Thesis (MTech (Entrepreneurship))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / Often effectively excluded by formal financial systems, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries have found in Mobile Money services an efficient and cost effective means of availing themselves of financial services without holding bank accounts. In order to provide meaningful recommendations to the stakeholders of the banking sector of Cameroon, small and medium-sized enterprises, Mobile Money service providers, and relevant state organs, this study was conducted to investigate the influence of Mobile Money services on the financial performance of SMEs in two markets in Douala in Cameroon. A mixed methods research design was employed to conduct the study. The quantitative data was collected through the administration of a survey questionnaire and the qualitative data from one-on-one in-depth interviews. By means of snowball sampling, a sample of 285 SMEs was obtained to respond to the survey questionnaire, while the researcher used purposive sampling to select the owners or managing directors of twelve of the respondents to participate in the interviews. Version 25 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software was used to analyse the quantitative data, while the qualitative data was subjected to thematic analysis. Correlation and regression analyses yielded that independent variables pertaining to the adoption of Mobile Money services by the respondents to the questionnaire predicted of the order of 73 percent of variance with respect to increased sales turnover. Most of the twelve interviewees perceived that their business operations had improved significantly after they had begun making and receiving payments in the form of Mobile Money transactions. The participants in the study used Mobile Money mainly to receive money, send money, and buy airtime and a significant majority perceived that Mobile Money services were more cost effective than those of banks. Convenience, safety, and accessibility were the attributes of Mobile Money which the participants cited as having provided their principal motivations for electing to register as users of Mobile Money services. It could be concluded that Mobile Money services exerted a significant positive influence on the financial performance of the SMEs of the participants in the study. On the basis of the conclusions which were drawn from the findings, recommendations were made to the owners of SMEs in Douala, the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy, and Handicrafts and Mobile Money service providers. The findings of the study underscore the role of Mobile Money services as an effective means of increasing financial inclusion and financial performance and could be useful to academics, owners and managers of SMEs, financial institutions in Cameroon and elsewhere, and also relevant policy makers.

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1 Název práce v anglickém jazyce Crime of Evasion Alimony Payments under s. 196 of the Criminal Code Abstract The diploma thesis is about the crime of evasion alimony payments according to § 196 of the Criminal Code and other questions related to this issue. The aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive explanation of the crime of evasion alimony payments. The work is primary about on the individual signs of this crime, its connection with civil law, where the rights are enshrined and the issues of alternative alimony payments and possible decriminalization of the crime of evasion alimony payments according. The crime of evasion alimony payments is one of the most frequently committed crime in the Czech Republic. The purpose of this legal regulation is the interest in the proper fulfillment of the alimony payments, especially in the fulfillment of the alimony payments towards dependent children. The work is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter deals with the historical development of the crime of evasion alimony payments from the period of 19th century until now. The second chapter presents the legal definition of the crime of neglect of evasion alimony payments and categorizes this crime according to various aspects. It also provides an overview of regulations related to it, with emphasis on...

This study investigates the effect of protectionist tariffs on firm performance, income tax payments, and shareholder payouts and investment. Using the US–China trade war and related Section 301 tariffs as a setting, I find that US firms impacted by these tariffs experience decreased firm performance while simultaneously increasing cash tax planning to presumably decrease their total cash burden to the government. I also find that impacted firms decrease shareholder payouts and acquisitions, but do not decrease other real investment activities that may negatively impact operating performance. Cross-sectional analyses confirm that these effects apply to domestic firms, do not appear to be driven by the retaliatory Chinese tariffs, and are more pronounced for those facing higher market competition or applying for exclusions from the protectionist tariffs.

