Search Results (41)

This study examines the role of supervisory frameworks in shaping the risk management behavior of Greece’s four systemic banks during the period of 2015–2024. It explores how regulatory reforms under Capital Requirements Regulation II, Basel III, and European Central Bank oversight influenced capital adequacy, asset quality, and liquidity metrics. Employing a quantitative methodology, this study analyzes secondary data from Pillar III disclosures, annual financial reports, and supervisory statements. Key risk indicators (capital adequacy ratio, non-performing exposure ratio, liquidity coverage ratio, and risk-weighted assets) are evaluated in conjunction with regulatory interventions, such as International Financial Reporting Standards 9 transitional relief, the Hercules Asset Protection Scheme, and European Central Bank liquidity measures. The findings reveal that enhanced supervision contributed to improved resilience and regulatory compliance. International Financial Reporting Standards 9 transitional arrangements were pivotal in maintaining capital thresholds during stress periods. Supervisory flexibility and extraordinary European Central Bank support measures helped banks absorb shocks and improve risk governance. Differences across banks highlight the impact of institutional strategy on regulatory performance. This study offers a rare longitudinal assessment of supervisory influence on bank risk behavior in a high-volatility Eurozone context. Covering an entire decade (2015–2024), it uniquely links institutional strategies with evolving regulatory frameworks, including crisis-specific interventions such as International Financial Reporting Standards 9 relief and asset protection schemes. The results provide insights for policymakers and regulators on how targeted supervisory interventions and transitional mechanisms can enhance banking sector resilience during protracted crises. Full article

Bank operations are contingent upon investor confidence, particularly during periods of economic distress. If investor confidence drops, a bank faces difficulties obtaining money, higher borrowing costs, and lower stock values. Non-performing loans (NPLs) potentially jeopardize a bank’s long-term viability and short-term profitability, and investors are naturally wary of institutions that pose a high credit risk. The purpose of the study was to explore how non-performing loans influence investor confidence in banks. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify 253 New York Stock Exchange banks in the Thomson Reuters Eikon DataStream that satisfied all the inclusion and exclusion selection criteria. The Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) models were used to analyze the data, providing insight into the relationship between the variables. The study discovered that NPLs had a negative and significant influence on price–earnings (P/E) and price-to-book value (P/B) ratios. Furthermore, the bank’s age was found to have a positive and significant relationship with the P/E and P/B ratio. The moderating relationship between NPLs and bank age was found to have a negative and significant influence on price–earnings (P/E) and price-to-book value (P/B) ratios. The findings underscore the importance of asset quality and institutional reputation in influencing market perceptions. Bank managers should focus on managing non-performing loans effectively and leveraging institutional credibility to sustain investor confidence, particularly during financial distress. Full article

Purpose: This study aims to provide a comprehensive and objective view to investigate whether the motives of strong financial managers to adopt an accounting conservatism strategy have significant effects on improving financial growth opportunities in the context of banks listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange, while knowing how this relationship is affected by litigation risks. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using data from Saudi financial databases, this study examines how litigation risk moderates the relationship between accounting conservatism and financial growth in Saudi listed banks. Basu’s (1997) model and accrual-based metrics measure conservatism, whereas assets, liabilities, and business age are used to measure financial growth. Litigation risk factors included previous lawsuits. Validity was ensured using fixed-effects regression and robustness tests. Findings: The study found that accounting conservatism has a mixed impact on financial growth, litigation risk moderates the relationship between conservatism and financial growth, and litigation risk has a positive impact on accounting conservatism. Practical Implications: Use a balanced strategy to maintain accounting conservatism, lower litigation risk while maintaining the accuracy of financial statements, take legal risk into account when evaluating the quality of financial reporting, increase transparency without impeding growth, create guidelines tailored to a particular bank, and fortify governance to reduce lawsuits while permitting long-term financial growth. Originality/Value: In order to bridge the gap between conservatism strategies and long-term financial stability in emerging economies, this study examines how managerial decisions in accounting conservatism affect the financial growth of Saudi banks, incorporating litigation risk as a moderating factor. It also contributes to financial policies, risk management, and regulations. Full article

