...Contents INTRODUCTION 2 So what is financial intermediation? 2 a) The brokerage function: 2 b) The asset transformation function 2 c) The Risk evaluation and management function 3 Why are financial intermediaries important? 3 THEORIES OF FINCANCIAL INTERMEDIATION 3 Informational Asymmetries 3 Transaction Costs Theory 4 Regulation 4 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 5 Origin of Financial Intermediation 5 EVOLUTION OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION 6 THE FUTURE OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION 7 TRENDS IN FUTURE FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION 8 Regulation (Deregulation) 8 Revised regulatory framework 8 Revised reporting standards and accounting 8 International Monitoring and Oversight 9 Effects on Insurance 9 Technology 9 New financial innovations 9 Globalization 9 Presence 9 Scale 10 Increased Government involvement 10 IMPLICATIONS 11 CONCLUSION 11 BIBLIOGRAPHY 12 FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION INTRODUCTION Financial Intermediation is a crucial and pervasive feature of all world economies. But as Franklin Allen (2001) observed in his AFA presidential Address, there is a widespread view that financial intermediaries can be ignored because they have no real effect. But this cannot be true, in my opinion, savings-investment process, corporate finance decisions, and consumer portfolio choices cannot be understood without studying financial intermediation. So what is financial intermediation? When talking about financial markets we generally are talking about...
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...Abstract Financial intermediation is an important activity in the economy because it allows funds to be channeled from people who might otherwise not put them to productive use to people who will ultimately put the funds to productive uses. In line with the assumption that banking sector plays an important role in financing the investment projects, successive governments in Nigeria have carried out reforms and institutional innovations in the banking sector. The overall intention of these reforms has been to ensure financial stability so as to influence the growth of the economy and also enhance banks to play a critical role of financial intermediation in Nigeria. However, despite the fact that Nigerian banks have undergone series of restructuring/reforms aimed at strengthening the banks’ ability to efficient service delivery and fund the real sector, problems such as; inefficiency in allocating funds to the real sector, lack of long-dated funding, neglect of the core private sector in terms of credit extension, weak capacity of the banks to fund the real sector, low-level activities of banks, and illiquidity still lingers. This study therefore, examines empirically the impact of financial intermediation on the development of the Nigerian economy with the aim of determining the importance of financial intermediaries and its influence. This study found out that the financial intermediaries (banks) in Nigeria exhibit inefficiency and weak capacity in the allocation of funds to...
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...Banking sector restructuring and the development of financial intermediation in Albania Bachelorthesis at the Swiss Banking Institute University of Zurich Chair: Prof. Dr. Urs Birchler Author: Ardita Kapedani Submission date: 1 July 2010 The banking sector in Albania has seen dramatic developments over the past 10 years. Since 2000, the size of the banking sector has grown rapidly, with credit/GDP rising from less than 10% to more than 35%. In 2000 two-thirds of banking assets were controlled by state-owned banks. Today well over 90% of bank assets is in the hands of foreign controlled banks. In this paper we firstly showed the step by step restructuring of the banking sector in Albania. Then the changes in the structure of financial intermediation and finally, the conditions of access to finance for firms in different years were analysed. For the first two topics, we used mainly data from the Bank of Albania like the Supervision Annual Reports, Annual Reports, Financial Stability Reports and time series found in its homepage. For the last topic, the BEEPS data were used to build different summary statistics and to test different null hypothesis with STATA. The first part was the introduction. In the second part we saw Albania after the fall of communism and the economic reforms in 1992, when the one tier banking system became a two tier. The Bank of Albania represented an independent central bank and the other banks were second tier banks. Many...