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One of the most important conclusions derived from the monetary approach to the balance of payments concerns the inability of a country operating under a fixed exchange rate regime to maintain an autonomous internal monetary policy at variance with that of the rest of the world. In the approach taken here, the domination of a small country by the monetary policy of a large trading partner (representing the world, i.e. with an economy likely to be unaffected by any action of its small partner yet strongly influencing that country's income) is examined for thirty-six country pairs. Transmission was measured by evaluating a linear autoregressive ordinary least squares model which identified the relationship, if any, of current changes in the rate of growth of money in the small country to past changes in money growth rates in the larger country. The monetary approach is strongly confirmed in the fifteen country pairs showing the longest periods of fixed currency values between the two. In addition, for those instances in which the monetary policy of the small country showed no relationship to that of the larger country, conditions that would potentially validate the monetary model were identified. / Master of Arts

No / The surprise advent of the peer-to-peer payment system Bitcoin in 2009 has raised various concerns regarding its relationship to established economic market ideologies. Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin is based on open-source software; it is a secure cryptocurrency, traded as an investment between two individuals over the internet, with no bank involvement. Computationally, this is a very innovative solution, but Bitcoin’s popularity has raised a number of security and trust concerns among mainstream economists. With cities and countries, including San Francisco and Germany, using Bitcoin as a unit of account in their financial systems, there is still a lack of understanding and a paucity of models for studying its use, and the role Bitcoin might play in real physical economies. This project tackles these issues by analysing the ramifications of Bitcoin within economic models, by building a computational model of the currency to test its performance in financial market models. The project uses established agent-based modelling techniques to build a decentralised Bitcoin model, which can be ‘plugged into’ existing agent-based models of key economic and financial markets. This allows various metrics to be subjected to critical analysis, gauging the progress of digital economies equipped with Bitcoin usage. This project contributes to the themes of privacy, consent, security and trust in the digital economy and digital technologies, enabling new business models of direct relevance to NEMODE. As computer scientists, we consider Bitcoin from a technical perspective; this contrasts with and complements other current Bitcoin research, and helps document the realizable risks Bitcoin and similar currencies bring to our current economic world. This report outlines a comprehensive collection of risks raised by Bitcoin. Risk management is a discipline that can be used to address the possibility of future threats which may cause harm to the existing systems. Although there has been considerable work on analysing Bitcoin in terms of the potential issues it brings to the economic landscape, this report performs a first ever attempt of identifying the threats and risks posed by the use of Bitcoin from the perspective of computational modeling and engineering. In this project we consider risk at all levels of interaction when Bitcoin is introduced and transferred across the systems. We look at the infrastructure and the computational working of the digital currency to identify the potential risks it brings. Additional information can be seen in our forthcoming companion report on the detailed modeling of Bitcoin.

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of core banking systems. The main objective is to analyze the implementation of the SEPA payments into the payment module. The theoretical part defines the concept of core banking systems and its history. It also compares conventional approaches to core banking systems with Islamic ones. The theoretical part also includes chapters about implementation approaches, the most common challenges in implementation and architecture of core banking systems. Next part of thesis is about the basic modules of core banking systems. The practical part is about the analysis of requirements on core banking systems. Especially the requirements that are mandatory from legislation perspective. These are SEPA payments, PSD2 and instant payments. Gap analysis is used as the main method. We chose SEPA payment implemetation as the requirement that we will analyse. There are two possible solutions that can be used. The first one is the customization of the current payment module and the second solution is implementation of the payment hub. The conclusion of the thesis focuses on the best solution for each of two types of bank institutions. The main acquisition of the thesis is the recommended solution for two different types of banks. And second of all, the conclusions which was founded in this thesis should be used for another requirements such as PSD2, the introduction of instant payments, and more.

The aim of my diploma work is to indicate the problems of cash and noncash payments. I aimed at the comparison of various types of payment instruments and domestic and foreign payment systems. I compare their advantages and disadvantages from the view of the bank and especially from the view of the corporate client. Concrete examples and recommendations are described in the part of the diploma work named Assessment of payment instruments in selected banks. I compare them among three banks - Volksbank CZ, a. s., Oberbank AG Czech Republic and Raiffeisenbank a. s.. In the diploma work I also describe actual trends and new possibilities of using payment cards and direct banking.