Suretyships given in favour of banks are being challenged in the courts on the basis of equitable doctrines of unconscionable conduct, undue influence, or statutory provisions dealing with unfair conduct or unfair contract terms. This thesis is an enquiry into a bank's duties of disclosure or advice to an intending surety. Such an investigation also necessitates a study of the relationship between banker and customer, as the surety is quite often a customer of the bank as well, and, as a surety's obligation to the bank is an accessory obligation, the obligation is dependent on a valid principal obligation between the bank and the principal debtor - the customer. The face of modern banking has, however, changed dramatically and most major banks have become multi-functional. As a result, the banker-customer relationship may often be seen as a fiduciary relationship. A major problem brought about my multi-functioning banks is that of conflicts of interest between the bank and its customer. Furthermore, the banker-customer relationship is providing much more scope for lender liability than in the past. Various factors are currently having an impact on the law of contract, and this is expected to affect the legal policy makers in their assessments of whether a duty of disclosure of material facts exits or not. A surety has long been a favoured debtor in the eyes of the law, and the courts have developed a plethora of technical principles on which a surety can be relieved of his obligation. The escape routes of the surety, especially if he is a consumer as well, on the new grounds of public policy, unconscionability, good faith or unreasonableness, are growing. The results of these trends is the expected demise of suretyship as an acceptable, cheap form of debt security in the banking sector. / Jurisprudence / LL.D.

The thesis is focused on the analysis of legislation concerning loans and usage of contractual undertakings for the purpose of protection of the credit institution in the field of loans provided to corporations. Loan represent an economic tool that enables to provide a temporarily unused financial sources to another subject based on agreed terms and returnable character for the consideration in the form of interest payment. Corporation represent a form of legal person that is based on organized association of persons (physical and legal). The credit institution is exposed to a number of risks in relation to loans business. In the forefront it is exposed to the credit risk of non-payment of the debt by the debtor at maturity date mainly because of factual inability (deficient sources) to repay the debt. The credit institution is next to the credit risk exposed to other risks - liquidity risk, market risks (interest and exchange rate risk) and risk of changes of legislation (regulatory environment). Analysis of applicable contractual undertakings for the purpose of reduction of credit and other risks represent the main focus of the thesis. The thesis is in this context focused also on the economic aspects next to the legal issues, especially risk analysis beforehand of the application of the...

The aim of this thesis is to document the importance of liquidity resources of central banks during banking panics and financial crises and analysis of the development of LLR function. We examined three historical examples: the banking panic of 1866, the Great Depression and the current financial crisis, and we focused on the interaction between the demand for liquidity on the one hand and the supply of liquidity by central banks on the other. On the wide historical background we also analysed the changes in the function of LLR. We present that a restrictive monetary policy during financial market distortions may lead to further disturbances and cause serious recession. The analysis of the BoE during 1866 and of the FED between 2007 and 2009, on the contrary shows that the expansionary stance and considerably endogenous liquidity supply are able to reduce financial market's distortions and mitigate possible recession. Analysis of FED's reaction also indicated that should the LLR remain efficient, central banks must expand their instruments portfolio.

Les articles constitutifs de cette thèse analysent les défaillances des marchés financiers traditionnellement identifiées par les économistes (associées aux externalités, aux asymétries d'information et à l'incomplétude des marchés) et les réponses des pouvoirs publics. Une observation centrale est que les interventions publiques ne résultent presque jamais d'une analyse à froid de ces défaillances de marché, mais se décident dans l'urgence pour répondre aux dysfonctionnements les plus évidents observés lors d'une crise. Cette approche pragmatique et a-théorique conduit à des interventions mal calibrées. Ces articles s'attaquent notamment à la politique du prêteur en dernier ressort qui encourage l'endettement à court terme des institutions financières, et nourrit le risque systémique. Ils soulignent également les risques de certaines réformes décidées à la suite de la crise des « subprime ». Les pouvoirs publics devraient se concentrer sur la fourniture des biens publics clairement identifiés par l'analyse économique (contrôle des « agents » et information), et ne pas multiplier les interventions hasardeuses qui créent parfois plus d'imperfections de marché qu'elles ne prétendent en résoudre. / The constituent articles of this dissertation analyze the financial market failures traditionally identified by economists (associated with externalities, information asymmetries and incompleteness of markets) and the policy responses. A central observation is that public interventions have almost never resulted from a cold analysis of these market failures but are decided in a hurry to respond to the most obvious shortcomings observed during a crisis. This pragmatic and a-theoretical approach leads to poorly calibrated interventions. These articles are addressing in particular the lender of last resort policy that encourages the issuance of various short-term debts by financial institutions and feeds systemic risk. They also highlight the risks of certain reforms decided after the "subprime" crisis. Governments should focus on the provision of public goods clearly identified by economic analysis (control of "agents" and information), and should not multiply risky interventions that sometimes create more market imperfections than they claim to solve.

