This study performs a stress testing exercise on the Italian banking system in view of the 2007 financial crisis which was triggered by the crash of subprime mortgages. At the base of the global financial crisis was a failure of finan- cial regulators to quantify the accumulation of endogenous risks. Following the crisis, stress testing has acquired particular emphasis in the field of risk measurement under the Basel II supervisory framework. An econometric rela- tionship between the probability of default and the macroeconomic indicators is modeled according to the Merton approach for structural analysis using data on the Italian banking system. A latent factor model is employed to under- stand the dependence of the credit risk on the changes in the macroeconomic environment. The resulting relationship is exploited to compute the capital requirement under stressed conditions in order to draw inference about the resilience of the Italian banking system. JEL Classification G0, G01, G17, G10, C50, C22 Keywords Financial crisis, macroeconomic stress testing, credit risk, latent-factor model Author's e-mail jacomessi@yahoo.it Supervisor's e-mail petr.gapko@seznam.cz Abstrakt Klasifikace JEL G0, G01, G17, G10, C50, C22 Klíčová slova Financial crisis, macroeconomic stress test- ing, credit risk,...

of the Thesis: "Consumer loans - elements, selected clauses in consumer loan contracts, the protection of a consumer" The aim of this thesis is to describe in which ways laws regulating consumer credit effect praxis and contract provisions and how the praxis uses the limits given by the law. Author focuses on customer protection, law provisions, which should protect him and equalize his weaker position and state institutions, which control following this law provisions and administrative procedure in case of infringement of this law provisions. The thesis consists of four chapters. In the first chapter the author concentrates on economic factors of consumer credits and basic definitions of consumer credits. Second chapter is on the subject of law regulation. It is about general law regulation in civil code and new civil code and about specific law regulation in the statute of consumer credit. The law regulation in the statute of consumer credit is divided into 13 part- development of specific statutes on the subject of consumer credit, chronological succession, force, amendment, and discretion about consumer's ability to repay the loan, withdraw, notice, credit for buying goods, prepaying, agents, control and administrative offence, change of trade statute. Law provisions are commented and bound to...

Loan Contract This thesis investigates the provision of loans based on the Loan Contract under Sections 497-507 of the Commercial Code. The aim is to analyse the relevant legal regulation of the Loan Contract in detail, and to emphasize its interpretations issues, which are followed by the proposal of appropriate solutions. Furthermore, some other legal institutes closely related to the Loan Contract are also described (e.g. the Loan Contract under the Civil Code, loan business terms, security etc.). In the first chapter, the general concept of the loan is described, its essential importance in the free market economy, and its definition in the legal sense. The second chapter provides the history of the origin and evolution of the loan, from its formation under the Roman law to the changes in the contemporary legal regulation. The following third chapter aims to compare the Loan Contract under the Commercial Code with the Loan Contract under the Civil Code. The subject of the fourth chapter is the analysis of the fundamental principles which serve as guidelines for the Loan Contract structure. In the fifth chapter, the relevant legal regulations are addressed, the purpose and meaning of the loan business terms, and the legal character of the Loan Contract as an absolute commercial obligation. The...

This work focuses on the factors influencing the accessibility of credit lines for the companies in the Czech Republic. Its methodology follows the respected works written in the field of credit markets or in the field of econometrical methods suitable for the estimation of such markets. The main econometrical tool of this work is the Maximum Likelihood Estimation. Dependent variable is always the percentage change of the total volume of corporate loans and the independent variables are the percentage changes of different macroeconomic indicators. This work brings key findings important for the understanding the of the Czech corporate credit market. JEL Classification C32, C51, E40, E41, G10, G20, G21 Keywords Corporate Loans, Credit, Credit Lines, Credit Market, Credit Supply, Czech Banking Sector, Demand for Credit, Loans Author's e-mail pavelhanak@seznam.cz Supervisor's e-mail petr.gapko@seznam.cz

