Issue #1 (cont.) (Volume 12 2017)

The study assesses whether the banks’ strategies help to attract and retain or deter tertiary students from their businesses. It aims to highlight the banks’ need to go beyond expectations in nurturing their students’ clientele. The study can be the banks’ stepping-stone into the seemingly neglected tertiary student (TS) market. Using observation method and bank consultants’ interviews, this study probes South Africa’s (SA) major banks’ service time-lag together with student product offers and information accessibility. The study focused on whether different banks’ product offers, costing and service quality do attract and retain or deter student clients. The questions were based on students’ saving/cheque accounts, credit card and loan facilities accessibility.

Findings. Product offers and information were inadequate from branch visits and website searches less informative. Queues time-lag differed from bank to bank, but, overall, unreasonable for TS market with product limitations and generalized information not specific to students’ needs. Further research can be undertaken to gain in-depth understanding of whether urban banks’ strategies for students are distinct to those of semi-rural areas, which was the scope of this study.

Banks services are significant for maintaining students’ profiles, providing traceable trails, of sponsors, families and financial transactions, which will be valuable even for periods beyond their academic life. Many live away from their secured homes, expected to survive with limited resources and time constraint. Nurturing these relationship would prepare students for the financial market demands much to the benefit of all stakeholders.

This paper tests for the existence of speculative bubbles in the South African-US exchange rate using the sequential ADF procedures. In particular, the paper uses the SADF and GSADF right-tailed unit root tests to explore the existence of explosive bubbles in the South African-US exchange rate for the time period running from January1980 through July 2012. The results provide evidence in support of the existence of explosive bubbles in the nominal rand-dollar exchange rate, the real exchange rate of traded and non-traded goods. The explosive behavior exhibited by the South African rand-US dollar exchange rate can be interpreted as evidence of rational bubbles given that this behavior is driven by the fundamentals including relative prices of traded and non-traded goods.

Islamic finance has grown rapidly in the recent years particularly in the Middle East and the world. It receives a great attention of bankers and financial scholars due to its stability during financial shocks and crises. The paper uses empirical analysis to test the role of Islamic banking in enhancing the economic growth of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross formation (GF), and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are used as representatives for economic growth, while Islamic banks’ investments are used as a representative for Islamic financial sector in the UAE. The study uses time series techniques to test the link between the variables. In the current study, co-integration along with error correction models is utilized. All econometric work is done using Eviews. The findings reveal that the causal relationship between Islamic banks’ investments and economic growth of UAE is supply-leading direction. Furthermore, the findings depict that Islamic investments have contributed in increasing investments and in bringing FDI into the country in the long-term. The study also shows that there is two-way association between Islamic banks’ investments and FDI. It shows that FDI supports Islamic banking and Islamic banking brings FDI. The paper concludes that authorities of the UAE should devote more attention for this growing banking sector by facilitating regulations for establishing new Islamic banks and then creating a suitable environment for their growth and progress in the UAE.

The aim of the article is to characterize the real stage of realization of asset operations of the Ukrainian banks on the current stage of banking system development. For this aim the analysis of the Ukrainian banks activities within the period of 2011-2016 year is made. The official statistical data of the National Bank of Ukraine on asset operations of the Ukrainian banks and indicators of economic norms of banking were used. Thus, the current stage of credit operations realization by the banks of Ukraine, credit risk of the Ukrainian banks, and investment operations of the banks of Ukraine and the level of their investment risk were researched.

It has been elicited that the most numerous operations among all of the asset operations of the Ukrainian banks throughout the study period were credit operations, the volume of which, regardless of the decrease in 2013 and 2016, had a clear tendency for increase. It has been calculated that within the study period the share of loans to business entities was continuously increasing, while the share of loans to private individuals was continuously decreasing, which led to the significant change in the proportions between these two groups of loans. It has been substantiated that the whole banking system was implementing the regulatory standards of credit risk set by the National Bank of Ukraine throughout the whole study period, which signifies that the credit activity of the Ukrainian banks was being conducted in the regulatory framework set by the authorities.

Investment operations of the Ukrainian banks in the period of 2011-2016 constituted the second largest group among all of the asset operations. It has been determined that their volume increased significantly within the study period and as a result their share in the general volume of asset operation of the Ukrainian banks increased as well, which signifies a certain diversification of asset operations of the Ukrainian banks.

Mobile banking represents an important addition to retail banks’ digital banking channels and a salient tool for servicing both current and future customers. However, given the cybernetic nature of mobile banking, there is a certain degree of uncertainty and perceived risk associated with the use thereof. This uncertainty and perceived risk elevate the importance of trust in fostering mobile banking adoption. The Generation Y cohort, which encompasses today’s youth, represents an important current and future banking segment and their adoption of mobile banking channels could have a significant effect on the cost of servicing members of this cohort. Understanding the factors that positively contribute to the Generation Y cohort’s trust in mobile banking will help retail banks to better market their mobile banking channels to members of this cohort and thereby foster greater adoption of such channels. The study reported in this article considers the influence of the perceived integrity of the bank and the perceived system quality of mobile banking on Generation Y students’ perceived trust in mobile banking in the South African context. Data were gathered from a convenience sample of 334 students registered at three public South African university campuses using a self-administered questionnaire. The gathered data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and bivariate regression analysis. The results of the study suggest that Generation Y students’ perceived integrity of a bank, together with the perceived system quality of mobile banking, has a significant positive influence on their perceived trust in mobile banking.