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...Pension Funds in Financial Intermediation Ondabu Ibrahim Tirimba Finance and Economics Department, PhD Candidate Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya Abstract This paper aimed at discussing the various roles that pensions play in financial intermediat ion. Descriptive research design was adopted with the population being all the available literature on the online web as pertaining pension funds and also financial intermed iation. Using key word characters, the search in itially identified 50 journals and after a tentative scrutiny, 37 journals were selected in a random sampling manner in o rder to give the birth of this discussion paper. The key objective of this article was to discuss the role of pension funds in financial intermed iation. A mong the roles identified in this paper were; provision of a mechanis m for pooling of funds and subdivision of shares, provision of ways to transfer economic resources, provision of ways to manage uncertainty and control risk, provision of ways to manage uncertainty and control risk, provision of pricing informat ion and the provision of ways to deal with incentive problems. This paper provides practical insights into the roles of pension in financial intermed iation and thus highlighting the key importance of such pension funds into the success of any economy. This paper is one of the very first to recognize the key roles that pension funds play in the 21st century. Keywords Intermediary, Financial Intermediary...
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...Financial Intermediation and Credit Policy in Business Cycle Analysis∗ 1 Introduction To motivate interest in a paper on financial factors in business fluctuations it use to be necessary to appeal either to the Great Depression or to the experiences of many emerging market economies. This is no longer necessary. Over the past few years the United States and much of the industrialized world have experienced the worst financial crisis of the post-war. The global recession that has followed also appears to have been the most severe of this era. At the time of this writing there is evidence that the financial sector has stabilized and the real economy has stopped contracting and output growth has resumed. The path to full recovery, however, remains highly uncertain. The timing of recent events, though, poses a challenge for writing a Handbook chapter on credit market frictions and aggregate economic activity. It is true that over the last several decades there has been a robust literature in this area. Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (BGG, 1999) surveyed much of the earlier work a decade ago in the Handbook of Macroeconomics. Since the time of that survey, the literature has continued to grow. While much of this work is relevant to the current situation, this literature obviously did not anticipate all the key empirical phenomena that have played out during the current crisis. A new literature that builds on the earlier work is rapidly cropping up to address...
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...Question 2 Financial intermediation is the process of accepting funds from one entity and lending these funds to another entity. This is achieved with the help of financial intermediaries who intermediate between the net savers and net borrowers of funds in an economy. On the other hand, Financial system is a set of financial institutions, financial markets, financial instruments and financial services which help in formation of capital to meet the long term and short term needs of households and corporate houses. Financial intermediation increases the efficiency in the financial system by; Easing household liquidity constrain. Liquidity is a measure of the ease and cost with which an asset can be converted into a means of payment. Liquidity constraint is the inability to make purchases due to lack of cash. Financial intermediation offers the ability to transform assets into money at a relatively low cost. Intermediation helps provide liquidity in a way that is efficient and beneficial to household by collecting funds from large number of investors and availing the same to them. Also, through financial intermediation individuals and households are granted lines of credit inform of loans. This ability to influence the allocation of consumption and investment increase the efficiency of the financial system. Facilitating transaction. Intermediation provides a platform for buyers and sellers to mingle and help channel funds within the economy from those with surplus to those...
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...the theory of financial intermediation by Benston and Smith in 1976. Regarding the theory, there is one fundamental question among others, what is the main reason why financial intermediaries exist? In 1976 there was no clear consensus about the specific role of financial intermediaries and many different approaches existed on the issue how to analyze them in an appropriate way. The primary goal of the authors is to develop a proper framework for the analysis by setting the main focus on transaction costs. Therefore, they take a look at four different aspects: the demand for financial commodities, the production, their pricing altogether with the pricing of additional services and the influence of governmental regulation on financial intermediaries. They start their survey from a contrary point as the other authors did in recent history by defining financial intermediaries as firms which create specialized financial commodities. On the supposition that the individuals’ earnings over time do not enable the achievement of the desired inter-temporal consumption pattern, demand for financial commodities arises. In this case assets held by the consumers serve as a possibility to rearrange their intra- and intertemporal consumption pattern for maximizing their utility. This leads to two key facts. First, utility is based on consumption at different points in time and second, transaction costs occur by acquiring financial commodities. Accordingly, financial intermediaries...