Loan contract This thesis investigates the provision of loans based on the Loan Contract under Sections 497- 507 of the Commercial Code. Extension in which is the Loan Contract investigated is then applied to comparison with the New Civil Code. In the New Civil Code is the Loan Contract under Sections 2395 - 2400. Furthermore, some other legal institutes closely related to the Loan Contract are also described (e.g. securities, interest, business terms). In the first chapter, I describe the definition of a loan, its essential importance in market economy, and its definition in legal and economical sense. The second chapter deals with fundamental principles which are applied when enclosing the Loan Contract. The following third chapter aims to origin and evolution of the loan from its formation to the latest legal regulation. In the fourth chapter I go in for introduction of the New Civil Code and for a brief general discourse about this new Czech civil law codex. The fifth chapter deals with legal regulation of the Loan Contract in the Commercial Code and then it is compared with the legal regulation in the New Civil Code. Subject of a sixth chapter is analysis of conception of the Loan Contract used in selected foreign legal systems. In the following seventh chapter the difference between the Loan...

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum & Instruction Programs / Kay Ann Taylor / African American males have the second highest dropout rate in this Midwest state‘s largest public school district. Often, African American male students take an abundance of elective classes but do not complete core classes that guarantee a diploma. This study documented and analyzed the experiences of African American male students who completed or attempted to complete their high school diplomas in an alternative setting. The study is significant because it reveals the importance of how time is structured in an alternative educational setting; it discloses the pervasiveness of racism in public education, and it exposes the widespread stereotyping of African American males by teachers and other authority figures. African American male students who have attended both traditional and alternative public schools have been overlooked in previous research. Self-ethnography comprised the methodology. The intersectionality of gender, race, grades, racism, athletic involvement, law, and relationships formed a crucial paradigm of this investigation. Research findings include: (a) the major difference between traditional public and alternative schools is how time is structured, (b) African American males believe that they often are stereotyped, (c) high school athletes receive special privileges that they see later as obstacles, (d) African American males sometimes deliberately assume a pleasing demeanor toward teachers, (e) African American male students respond positively to teachers who conduct themselves with clear purpose, (f) African American males returning to school for high school credit recovery demonstrate tenacity and resist stereotypes. The cornerstone tenets of CRT—racism is the norm, interest convergence, and the need for social justice for oppressed groups—were evident in the findings of the frequency of stereotyping and treatment of African American male high school athletes. In the interest of social justice for African American male students, it is recommended that teachers are provided with the following information: (a) how to avoid consciously stereotyping; (b) that African American males make conscious efforts to be approachable; (c) how to make necessary changes involving their authority. Recommended future research for African American males includes: (a) how the construction of time in traditional public schools affects their credit acquisition; (b) communication between the counseling and athletic departments; (c) the impact of athletic involvement on academics.

