Issue #2 (Volume 14 2019)

This study aims to examine the effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on the financial performance of banks operating in Jordan during the period of 2013–2017. The study focused on the effect of economic, environmental and social disclosures on financial performance.
To achieve the study objective, the content analysis method was used. The dimensions of sustainability accounting disclosure were measured through indicators that have been developed for this purpose, which are in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (G4-2013).
The study results revealed that there is a statistically significant effect of sustainability accounting disclosure on the financial performance. In addition, the study results revealed that the disclosure of the economic and social dimensions had a positive effect on return on equity (ROE). While the environmental dimension did not affect the return on equity (ROE). In addition, the results of the study revealed that the disclosure of sustainability dimensions (economic, social and environment) had a combined effect on the return on assets (ROA). This means that the banks operating in Jordan give more priority to the economic dimension disclosure, than to the social and environmental dimensions.
In reviewing previous studies in the accounting literature, it has been found that there is a paucity of studies that examine the concept of sustainability accounting, especially in the Jordanian banking sector. Therefore, this study constitutes value to this field.

This study is of an exploratory nature as it seeks to explore the extent to which the language of emotions in the banks’ annual reports is affected by the global financial crisis (GFC). The language of emotions was analyzed using eight categories (trust, anticipation, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, surprise and joy) in annual reports of 12 listed banks from six countries in the Middle East area (namely, Jordan, Kingdom of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman, Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) from 2002 to 2017. The final data set consists of 192 bank-year observations. The study time was divided into three periods (pre, during and post GFC). In addition, the study enriches accounting literature by being the first study to test Pollyanna hypothesis using emotion analysis. The results of the study show that the percentage of emotional words in banks’ annual reports (2002–2017) represents almost 22% on average. The trust, anticipation and fear categories were the most affected than other emotional categories during GFC. While the trust category decreased, both the fear and anticipation categories increased. Other findings of the study show that regardless of GFC, emotional words of trust and anticipation categories in banks’ annual reports have dominated the emotional words of the disgust and surprise categories. Therefore, Pollyanna hypothesis is supported. In contrast to the emotional words of the joy category in banks’ annual reports which has not dominated the sadness category. In this case, Pollyanna hypothesis is rejected.

This study aims to determine the assessment of financial performance and the effect on dividend policy of banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the period of 2014–2017. The assessment of the company’s financial performance is important. Results of the assessment will be consideration of financial performance for investors, one of them to predict the dividend policy. The prediction results will influence investors in making investment decisions. This study employs a quantitative approach. The assessment of financial performance is measured using variables of leverage, profitability and profit growth. They were analyzed using the multiple linear regression method. At the 0.05 significance level, the results of this study showed that the leverage has a negative and significant effect on dividend policy. Meanwhile, profitability and profit growth have no effect on dividend policy. In order to explain the influence between variables, the research is based on the theories underlying the dividend policy, namely the theory of residual dividends and smoothing theory. The results of this study support the residual dividend theory, that one of the dividend policies is determined by the company by considering the target capital structure and then distributing dividends with only the remaining profit.

The slowdown in economic development caused by the reduction in the efficiency of the functioning of state institutions determined the focus of the governments of most countries of the world on achieving sustainable economic growth, as well as ensuring macroeconomic and macrofinancial stability. A major issue that is dealt with is the weakening of the interaction of monetary and fiscal policies in Ukraine. It can be assumed that one of the reasons hindering economic growth is growing discoordination between monetary and fiscal policies. The purpose of this study is to assess the nature of monetary and fiscal policies in Ukraine in 2000–2017 and justify the need for coordination between them to stimulate economic growth. For the quantitative assessment of the influence of monetary and fiscal factors on GDP, the models of autoregression with distributed lags – ARDL are used. The analysis makes it possible to distinguish and characterize three stages of combining the rigid and stimulating monetary and fiscal policy in Ukraine in 2000–2017. The article examines the influence of the dynamics of the monetary aggregate M3, the inflation rate and the weighted average base interest rate on the growth rates of real GDP in Ukraine, the impact of using the “monetary clamp” effect on the increase in the NBU’s interest rate, and the direct effect of monetary factors on the fiscal policy. The authors conclude that the inconsistency of monetary and fiscal policies is one of the reasons for the high volatility of macroeconomic indicators. The article substantiates the conclusion that it is necessary to overcome the increasing antagonism between monetary and fiscal policies in Ukraine and to strengthen their coordination.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficiency of two different banking systems operating in Egypt (Islamic versus conventional banks). A sample of 35 banks has been used to examine the technical efficiency before and after the financial crisis using data envelopment analysis model. Evaluating the technical efficiency of Egyptian banks will enable policymakers to support which banking system is more efficient to facilitate the financial inclusion and enhance the economic development.
Before the financial crisis, conventional banks outperformed conventional banks with Islamic windows and Islamic banks, scale technical efficiency outperformed pure technical efficiency when analyzing conventional banks and conventional banks with Islamic windows. In terms of Islamic banks, pure efficiency outperformed scale efficiency. After the financial crisis, technical efficiency of all banks decreased. However, pure technical efficiency of Islamic banks has improved as a result of the quality of management and outperformed both conventional banks and conventional banks with Islamic windows. These results imply that Islamic banks have not been affected by the financial crisis. Therefore, the increased adoption and support of the Islamic banks in Egypt is addressed to develop the economy and push forward entrepreneurship projects, support the financial inclusion and the informal economy integration.