This study aims to analyze the determinants of bank profitability in Angola by employing panel data econometric models, specifically, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), to assess the impact of internal and external factors on the financial indicators ROE, ROA, and NIM for the period 2016 to 2023. The results reveal that credit risk, operational efficiency, and liquidity are critical determinants of banking performance. Effective credit risk management and cost optimization are essential for the sector’s stability. Banking concentration presents mixed effects, enhancing net interest income while potentially undermining efficiency. Economic growth supports profitability, whereas inflation exerts a negative influence. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened asset quality, increased credit risk, and led to a rise in non-performing loans and provisions. Reforms implemented by the National Bank of Angola have contributed to strengthening the banking system’s resilience through restructuring and regulatory improvements. The rise of digitalization and fintech presents opportunities to enhance financial inclusion and efficiency, although their success relies on advancing financial literacy. This study contributes to the literature by providing updated empirical evidence on the factors influencing bank profitability within an emerging economy’s distinctive institutional and economic context. Full article

Adequate and diverse diets are essential for children’s physical and cognitive development, yet food insecurity and malnutrition continue to threaten this fundamental right, which remains a pressing concern in many resource-poor settings. This study investigated food and nutrition security in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in Makhanda, South Africa, through a community-based participatory research approach. Using a mixed-methods approach combining questionnaire interviews, focus group discussions, direct observations, and community asset mapping across eight ECD centres enrolling 307 children aged 0–5 years, the study engaged ECD facilitators and analysed dietary practices across these centres. Results indicated that financial constraints severely affect the quality and diversity of food provided at the centres, thus undermining the ability to provide nutritionally adequate meals. The average amount spent on food per child per month at the centres was R90 ± R25 (South African Rand). Although three meals were generally offered daily, cost-driven dietary substitutions with cheaper, less diverse alternatives, often at the expense of nutritional value, were common. Despite guidance from Department of Health dieticians, financial limitations contributed to suboptimal feeding practices, with diets dominated by grains and starchy foods, with limited access to and rare consumption of protein-rich foods, dairy, and vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables. ECD facilitators noted insufficient parental contributions and low engagement in supporting centre operations and child nutrition provision, indicating a gap in awareness and limited nutrition knowledge regarding optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. The findings emphasise the need for sustainable, multi-level and community-led interventions, including food gardening, creating ECD centre food banks, parental nutrition education programmes, and enhanced financial literacy among ECD facilitators. Strengthening local food systems and establishing collaborative partnerships with communities and policymakers are essential to improve the nutritional environment in ECD settings. Similarly, enhanced government support mechanisms and policy-level reforms are critical to ensure that children in resource-poor areas receive adequate nutrition. Future research should focus on scalable, locally anchored models for sustainable child nutrition interventions that are contextually grounded, community-driven, and should strengthen the resilience of ECD centres in South Africa. Full article

This study examines the performance and resilience of Islamic banks during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by unprecedented global economic disruption. Drawing on empirical data and a comparative analysis with conventional banking institutions, the research evaluates key financial indicators—liquidity, profitability, asset quality, and capital adequacy—to assess how Islamic banks responded to the crisis. The unique principles of Islamic finance, including risk-sharing, asset-backed financing, and the prohibition of interest and speculative activities, provide a distinct framework for crisis response. By analyzing how these features influenced bank performance during the pandemic, the study offers valuable insights into the relative robustness of Islamic versus conventional banking models. The findings contribute to the academic discourse on financial stability and risk management, offering practical implications for policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders to strengthen financial systems against future global shocks. Full article

This study documents the comparative financial performance of the Islamic Banking Services Industry (IBSI) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. After drawing the performance evaluation framework (based on the CAMEL framework), the research conducted data analysis of the Islamic Banking Services Industry (IBSI) in the GCC region for 31 quarters (2013Q4–2021Q4). The analysis examines capital adequacy, asset quality, management performance, earnings, and liquidity management. Objectively classified data trends are reported through graphs. Additionally, the research documents internal determinants of financial performance. Findings suggest that the GCC-IBSI has shown overall progress in achieving primary objectives (commercial performance), including healthy capital adequacy, cost control, equity returns, and liquidity management. Capital adequacy, cost control, and liquidity management significantly contribute to financial performance. Managerial implications include cost control, reduction in non-performing loans, and prudent liquidity management. There exist opportunities in the GCC-IBSI for investors, given the mismatch in demand and supply of Islamic financial services. This study contributes to the literature by documenting findings on the achievements of the primary objective of IBSI in multiple GCC-IBSI markets comparatively. Full article

