This guide provides a systematic approach for the preparation and evaluation of privately financed projects (PFPs) or services. It is intended to assist both the principal (often a public body) and the promoter (private body) at each phase of the procurement process, from inception through to financial closure. Stakeholders involved in a PFP procurement process may use the guide to gain an …
Making money demands effort, whether working for a salary or investing. You get nothing for nothing. Anyone who tells you the stock market is an absolute doddle, and money for old rope, is either a conman or a fool. And the proof of that became very clear with the stock market depressions starting in 2007. But doing a bit of work does not necessarily mean heavy mathematics and several hours eve…
No longer are financial instruments confined to bank loans and deposits, stocks and bonds, and other traditional forms. Numer- ous financial products have emerged to meet new needs and pref- erences of individuals and institutions. At the same time, opera- tions of major financial institutions increasingly have extended beyond national borders and are now carried out on a worldwide basis. Su…
Few entrepreneurs succeed in raising Angel or Venture Capital f i n a n c e . M a n y b u s i n e s s o w n e r s d o n ’ t b o t h e r t o a p p l y knowing that they won’t be successful. Others simply don’t need it and have an operation capable of generating the free cash flow they need to grow their business. Only a very few are able to meet the requirements of the Angel or Ventur…
Every day, businesses face decision choices. For example, should a bank choose to expand organically by opening new branches, or should it expand by acquiring another bank with its own network of branches. Or, should a technology company release a new version of a product line now, and thereby cannibalize sales of its existing product line, or should it wait a year at the risk of giving its co…
One of the basic building blocks for managing a successful treasury department is the establishment of a comprehensive set of treasury policies. Such policies define the principal financial risks a company is facing and how these risks will be managed by the treasury department. Chapter 1 covers the process of identifying and measuring these risks. What are the typical treasury-related financia…
One of the basic building blocks for managing a successful treasury department is the establishment of a comprehensive set of treasury policies. Such policies define the principal financial risks a company is facing and how these risks will be managed by the treasury department. Chapter 1 covers the process of identifying and measuring these risks. What are the typical treasury-related financia…
We hope that our text, Advanced Modelling in Finance, is conclusive proof that a wide range of models can now be successfully implemented using spreadsheets. The models range across the complete spectrum of finance including equities, equity options and bond options spanning developments from the early fifties to the late nineties. The models are implemented in Excel spreadsheets, complemen…
The preface of a 1992 publication from the Forum on Debt and Development (Fondad), Fragile Finance: Rethinking the International Monetary System, included the following statement: “In the face of dangerous instability of global financial flows it is high time for policymakers to seriously rethink the role they should play in a market-based international monetary and financial system. Nat…
This chapter introduces the functions that are commonly used in finance and discusses their properties and applications. For instance, the exponential function is used to discount forward prices to their present value and the inverse of the exponential function, the natural logarithmic function or ‘log’ for short, is used to compute returns in continuous time. We shall encounter numerous ot…
The Little Data Book on Financial Inclusion 2015 is a pocket edition of the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database published in 2015. This data set represents a second round of data collection, following the initial round three years earlier. The database provides nationally representative, demand-side data on access to and use of accounts, credit, payments, and savings by adults a…
t brings you a new service to help you prepare for your finance interviews. Your 1-hour live session with a Vault finance expert will include an actual 30- minute finance interview, which will be immediately followed by a 30-minute critique and Q&A session with your expert.
Sovereign debt markets have demonstrated incredible resilience despite a century of dramatic political and economic upheaval. Among the most remarkable aspects of the contemporary debt regime is the degree to which expectations of borrowers remain relatively uniform even in the face of such major shifts. These basic expectations resolve into one background rule: sovereign borrowers must repa…
Despite the impressive rebound seen on European financial markets following Mario Draghi’s famous speech in late July 2012, European leaders still face formidable challenges. The restoration of some confidence on financial markets should not conceal the long-term challenges to make the European Monetary Union function better in future and to make it more resilient to shocks. Despite somewhat …
The purpose of this book is to move beyond a purely economic under- standing of the euro crisis and its likely aftermath by emphasizing the political foundations of markets. Our goals in doing so are threefold: first, to develop a holistic understanding of what caused the euro crisis, which incorporates political, ideational, institutional, as well as economic and financial factors; second, to …
Why would anyone who does not work in the banking industry want to read a book about banking? The subject should be a bore. Savings accounts are not fashionable. Mortgages do not entertain. Most of us – well, apart from banking professionals and a few banking professors like myself – have better things to do than think about payment cards or credit transfers. All we want from banks is secur…
An informant once said to us, “Man, you have to be crazy to use a gun to hold up a bank; those credit cards can get you the same thing with no risk.” Whether it be filling out fraudulent applications, stealing cards from the mail, or taking over legitimate accounts, it can be done — “You have to pick them though, watch out for the good banks; they’ve got systems to catch you if you …
The wide-scale financial crisis of recent years has focused attention on the role of central banks in achieving and maintaining financial stability. Indeed, financial stability was the primary reason for the establishment of many of the earliest central banks. But as financial crises diminished in frequency and severity in the post-World War II period, particularly in industrial coun- tries, ce…
The issues of developing country debt crises, increased volatility and risk, and the determination of market liquidity are high on the agendas of policy-makers, market participants and researchers in the area of financial markets. These issues are also of major importance to regulators and exchange officials. This book contains a collection of eight papers which provide new insights into all th…
This book is a descriptive treaty proving a critical overview of the law of credit rating agencies (CRAs) on both sides of the Atlantic. It examines the regulations introduced, how effective the mechanisms for the enforcement of these regulations are, whether they act as a deterrent to CRAs and whether or not investors receive compensation for their losses. The book embarks on a systematic jour…
This handbook is intended as a reference for financial managers, credit and security analysts, bankers, lawyers, accountants, auditors, and educators, whose decisions en- compass the international dimensions of financial analysis, reporting, and control. It expands and updates the topical coverage of its award-winning predecessor, The Handbook of International Accounting, and, in its second e…
For much of the last 20 years, I have sifted through thousands of files relating to hundreds of relationships involving financial institutions in different parts of the world that have either facilitated crimes or laundered the proceeds of crimes on behalf of customers. I have tried to maintain a balanced perspective, recognising that many financial institutions are committed to the preventio…
Then should the government intervene in the economy? When do mar- kets fail? How do we craft policies that maximize social welfare? How do we design policies to minimize unintended consequences? Traditional public finance provides a powerful framework to tackle those questions. This frame- work, however, relies on an overly simple model of human behavior. This book revisits the core questions…