The study analyzed and summarized publications on the nature of the formation of financial and credit infrastructure, which is created in order to support agricultural enterprises. The functioning and development of financial and credit infrastructure as a factor of social and economic development of the country is explored. The features of diversification of financing sources of agricultural enterprises are determined. The role of bank lending to agricultural enterprises in Ukraine is investigated. The model of interaction of participants of the financial and credit infrastructure of support for agricultural enterprises through the formation of the certain conditions is proposed. It is proved that such measures will provide increase in the efficient use of available agro-resource potential and reopen the industry attractiveness for investing companies.

Deposit policy of banks is defined as an important component of the banking strategy, since banks operate mainly with attracted resources. Therefore, volume and quality of the resource base of banks determine their opportunities for lending and investment activity. An important component of the study is the impact of the National Bank of Ukraine on the deposit policy of commercial banking institutions in terms of interest rate policy and deposit insurance system, which needs to be improved. The author’s definition of the term “deposit program” is proposed, and a determining factor in a bank’s deposit program is that it is developed individually and is aimed at providing the required amount of attracted resources in order to maximally meet the needs of customers and taking into account the priorities of the bank. The prospects for improving the deposit policy of the banks are highlighted as providing marketing innovations is a prerequisite for ensuring competitiveness. They need to be implemented systematically and interconnected with other business processes, including introducing new types of accounts and modern channels for selling banking products. In particular, due to the pension reform in Ukraine, the non-state pension insurance system is developing, and opening of IRA for clients is a promising direction for attracting funds by commercial banks.

The issues of crimes commission in the sphere of banking activity in Ukraine are highlighted. It is emphasized that crimes in banking activity are systematically committed by the public officials of the state. Such actions committed by the public officials cause the losses to the Ukrainian economy in the specially big amount. In the last two years, the socially dangerous consequences of these acts for the state economy are calculated by hundreds of millions of hryvnias. The defendants of these resonant criminal cases are the heads of banking institutions and senior public officials, as well as the officials of the National Bank of Ukraine. Moreover, the losses of these crimes cannot be compensated to the state economy, since the money laundered are placed for a long time in offshore areas outside the state. The conclusion is fomulated that current criminal legislation of Ukraine should be amended. First, there is the social need for criminalization of the socially dangerous actions committed by the public officials in banking sphere. Second, the study of the criminal legislation of the separate countries demonstrates that criminal liability of the legal persons for commission of the criminal offences in the sphere of banking activity is an effective measure to prevent the negative effects of the criminal threats. So this liability should also be introduced in Ukraine. Third, negligent crimes in the sphere of banking activities should also be criminalized, because an absence of such criminal prohibilion leads to the negligent behavior of the bank managers and to the socially dangerous results.