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...Financial intermediation 陈鸣杰 F1003 201048950504 CONTENTS The process of financial intermediation………………………………..2 The deposit-taking financial intermediaries…………………………..4 The non-deposit-taking financial intermediaries………………………6 The Impact of non-depository financial institutions…………………..9 How to facilitate the transfer of liquidity from surplus to deficit units in the economy………………….. ………………….. …………………..10 The process of financial intermediation In a market economy, the savings - investment into the process is carried out around the financial intermediaries to financial intermediation of savings into investment in the basic process of institutional arrangements. The basis of the existence of financial intermediaries such as the field has been the concern of financial. Financial intermediaries to discuss the issue, we must first make the meaning of the definition of financial intermediaries. Financial intermediation by the banking financial intermediaries and the general non-bank financial intermediaries form, specifically including commercial banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and information consulting services and other intermediary institutions, finance is the core of modern economy. Books related to financial intermediation. In the modern market economy, the financial activities closely with the economy, the scope of financial activities, quality directly affects the performance of economic activity...
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...Chapter 01 - Why Are Financial Institutions Special? Chapter One Why Are Financial Institutions Special? True/False 1-1 Prior to the financial crisis of 2007-2008, J.P. Morgan Chase was the largest bank holding company in the world and operations in 60 countries. Answer: F 1-2 As of 2009, U.S. FIs held assets totaling over $35 trillion Answer: T 1-3 Financial institutions act as intermediaries between suppliers and demanders of money. Answer: T 1-4 If a household invests in corporate securities and does not supervise how the funds are invested or used by the corporation, the risk of not earning the desired return or not having the funds returned increase. Answer: T 1-5 If not done by FIs, the process of monitoring the actions of borrowers would reduce the attractiveness and increase the risk of investing in corporate debt and equity by individuals. Answer: T 1-6 Failure to monitor the actions of firms in a timely and complete fashion after purchasing securities in that firm exposes the investor to agency costs. Answer: T 1-7 The risk that the sale price of an asset will be less than the purchase price of an asset is called liquidity risk. Answer: F 1-8 Because bank loans have a shorter maturity than most debt contracts, FIs typically exercise less monitoring power and control over the borrower. Answer: F 1-9 FIs typically provide secondary claims to household savers that have inferior liquidity than primary securities of corporations such as equity and bonds. Answer: F 1-10...
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...2 The role of financial systems in the economy This section iscusses the main functions of financial intermeiaries an financial markets, an their comparative roles. Financial systems, i.e. financial intermeiaries an financial markets, channel funs from those who have savings to those who have more prouctive uses for them. They perform two main types of financial service that reuce the costs of moving funs between borrowers an leners, leaing to a more efficient allocation of resources an faster economic growth. These are the provision of liquiity an the transformation of the risk characteristics of assets.[2] 2.1 Provision of liquiity The link between liquiity an economic performance arises because many high return investment projects require long-term commitments of capital, but risk averse leners (savers) are generally unwilling to elegate control over their savings to borrowers (investors) for long perios. Financial systems mobilise savings by agglomerating an pooling funs from isparate sources an creating small enomination instruments. These instruments provie opportunities for iniviuals to hol iversifie portfolios. Without pooling iniviuals an househols woul have to buy an sell entire firms (Levine 1997). iamon an ybvig (1983) show how financial intermeiaries can enhance risk sharing, which can be a preconition of liquiity, an can thus improve welfare. In their moel, without an intermeiary (such as a bank), all investors are locke into illiqui long-term investments that...
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...Harvard Business School and NBER David Scharfstein Harvard Business School and NBER July 2012 Abstract The U.S. financial services industry grew from 4.9% of GDP in 1980 to 7.9% of GDP in 2007. A sizeable portion of the growth can be explained by rising asset management fees, which in turn were driven by increases in the valuation of tradable assets, particularly equity. Another important factor was growth in fees associated with an expansion in household credit, particularly fees associated with residential mortgages. This expansion was itself fueled by the development of non-bank credit intermediation (or “shadow banking”). We offer a preliminary assessment of whether the growth of active asset management, household credit, and shadow banking – the main areas of growth in the financial sector – has been socially beneficial. * We thank Toomas Laarits for excellent research assistance. We are grateful to Lewis Alexander, John Campbell, Darrell Duffie, Sam Hanson, Anil Kashyap, Morgan Ricks, Andrei Shleifer, Jeremy Stein, Adi Sunderam, Paul Tucker, Bob Turley, Luigi Zingales, and especially David Autor and Tim Taylor for very helpful suggestions. We also thank Erin Ludlow, James Green, Rodger Smith, Karen Lanzetta, Justyna Podziemka, Covie Edwards-Pitt for their help and advice on financial services data, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and Greenwich Associates for providing some of the data. Electronic copy available...