The aim of this thesis is to visualize and explain how people’s economic and social relations were connected in the parish of Sundborn, in the south east of Dalarna, in the period 1820-1849. The study is based on records of claims and debts in inventories and parish registers, which enable reconstruction of the private local credit market. The study shows that the majority in the economic network lived in Sundborn, and that while few people had formal loans at the institutional credit market, many had loans by trust at the private local credit market. Also, while few people were lenders, almost everyone was a borrower. The most common credit relationship was between people who lived near one another, and people who lived near one another or were related received a higher average credit. The private local credit market consisted primarily of men. These results have been interpreted with the use of social network theory, it being shown that people depended on their social network to obtain the necessary credit. In creating an economic network graph, I show that households in the parish of Sundborn were interconnected by debt relations. By using this method, it is possible to identify significant persons and potential parish bankers. Through combining the network graph with a landscape map, I show connections between the settlement, the assets, economic relations, centrality and the long valley of Sundborn river. The study opens up possibilities for further development of the same method to visualize historic data and relate it to the landscape, with a view to generating new related questions and spatial analyses.

This dissertation considered trade and trade finance in Mesopotamia over a period of 2000 years commencing with Sumeria and ending with Achaemenid Persia, taking in Ur III and Assyria. A range of financial instruments was selected together with important business transactions, for instance, agricultural finance, specifically the brewing industry and the working capital requirements of merchants and money lenders. The role of women in private enterprise was examined, including their role in retail finance. The great estates of temple and palace had a substantial impact on finance and trade throughout the periods. Their interaction with merchants and money lenders was important to the study. I used reductionism to facilitate analysis of complex products highlighting the essentials of finance namely, borrowing, lending and return. The study concludes that, during the era under consideration, the evolution and enhancement of the financial instruments and products developed in self-generated, incremental and progressive steps. / Biblical & Ancient Studies / M.A. (Ancient Near East Studies)

This dissertation considered trade and trade finance in Mesopotamia over a period of 2000 years commencing with Sumeria and ending with Achaemenid Persia, taking in Ur III and Assyria. A range of financial instruments was selected together with important business transactions, for instance, agricultural finance, specifically the brewing industry and the working capital requirements of merchants and money lenders. The role of women in private enterprise was examined, including their role in retail finance. The great estates of temple and palace had a substantial impact on finance and trade throughout the periods. Their interaction with merchants and money lenders was important to the study. I used reductionism to facilitate analysis of complex products highlighting the essentials of finance namely, borrowing, lending and return. The study concludes that, during the era under consideration, the evolution and enhancement of the financial instruments and products developed in self-generated, incremental and progressive steps. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Ancient Near East Studies)