The relevance of trust in the central bank is determined by the rapid growth of the gap between the expectations of a regulator and market participants regardless of the reforms carried out by the NBU. Therefore, the need to use the “non-traditional” monetary policy instruments has enhanced the role of verbal interventions in the context of inflation targeting. The aim of the article is to ground that trust causes adequate rational behavior of the market participants in response to the central bank’s communication policy. The type of this research is an explanatory research method. As determined, trust is the necessary condition for the effectiveness of the central bank’s communication strategy and it favors the achievement of proclaimed objectives. It is established that although since 2014 the NBU activated verbal interventions as an additional instrument to anchor expectations, the increase of transparency does not prompt the trust because of the lack of confidence of citizens in the NBU and high level of stress in the domestic financial sector. It is emphasized that the pursuit of inflation targeting requires expanded communication to gather the expectations of economic agents. The NBU, in its communication policy concerning the economic climate, underlines devaluation expectations, the exchange rate and explanations on the discount rate. However, the deviation of expected enterprises’ exchange rate from the actual exchange rate, growing velocity of money circulation against the declining share of funds involved in the banking system, low monetization level and low penetration of financial services evidence the distrust in monetary policy.

This study explores the relationship between bank credits, exchange rate and non-oil GDP in Azerbaijan, utilizing FMOLS, CCR and DOLS co-integration methods to the data spanning from January 2005 to January 2019. The results from the different co-integration methods are consistent with each other and approve the presence of a long-run relationship among the variables. Estimation results reveal that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of bank credits and exchange rate on the non-oil GDP in the long run for the Azerbaijani case which are in line with the expectations and with the theoretical findings discussed in theoretical framework section. This finding also indicates that a 1% increase in credit and real exchange rate increases non-oil GDP by 0.51% and 0.56%, respectively. The results of this paper are useful for the policymakers and promote the economic literature for further researches in the case of oil-rich countries.

The recent development of integrated reporting intends to address the limitations associated with corporate reporting practices. This paper aims to examine whether a statistically significant relationship exists between integrated reporting quality and financial performance. Secondary data was used, namely the integrated reports and annual financial statements of South African banks listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) for 2010–2014. For the period 2005–2009, only the financial statements were used, since integrated reporting was not yet mandatory. The research design was longitudinal and it combined qualitative and quantitative methods. Descriptive statistics and Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) were used to explore the relationships between financial performance and integrated reporting quality. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between integrated reporting quality (IRQ) and earnings per share (EPS). However, there is no significant relationship between IRQ and Tobin’s q (Q-Ratio), IRQ and return on equity (ROE), IRQ and return on assets (ROA) as well as IRQ and economic value added (EVA). Moreover, there are no significant differences on the financial performance of the listed banks before and after the introduction of integrated reporting.

This study aims to test the impact of strategic planning on enhancing the strategic performance of Bahraini banks. The study has two variables. The strategic planning as an independent variable includes a group of four perspectives, namely environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation. The strategic performance as a dependent variable also includes a group of four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth. The sample of the study consists of the employees of 10 of all the 12 commercial banks in Bahrain. A questionnaire was developed to gather the data. Five questionnaires were distributed to each bank totaling 50 questionnaires. The results showed that the strategic planning has a good statistically significant impact on financial, customer, and learning and growth. The results also showed a medium statistically significant impact of strategic planning on internal business process. The research recommended focusing on all aspects of the strategic performance in the banks under study, specifically the internal business process perspective.

This study is aimed to analyze the relationship between the use of derivative financial instruments for speculative and hedging purposes and systematic risk. The effect of the use of derivatives by seven banks trading on Borsa Istanbul during the period of June 2007 – December 2017 on systematic risk was studied using panel cointegration, causality and regression analyses. Banking sector was examined within the scope of the study, since the level of use of derivatives is high in this sector. It was identified in the study that there is a long-run cointegration relationship between the use of derivatives and systematic risk. It was also identified that there is a significant and negative relationship between the use of derivatives for speculative purposes and systematic risk. Furthermore, it was determined that there is a one-way causality relationship from the use of derivatives for speculative purposes towards systematic risk. However, there was no relationship identified between the use of derivatives for hedging purposes and systematic risk. On the other hand, significant and negative relationship was identified between swap transactions that banks use for speculative purposes and systematic risk, while there was no significant relationship determined between forward and option contracts and systematic risk.

