo, realizado com 389 famílias da baixa renda do município de São Paulo. A análise dos dados coletados apoiou a manutenção de três das hipóteses de investigação, uma delas apenas parcialmente; e levou à rejeição de outras duas. As principais conclusões são que o materialismo tem efeito direto sobre a atitude ao endividamento, mas indireto sobre a dívida; que o efeito mais relevante sobre a dívida da vulnerabilidade das famílias, mas no sentido inverso do esperado, ou seja, quanto menor a vulnerabilidade, maior a dívida; e que a dívida não é pulverizada em diversas fontes, mas concentrada em uma ou duas categorias de financiamento. / The consumer credit offer in Brazil has grown accessing low-income segments of the population. This work deals with the impact of different materialism levels, defined as the importance a consumer places on possessions and acquisitions, in the attitude toward debt and consumer indebtedness in low-income families in São Paulo. Previous studies have found significant effect in materialism over attitude toward debt, seen as the degree of favorability to debt, over the indebtedness. Highly materialistic people would be more for possessions, which would lead to larger debt amounts. Its is reasonable to suppose that psychological factors such as materialism or attitude toward debt will explain part of the families’ indebtedness. Although, the majority of the debt, mainly in the low-income segment, is probably due to economical factors. In this research they are represented in the vulnerability index. The relationships between these constructs – materialism, attitude toward debt, vulnerability and consumer debt – supported the development of a research model and its five hypothesis for investigation. In its implementation, a quantitative analysis model was chosen, in which a scale or an index adapted from previous studies measured each construct; and a field research was conducted with 389 low-income families in São Paulo. Data analyses offered support to three hypotheses, but to one only partially, and rejected the other two. The main conclusions are that materialism has a direct effect on the attitude, toward debt but indirect on the indebtedness; that the most relevant impact on the debt is due to the families’ vulnerability, but in the reserve order as expected, in the other words, the less the vulnerability the more the debt, and finally that the debt is not spread over diverse debt sources, but rather concentrated in one or two.

The aim of this thesis was to analyze consumer credit and mortgage loans during the financial crisis in selected commercial bank. In the theoretical part I define important terms. I differentiate between types of loans, explain types of banking risks and their current management. In the practical part I analyzed the survey data and the volume of borrowed finances and the failure rates of individual loans. Were the proposed new methodology aimed at eliminating risks in the bank.

Mini Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of MAGISTER TECHNOLOGIAE: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION in the FACULTY OF BUSINESS at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, 2012 / This research study assesses the impact of fluctuating interest rates on the credit card spending habits within a leading South African food retailer by determining whether a relationship exists between interest rates and credit card spending and whether this relationship is significant. Although there are many factors that influence consumer use of credit cards such as fuel prices, cost of food and affordability, interest rates play a role in the decision making process whether to purchase on credit or not. To assess the effect of interest rates on credit card spending within the food retailer, turnover data by tender type were obtained from the retailer and were compared to interest rate changes as announced by the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. By using non-parametric Spearman Rank Order Correlations the nature and significance of the relationship between interest rate data and tender data was determined by using a confidence level of 95 %. Customer surveys were conducted within the Cape Town area to understand the effect interest rates have on credit card usage, what the preferred methods of payments are, retailer preference, shopping frequency, average grocery spend and the perception of interest rate fairness of respondents. A total of 213 completed questionnaires were analysed and significant correlations between various variables were determined and discussed. The result of the data analysis revealed that a significant adverse relationship exists between interest rates and credit card spending within the selected food retailer. Key Words: Credit Card, Turnover, Interest Rates, Food Retailer, Retail Food Sector, Average Transaction Value, Transaction Volume, Tender Type, Consumers, Customers, ShopriteCheckers, Spar, Pick n Pay, Woolworths, South African Reserve Bank, SARB

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hugo Crespi Junior.pdf: 1552051 bytes, checksum: 34b1ca02581c6a8240a8bd4702d15a71 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-14 / One of the most important ways to finance consumers in the Brazilian market is the consumer credit offered in store. Provided by independent or captive finance companies, the consumer credit is normally granted or denied without taking into account its effect on the retailer s profitability. Denying credit to finance a high profit margin product is more damaging to the companies profits than if such refusal is about the sale of lower margin product. This suggests that there is an opportunity to improve the profitability in this sales channel. The objective of this research was to check the possibility to increase the Brazilian retailers profitability by introducing the retail products operating margin as an additional parameter of the consumer credit analysis. Simulations using tangents to ROC curves, as proposed by Stein (2005), made possible to confirm, through a new balance of type I and type II errors, that the maximization of corporate earnings occurs when using operating retail margins for determining cutoffs in consumer credit models. / Uma das mais importantes ferramentas de financiamento no varejo brasileiro é o crédito direto ao consumidor oferecido nos estabelecimentos por ocasião da compra. Operado através de financeiras cativas ou parceiras, o crédito é, normalmente, concedido ou negado sem que se leve em conta seu efeito na lucratividade do varejista. Quando se recusa o financiamento para um produto de grande margem de lucro, o efeito sobre os ganhos da empresa é evidentemente maior do que quando essa recusa inibe a venda de produto de menor margem, o que sugere haver ineficácia no processo. Esta pesquisa visou verificar se há espaço para aumentar a rentabilidade no varejo brasileiro, introduzindo a margem operacional nos critérios utilizados para concessão de crédito direto ao consumidor. Utilizando a curva ROC e a abordagem oferecida por Stein (2005), construíram-se simulações em torno de valores reais praticados no mercado, que permitiram confirmar, através de um novo balanceamento dos erros tipo I e tipo II, que ocorre a maximização de ganhos empresarias quando as margens operacionais do varejo são consideradas para a determinação de pontos de corte em modelos de crédito direto ao consumidor.