In the environmental context banks face direct, indirect and reputational risks from their internal operations and their external business activities. The current specific focus on the protection of the environment makes it essential for banks and their directors to be aware and stay on top of potential risks and liabilities. This is especially so because banks’ directors can be criminally prosecuted for environmental crimes. The application and effect of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA) on persons convicted of an environmental crime or crimes has been identified as a possible new or added risk for banks and their directors. Banks in addition to their normal environmental risk and liabilities also need to contend with the possibility of lender liability. Existing legislation pertinent to lender liability does not expressly or specifically deal with lender liability. Absence of judgements on lender liability further exacerbates the risks and the uncertainty for banks in South Africa. Therefore, banks remain subject to legal uncertainty and associated risks. The issue of lender liability specifically with regard to the implication of “the person in control” requires clarification. Hence, it is recommended that legislation relevant to lender liability (National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998; National Water Act 36 of 1998 and the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008) be revised to specifically accommodate and protect lenders (lending banks) in certain distinct circumstances. The role of banks is that of an intermediary between borrowers and lenders of money. Therefore, it influences the direction and pace of economic development and by default steers and promotes either sustainable or non-sustainable development. Currently, mainstream banks are in effect financing a brown economy and hence subscribe to a weak form of sustainability. It would seem that mainstream banks are more concerned with managing the impact that environmental risk may have on bank lending than the impact of bank lending on the environment. The evolving nature of sustainability (from weak to strong and from a brown to green economy) demands a fundamental policy change for banks. It is expected that mainstream banks will be put under even greater pressure than before to make the transition from weak to strong sustainability. Hence, banks’ current environmental risk management systems will not be sufficient to cater for new environmental risks and liabilities that the move to stronger sustainability (in the form of the green economy) will present. Banks should adopt the stronger version of sustainability; formulate environmental principles that the bank will adhere to; incorporate these environmental principles into all aspects of its lending cycle, develop an environmental risk management system that should include as a minimum the identification of all the applicable legislation pertaining to the specific financing or lending of capital, risk identification, assessment of the specific risk, implementation of risk control measures, mitigation of the risk, risk monitoring and auditing. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In the environmental context banks face direct, indirect and reputational risks from their internal operations and their external business activities. The current specific focus on the protection of the environment makes it essential for banks and their directors to be aware and stay on top of potential risks and liabilities. This is especially so because banks’ directors can be criminally prosecuted for environmental crimes. The application and effect of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA) on persons convicted of an environmental crime or crimes has been identified as a possible new or added risk for banks and their directors. Banks in addition to their normal environmental risk and liabilities also need to contend with the possibility of lender liability. Existing legislation pertinent to lender liability does not expressly or specifically deal with lender liability. Absence of judgements on lender liability further exacerbates the risks and the uncertainty for banks in South Africa. Therefore, banks remain subject to legal uncertainty and associated risks. The issue of lender liability specifically with regard to the implication of “the person in control” requires clarification. Hence, it is recommended that legislation relevant to lender liability (National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998; National Water Act 36 of 1998 and the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008) be revised to specifically accommodate and protect lenders (lending banks) in certain distinct circumstances. The role of banks is that of an intermediary between borrowers and lenders of money. Therefore, it influences the direction and pace of economic development and by default steers and promotes either sustainable or non-sustainable development. Currently, mainstream banks are in effect financing a brown economy and hence subscribe to a weak form of sustainability. It would seem that mainstream banks are more concerned with managing the impact that environmental risk may have on bank lending than the impact of bank lending on the environment. The evolving nature of sustainability (from weak to strong and from a brown to green economy) demands a fundamental policy change for banks. It is expected that mainstream banks will be put under even greater pressure than before to make the transition from weak to strong sustainability. Hence, banks’ current environmental risk management systems will not be sufficient to cater for new environmental risks and liabilities that the move to stronger sustainability (in the form of the green economy) will present. Banks should adopt the stronger version of sustainability; formulate environmental principles that the bank will adhere to; incorporate these environmental principles into all aspects of its lending cycle, develop an environmental risk management system that should include as a minimum the identification of all the applicable legislation pertaining to the specific financing or lending of capital, risk identification, assessment of the specific risk, implementation of risk control measures, mitigation of the risk, risk monitoring and auditing. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