This paper provides an overview of the law and a statute regarding the notary’s responsibility toward the authenticity of credit bank guarantee in Indonesia, and compares them with those of other nations, including the United States of America and Germany. This study uses a combination of primary and secondary sources to assess the current state of the notary responsibility situation regarding banks and the financial lending world in general and employs a normative or doctrinal approach that views laws as a system of norms. The functions of notaries in Indonesia are different from those performed by notaries in some other countries, the notaries play different roles and participate in many formalities:

a) a function in credit banking bind guarantees that not only allow people to feel comfortable with their transactions, but also increase public trust in the whole banking system;
b) personal and material guarantees. In transacting any deeds, including credit bank guarantees, the notary is responsible for the authenticity of the physical, formal and material aspects of the deed;
c) the binding of collateral objects;
d) a function in binding banking credit guarantees.

Also, notaries have the risk of illegal jurisdiction of a banking credit guarantee deed. Notaries in Indonesia have different roles compared to other countries, including the United States of America and Germany. Notaries play an important role in increasing economic growth, especially through their responsibility for the authenticity of credit bank guarantees activity and they add to the overall body of knowledge.

Earnings quality (EQ) is an indicator generally defined as a mix of many components like persistence, predictability, volatility and smoothing of earnings. This study is based on the hypothesis that in the banking sector, any changes in interest rates make a remarkable effect on these characteristics of earnings, and thus may influence EQ. Between 2007 and 2015, there has been a general decreasing trend in interest rates across Europe, with varying slopes in different countries. Using data of 128 European banks from 27 countries, it is examined how the extent of interest rate decrease influenced the EQ of banks. It was found that the extent of interest decrease negatively affects earnings quality, meaning that the EQ of banks located in countries with less drastic relative interest cuts between 2007 and 2015 (typically less developed Central and Eastern European countries) is higher than the EQ of banks from developed countries with significant relative interest cuts in the same period.

This paper aims to examine the influence foreign and indigenous directors have on determining firms’ dividend payout structure. The population for this study is the fifteen deposit money banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Using a random sampling technique, a sample of 14 deposit money banks for the 2010 to 2017 period was taken. The total observations used for the work was 112. The study adopted a panel data methodology, which was estimated with a random-effect model. It was observed that a significant relationship exists between foreign directors and the dependent variable (dividend payout structure). The dividend payout structure by dividend per share of sampled firms was measured. This study will improve analysts and investors’ understanding of dividend policy by giving them insights in identifying the main determinants of dividend policy. For policy makers, this study reinforces the fact that good corporate governance is important to develop financial markets and improve the firm value.

The financial equilibrium (“financial health”) of the enterprises is a prerequisite for their sustainable development, which ensures macroeconomic stability of the economy and the welfare of the state. It should be supported by the banking system, which performs the function of the effective reallocation of capital. Recently, the Ukrainian banking system itself is in a challenging situation and is undergoing a period of transformation. The purpose of the study is to assess how sufficiently the banking system of Ukraine supports the financial equilibrium of enterprises and to find the possibilities to strengthen its role in the progress of the real sector of economy. The authors single out three stages of financial equilibrium growth; each of them can be supported by the relevant banking services. The empirical analysis proves that the Ukrainian banks successfully ensure only the first stage, namely, liquidity balancing. To quantitatively assess the role of the banking system in supporting the enterprises’ financial equilibrium, a multivariate regression applying mathematical gnostic analysis in the program shell R Console is used. The research makes it possible to find out that only the economy monetization, the share of time deposits of economic entities and growth rate of mortgage loans have a positive effect. The authors conclude that the problems of both enterprises and the banking system are in the sphere of development and implementation of government economic policy and are aggravated by the restrictive monetary policy.

Various mechanisms for implementation, and at the same time contradictory approaches to the essence, evaluation, reflection, and regulation, led to the need to consider and improve approaches to the recognition of cryptocurrency.

Based on the critical analysis of the legal provisions in Ukraine and the approaches of scientific experts, practitioners and international experience, the economic essence of cryptocurrency is substantiated. The legal, economic and accounting aspects of cryptocurrency recognition in developed and transformational economies are revealed. In order to meet the information needs of users, the peculiarities of the application of methods for estimating cryptocurrency commodities and the influence of the chosen method on the reflection of such an asset in the financial statements have been identified. The necessity to clarify and harmonize existing national accounting standards for recognizing and reporting on cryptocurrency transactions has been identified.

The proposed approach to the identification and recognition of cryptocurrency goods will improve the relations between the owners of cryptocurrency and the state, legalize cryptocurrency transactions and form an effective system for managing such transactions in Ukraine.