This study seeks to answer the question of whether we could use a bank’s past financial data to predict the bank failure in 2009 and proposes three new empirical proxies for loan quality (LQ), interest margins (IntMag), and earnings efficiency (OIOE) to forecast bank failure. Using the bank failure list from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) database, I match the banks that failed in 2009 with a control sample based on geography, size, the ratio of total loans to total assets, and the age of banks. The model suggested by this paper could predict correctly up to 94.44% (97.15%) for the failure (and non-failure) of banks, with an overall 96.43% prediction accuracy, (p = 0.5). Specifically, the stepwise logistic regression suggests some proxies for capital adequacy, assets/loan risk, profit efficiency, earnings, and liquidity risk to be the predictors of bank failure. These results partially agree with previous studies regarding the importance of certain variables, while offering new findings that the three proposed proxies for LQ, IntMag, and OIOE statistically and economically significantly impact the probability of bank failure. Full article

The issue of non-performing loans (NPLs) in a bank’s portfolio is important for a bank’s stability and sustainability. Their increased presence indicates a potential worsening of the economy and a lower quality of the bank’s assets. We estimated determinants of non-performing loans in the Eurozone for quarterly data 2015–2020. The results confirmed spatial spillover effects within Eurozone countries, which means that when a shock happens in one country in the Eurozone, it will also affect the other economies of the Eurozone area. Based on the Hausman test, a fixed-effects model was chosen as appropriate and showed that bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants significantly affect NPLs in these economies. In relation to previous studies that dealt with this issue, a co-integration analysis was introduced. A significant impact of return on assets, return on equity, and the loan-to-deposit ratio, as well as the gross domestic product, inflation, and exchange rate on NPLs in the short run and long run, was confirmed using a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator. Bank management should customize credit policy based on both internal and external conditions to improve their performance, focusing on enhancing profitability and maintaining a lower loan-to-deposit ratio to reduce NPLs. The research suggests that a higher gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate is associated with fewer NPLs, while inflation uncertainty and a volatile exchange rate can increase NPLs, highlighting the importance of adjusting strategies to the macroeconomic landscape. Full article

The purpose of this study is to analyze significant variables that permit us to ascertain the profitability of Bangladeshi Shariah-based banks. In doing so, two profitability measurements, namely, return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), have been used as dependent variables, while capital adequacy, asset management quality, operational efficiency, credit risk, liquidity, and the size of the bank have been considered as bank-specific independent variables. In addition, the rate of interest, inflation, and GDP growth rate have also been taken as macroeconomic independent variables. This study examined panel data of eight Shariah-based Islamic banks over a thirteen-year period spanning from 2010 to 2022, applying different kinds of linear regression models, including pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects, and random effects. Subsequently, the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach is also applied to assess the robustness of the findings. The results revealed that the profitability of Bangladeshi Shariah-based Islamic banks is positively associated with asset management quality, liquidity, and credit risk. In contrast, capital adequacy, operational efficiency, and bank size are negatively correlated with the bank’s profitability. Concerning the macroeconomic factors, the findings indicated a notable positive correlation between the profitability of Shariah-based banks in Bangladesh and both the inflation rate and the interest rate spread. However, this study has also found that the profitability of the sample banks of Bangladesh is not significantly influenced by GDP growth. By providing fresh empirical data, the current research aimed to close a significant vacuum in the body of knowledge on banks and provide important insights for policymakers, managers, and other stakeholders by focusing on particular bank-specific and macroeconomic aspects that influence the profitability of Shariah-based Islamic banks in Bangladesh. Full article

The frequency and severity of natural or human-induced disaster events, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, pandemics, hazardous material spills, groundwater contamination, structural failures, explosions, etc., as well as their impacts, have greatly increased in recent decades due to population growth and extensive urbanization, among other factors. The World Bank estimates that the total cost of cities’ and communities’ vulnerability to these types of disasters could reach more than USD 300 billion per year by 2030. However, it has been argued that investment to improve the quality and resilience of engineered physical assets that are the backbone of modern societies, such as critical infrastructure, industrial facilities, and buildings, could significantly contribute to more sustainable and prosperous societies. Engineered assets are key to the delivery of essential services, such as transport, food, water, electricity supply, health and safety, etc. Some of these physical assets are integrated into asset systems and national or regional networks, with life cycles of several decades or even centuries. It is, therefore, of great importance that strategies and life cycle decisions, such as those related to short- and long-term capital investment planning, maintenance strategies, operational plans, and asset disposal, lead to the maximization of the value derived from these assets. Moreover, it is essential that the achievement of these goals is sustainable over time. Organizations dealing with engineering assets, both public and private, must, therefore, integrate sustainability and resilience concerns into everyday operations, using budgets that are often restricted, while also meeting demanding performance requirements in risky and uncertain environments. This Special Issue collates a selection of papers reporting the latest research and case studies regarding the trends and emerging strategies used to address these challenges, with contributions discussing how asset management principles and techniques can help to push the boundaries of sophistication and innovation to improve the life cycle management of engineered assets to ensure more sustainable and resilient cities and societies. Full article