L’objectif de cette thèse est de présenter la Banque islamique comme réponse à l’instabilité de l’économie de crédit. La lecture de la crise des subprimes au prisme du modèle post- keynésien de Minsky-Kindleberger permet d’affirmer que l’Hypothèse d’Instabilité Financière (HIF) débouche sur des propositions de gestion des crises financières. Car, si les crises sont inhérentes au capitalisme, il devient nécessaire et urgent de mettre en place des institutions à même de gérer les perturbations financières. Les réformes monétaires proposées au fil du temps par des éco- nomistes et le comité Bâle III posent le problème du développement bancaire. Dans le cas où la monnaie est séparée du crédit financier, soit le cas des reformes monétaires proposées par Fisher (1935) et ses disciples, nous rencontrons le problème du multiplicateur de crédit alors que le risque systémique est faible et il y a remise en cause de la nécessité du prêteur en dernier ressort dans ce système. Tandis que si la monnaie n’est pas séparée du crédit financier, cas des réformes monétaire proposées par des instruments de gestion tels que ceux proposées par Minsky (1982) ; Kindleberger (1989) ; Aglietta et Moutot (1993) ; Aglietta (2011) et le comité Bâle III, le risque systémique per- siste toujours. Dans ce dernier cas, c’est le prêteur en dernier ressort qui est le plus susceptible d’assumer l’objectif de la stabilité du système financier dans son ensemble en émettant de la liquidi- té ultime. L’étude comparative de deux cas de développement de banques islamiques, celui de l’Arabie Saoudite et celui du Pakistan, a montré que ces deux systèmes bancaires ont été confrontés au même problème que celui de la finance occidentale : le développement bancaire. Du fait que, si la monnaie est séparée du crédit financier – cas du Pakistan – les Banques islamiques sont à la fois moins vulnérables au risque systémique mais sont moins performantes. Alors que si la monnaie n’est pas séparée du crédit financier – cas de l’Arabie Saoudite – les banques islamiques sont plus vulnérables aux risques systémiques mais sont plus performantes. A contrario, même si la Banque islamique ne répond pas au risque systémique de l’Hypothèse de l’Instabilité de l’Économie de Crédit, elle résiste tout de même à la crise systémique de cette hypothèse du fait qu’elle ne peut en aucun cas conduire à une crise systémique comme celle des subprimes. Car, en contraste avec l’instrument du système financier conventionnel, les spécificités de l’instrument du système finan- cier islamique l’amènent à être moins vulnérable à la crise systémique. / The goal of this PhD is to analyze the Islamic bank model as a possible solution to the credit economy instability. Reading the subprime crisis through the post Keynesian model of Minsky-Kindleberger lenses allows us to assert that the Financial Instability Hypothesis (HIF) leads to proposals for financial crises management. If crises are inherent in capitalism, it becomes necessary and urgent to set up institutions able of managing financial perturbations. The monetary reforms suggested over time by economists and the Bale III committee too raises the problem of banking development. If money is separated from the financial credit, as in the example of Fisher (1935) and his followers monetary reforms shows, we run into the problem of the credit multiplier while the systemic risk is weak and the necessity of the lender of last resort in this system is questioned. Whereas, if money is not separated from the financial credit, as in the case of monetary reforms proposed by instruments of management such as those suggested by Minsky (1982), Kindleberger, Aglietta and Moutot (1993), Aglietta (2011) and Bale III, the systemic risk persists and this is, after all, the lender in the last resort who may assume the objective of the financial system’s stability in general by uttering of the ultimate liquidity. The development study of the two cases of Islamic banks, those in Saudi Arabia and those in Pakistan, showed the confrontation of these banks of the same problems noticed in the western finance. In fact, if money is separated from the financial credit, which is the case in Pakistan, Islamic banks are less vulnerable to systemic risk and are less efficient. While if money is not separated from the financial credit, as in Saudi Arabia, Islamic banks are more vulnerable to systemic risk and more efficient. However, even if the Islamic bank does not respond to the systemic risk of the Hypothesis of the Credit Economy’s instability, it answers as even to the systemic crises of this hypothesis. Hence, in all cases, it cannot lead to a systemic crisis similar to the subprime one. This is due to the fact that specification of the Islamic financial system instrument, in contrast to the instrument of the conventional financial system, is less vulnerable to the systemic crisis.