It is accepted that SMEs are major contributors to global employment and GDP. Similarly, SMEs’ reliance on bank finance to maintain financial and operational sustainability is also globally accepted. In 2008, the Company’s Act of South Africa was amended to scrap the statutory audit requirement for qualifying entities, with the aim of alleviating the administrative burden of SMEs and increase their sustainability potential. As sound as this strategy may have been, a grey area arose in that banks may still insist on audited financial statements. This study investigates the question as to whether South African banks still consider audited financial statements as key in evaluating SME bank finance applications. This was done by analyzing the major banks’ requirements per their policies and follow-up discussions with loan officers. Contrary to expectations, the historic focus per audited financial statements was considered of much less importance than progressive future-oriented management statements and reports.

This paper analyzes internet banking fraud alertness to the general public by the South African banking institutions. The study is centered on routine activity theory, which is a criminology theory. A qualitative content analysis was used as the research technique for the interpretation of the text data from each bank’s website through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns to provide an in-depth understanding of internet banking fraud alertness in the banking sector. A sample size of 13 out of 16 locally and foreign controlled retail banks in South Africa was used. The findings report that banks are not adequately providing internet fraud alertness information to the general public on their websites notwithstanding that most banks they do provide such information to log-in users and the use of that information is doubtful. This study suggests a need to augment internet banking fraud alertness information and passably inform internet banking users of the types of internet banking fraud perpetrated by internet fraudsters before they log-in for transacting. Considering the current and widespread quandary of internet banking fraud, the information of this paper is important for internet banking users to improve their aptitude in identifying fraudulent schemes and circumvent them, and for the banking institutions to invest more in the provision of internet banking fraud information to the general public.

Commercial banks have many options when selecting an advertising medium. Where should a bank put its money in order to obtain the highest return? Should this medium change based on the target audience? This paper examines a number of different mediums for bank advertising and analyzes by age and by gender the efficacy of each. The authors administered a survey to over three hundred participants of varying ages asking them if they have seen bank advertisements on television, social media or the internet, billboards, traditional print media, or heard bank advertising on the radio. The survey, then, asks, if so, did it leave a favorable or unfavorable impression. Finally, the participants are asked to rank the mediums in terms of most favored to least favored. The authors find that television is the most effective medium. It reaches the broadest audience and the message is received favorably the largest percent of the time. The results show differences by age groups that can be beneficial to banks that are attempting to increase brand awareness and capture greater market share from particular age groups. For example, social media advertising works better for communicating with the younger age groups than the older age groups, however, it is still neither as effective nor as positively received as television.

In 2005, Barclays Bank Plc acquired 56.4 percent stake of Amalgamated Bank of South Africa (ABSA). The performance of this acquisition has never been evaluated. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the performance of the acquired ABSA through an accounting based measure. The primary source of data was the 2004-2015 ABSA audited financial statements. The audited financial statements are publicly available. The period 2004-2015 includes a period before, during and after the acquisition. In this article, a financial statement analysis method through accounting based measure was the preferred research method. The financial statement analysis method was preferred because of its strength and ability to assess viability, stability and profitability by using formulae, ratios and calculations. Therefore, this article used financial formulae and ratios as acceptable accounting based measures to evaluate the performance of the acquired ABSA. The major finding is that the acquired ABSA is doing better than at the pre-acquisition stage and the share price of the acquired ABSA has been increasing since 2005 to 2015.

The quality of financial report and the extent to which investors rely on them to forecast future earnings is dependent on the accounting standards employed. The impact of IFRS adoption on earnings predictability of listed banks in Nigeria was examined in this study considering a sample of 11 listed banks in Nigeria. Categorically, data were obtained from the financial statement 2013 to 2014 (post-adoption period) and 2010 to 2011 (pre-adoption period). The data obtained were analyzed using regression on the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study found a decrease in the ability of current earnings to predict future earnings after the adoption period. Thus, IFRS adoption has a negative impact on earnings predictability. The study further suggested that regulatory bodies of the banking sector should enforce strict adherence to IFRS procedures and principles, as well as put in place measures that will improve investors’ protection.

In recent decades, despite the Basel Committee’s effort to develop internationally uniform regulatory capital standards, the capital ratios of banks across countries continue to exhibit significant differences. This paper examines the fundamental question of whether, given a uniform regulatory capital standard, regulators should expect similar banks to exhibit similar risk-based capital ratios. More specifically, this study develops a one-period theoretical model to examine the level playing field argument in light of not only uniform regulatory capital standards but also differences in bank supervision. The results of the theoretical model suggest that even with an internationally uniform risk-based capital requirement, it is unreasonable to expect banks in different countries to hold similar capital ratios. This occurs, in part, because regulators have discretion in how they apply the risk-based capital standards. Furthermore, the results suggest that a necessary condition for banks to exhibit similar capital ratios is that uniform capital requirements must be accompanied by a uniform stringency and application of regulatory supervision.