This study assesses the dynamic relationship between macroeconomic factors and bank asset quality based on changes in the condition of stock market returns. A dynamic panel two-step system, the Generalized Method of Moments (system GMM) model, is employed using panel data from 18 universal banks spanning the period of 2007 to 2021. The analysis revealed that the real GDP growth rate, the average lending rate, and the real exchange rate represent a set of macroeconomic factors with a marked influence on banks’ asset quality, where a unit increase in these variables drive 0.02 percent, 0.98 percent, and 0.27 percent improvement in asset quality, respectively. In addition, a high-inflation rate was found to exert an adverse effect of −0.32 percent on asset quality, as it affects borrowers’ financial ability to meet loan repayment obligations. Furthermore, the study verified the existence of a positive relationship between market condition and asset quality, where a rise in the market return drives a 0.07 percent improvement in bank asset quality. This implies that bank performance adapts to changes in market conditions as posited under the Adaptive Market Hypothesis (AMH). Bank managers should consolidate banks’ asset bases during conditions of market stability to withstand periodic market fluctuations to boost trading momentum. Policy recommendations are suggested to foster a conducive business environment for bank stability. Full article

The world is witnessing massive land degradation caused by climate change and various anthropogenic activities. There has been a significant increase in habitat restoration efforts, with demand for seeds to restore these degraded ecosystems in some cases outstripping supply. Traditionally, seeds for restoration activities have mainly been sourced through collections from the wild, but with the growing seed demand, this is increasingly becoming unsustainable. In order to ensure responsible restoration practice, restoration practitioners need to explore other options of economical, ethical and sustainable sourcing of seeds. Ex situ seed banks can leverage their technical and infrastructural capacity to play a greater and more direct role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem conservation and restoration, particularly through the supply of quality ecologically and genetically suitable seed. In this paper, we review whether ex situ seed banks possess the capacity and competence for supporting habitat restoration and the challenges they are likely to face in these efforts. The review focuses on seed collecting, field-based seed bulking, seed handling and storage, seed quality control as well as experience and capacity in facilitating germplasm exchange. The availability of high-quality germplasm collections of documented provenance and with broad genetic diversity is arguably the greatest resource and asset that seed banks have in supporting habitat restoration. Full article

This paper used a panel dataset on the post-Basel-I period to compare the evolution of leverage ratios between commercial and investment banks before the 2007 financial crisis. The comparison showed that the quality of the capital base of commercial banks has been deteriorating since well before the 2007 crisis at a much faster pace than that of investment banks. This paper explains why traditional measures of leverage cannot display this phenomenon and proposes the ratio of the book value of assets over tangible common equity as a better measure. Full article

Globally, a growing number of stakeholders recognise that sustainability determines success on multiple levels. Therefore, asset managers in developing and emerging countries increasingly focus on sustainable investment opportunities. While institutional investors largely centred on governance considerations pre-2020, the Coronavirus pandemic highlighted substantial social and environmental concerns at companies worldwide. As South Africa is the most unequal country globally according to the World Bank, decisions made by local institutional investors can have significant implications for individuals and environments where capital is invested. The objectives of this study were hence to analyse the sustainability themes on which South African asset managers focused in their stewardship reports and to explore the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that they addressed through their investment mandates. A content analysis was performed on stewardship reports that were published in 2020 and 2021 to consider the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The findings indicate that prioritised sustainability themes include climate action, infrastructure development and social considerations. The considered asset managers accordingly focused on addressing climate action (SDG 13), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and affordable and clean energy (SDG 7). Promising investment opportunities in companies that address key social issues, including the health and well-being of society (SDG 3) and broadening access to quality education (SDG 4) were also highlighted. The leaders of local investee companies are thus encouraged to ensure concise, transparent reporting on these material matters to enhance communication and engagement with institutional investors and other key stakeholders. This study offers a novel perspective on sustainable thematic investing in a highly unequal society. Full article