M.Com. (Financial Management) / It has been argued that inadequate credit risk management practices and high levels of credit risk was the cause of the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis, as well as the banking crises over the two past decades, including the 1997 East Asian crisis. As a result, banks have increasingly prioritised credit risk management to ensure acceptable levels of profitability and to keep them from collapsing. However, research on the relationship between credit risk management and profitability in banks in South Africa remains limited. Therefore, this study addressed the question of whether credit risk management has an effect on profitability in South Africa’s four major banks. A quantitative approach was used to establish the relationship between profitability, represented by return on equity (ROE), and credit risk management, represented by two variables, namely capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and the non-performing loans ratio (NPLR). Secondary data for the years 2002 to 2013 was analysed using panel regression and the study concludes that not only does credit risk management have an effect on profitability in South African banks, but that bank size, operating expenses and economic growth also affect the profitability of South African banks. These findings would enable the enhancement of profitability in South Africa through constantly improving credit risk management practices and policies, and by addressing other factors that can negatively affect profitability.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Doctor en Sistemas de Ingeniería / Medir la probabilidad de no pago de un gran número de solicitantes de crédito, el llamado riesgo de crédito a consumidores, es un problema clásico de la gestión financiera. Este problema requiere de una gran cantidad de herramientas estadísticas que lo hacen idóneo para su estudio por el área de Business Analytics. Su análisis se justifica en el fuerte impacto que los créditos a consumidores tienen en el mercado, pues por ejemplo en Chile más del 50% de los créditos se encuentran en carteras masivas, y en el resto del mundo se estima que superan a los créditos comerciales en más de un 50%. Esta tesis estudia este problema en base a la formalización de lo que se conoce sobre las determinantes del no pago (default) y la transformación de ese conocimiento en herramientas estadísticas para la medición del riesgo. Para lo anterior, durante el doctorado desarrollé una sucesión de publicaciones con el fin de unir el modelamiento económico con la práctica estadística predictiva, formalizando el conocido hecho que existen no pagadores por razones de falta de capacidad de pago, y por problemas en voluntad de pago. El trabajo comenzó generando un modelo económico que captura las utilidades de los solicitantes y la entidad prestamista, utilizando esta nueva definición de no pagadores, resultando en una serie de restricciones que definen un espacio de créditos factibles. Luego, los no pagadores son asignados a estas dos clases utilizando un nuevo método de clustering semi-supervisado que los agrupa tanto por sus características estadísticas como por su comportamiento económico, reflejado a través de las restricciones generadas previamente. El fin último de esta separación es mejorar la clasificación de los créditos y la comprensión del default, por lo que el siguiente paso correspondió al estudio de métodos de clasificación con múltiples clases. Para ello se exploró inicialmente la regresión logística multinomial, y luego se profundizó en el análisis de supervivencia, estudiando teóricamente los métodos de riesgos en competencia y los modelos mixtos, y desarrollando herramientas computacionales liberadas públicamente para apoyar futuras aplicaciones. Los métodos propuestos mejoran entre 1%-10% la discriminación por sobre los métodos clásicos en bases de datos reales, y enriquecen fuertemente la comprensión del default a través de las nuevas variables significativas y los patrones encontrados. Más aún, los modelos y herramientas desarrollados pueden ser perfectamente extrapolados a otras disciplinas, pues este trabajo ha mostrado cómo se puede enriquecer la clasificación donde típicamente se cuenta con dos clases, por la vía de añadir conocimiento adicional acerca de comportamientos económicos observados.

M.Comm. (Economics) / The recent global financial and economic crisis has brought about renewed interest in the nexus between credit markets and monetary policy. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the factors that drive the demand for credit on an aggregate level, and the household and corporate sectors for the South African economy. The study assessed the equilibrium determinants of the aggregate and sectoral demand for credit in South Africa by making use of a cointegrated vector autoregression (CVAR) methodology. In addition, the periods of debt overhang and short-falls, at aggregate and sectoral levels in the credit market, are derived from these equilibrium levels. The estimated models indicate the existence of long-run relationships for the aggregate credit demand equation, a classic demand-type relationship linking aggregate credit with gross domestic product (GDP) and the lending rate is established. For credit extended to the corporate sector, the results indicate that in the long-run it is determined by investment expenditure, operating surpluses and the lending rate. Whereas for credit extension to the household sector, it was found that the lending rate, disposable income and household debt were its important long-run determinants. All the results of the estimated equations are in line with a demand-type relationship and the traditional hypothesis that credit is demanded to finance real economic transactions, namely for liquidity purposes and to finance working capital. The results of the short-term dynamics indicate that credit extension variables are the equilibrium variables, although the speed of adjustment parameter is found to be sluggish, which shows that the slow adjustment to equilibrium from shocks to the credit markets is attributable to the existence of stronger frictions and transaction costs in credit markets. These findings justify the persistent periods of credit overhang and short-falls in South Africa that this study derives from the equilibrium coefficient terms. The study shows that periods of credit overhang and short-falls are linked to the business cycle phases in South Africa.