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...1. A financial intermediary is a financial institution that channels funds from savers to borrowers. These institutions typically consolidate deposits and use the funds to transform them into loans. For example a bank accepts copious small deposits totaling $10,000 from individuals on a daily basis. Those total deposits do not just sit in the bank, the financial institution uses those deposits and redistributes them into the market as car loans, mortgages and things of that sort. By functioning as a financial intermediary banks such as JP Morgan and Chase keep a constant flow of money throughout the market. Banks use policies such as denomination intermediation and maturity intermediation. Denomination intermediation accepts small amounts of funds from individuals and by pooling the money together allows those businesses access to assets that are sold in larger denominations. To demonstrate, 3 small companies individually can put up $10,000 pooling that money totaling $30,000. Individually those 3 companies would not be able to access some markets. The examples discussed demonstrate how financial institutions play a huge role in the flow of money in markets and the economy. Without FI’s there would still be a small flow of money to a point but definitely not to the extent that commercials banks can. 2. Understanding interest rates and interest movements can be explained by loanable funds theory, and the supply and demand approach. According to the text, the loanable funds...
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...Chapter One Why Are Financial Intermediaries Special? Chapter Outline Introduction Financial Intermediaries’ Specialness Information Costs • Liquidity and Price Risk • Other Special Services Other Aspects of Specialness The Transmission of Monetary Policy Credit Allocation Intergenerational Wealth Transfers or Time Intermediation Payment Services Denomination Intermediation Specialness and Regulation Safety and Soundness Regulation Monetary Policy Regulation Credit Allocation Regulation Consumer Protection Regulation Investor Protection Regulation Entry Regulation The Changing Dynamics of Specialness • Trends in the United States • Future Trends • Global Issues Summary Solutions for End-of-Chapter Questions and Problems: Chapter One 1. Identify and briefly explain the five risks common to financial institutions. Default or credit risk of assets, interest rate risk caused by maturity mismatches between assets and liabilities, liability withdrawal or liquidity risk, underwriting risk, and operating cost risks. 2. Explain how economic transactions between household savers of funds and corporate users of funds would occur in a world without financial intermediaries (FIs). In a world without FIs the users of corporate funds in the economy would have to approach directly the household savers of funds...
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...CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background: Financial stability and economic growth is the concern of any country that looks for the welfare of its people. Therefore, the banking sector and its role of intermediation between savers and borrowers is the target of regulators in every country to enhance stability, soundness and economic growth. The banking sector is one component of the financial system and its importance stems from the importance of the financial system as a whole. 1.2. 1.2 Financial Systems The financial system is defined by Gurusamy (2008) as a system that aims at establishing and providing a regular, smooth, efficient and cost effective linkage between depositors and investors (ISBN 0-07-015335-3). Researchers such as Levine...
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...CHAPTER 3: The Role of Financial Intermediaries and Financial Markets FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER This chapter provides an analysis of the roles and importance of financial institutions and financial markets, two important parts of the financial system. A broad classification of Canadian financial institutions is presented with an historical overview. Some basic classifications of financial markets are described. The chapter ends with an evaluation of the importance of the financial system to the Canadian economy, and of the future of banks, given recent developments in the financial system. Learning Objectives: □ Explain what financial intermediaries do □ Explain a classification of the financial system by type of institution □ Name the original four pillars of the financial system □ Provide a classification of the financial system by type of market □ Describe the financial system in Canada □ Discuss the effects of technology and deregulation on banks, and whether banks as we know them will survive SECTION SUMMARIES Intermediation A financial intermediary (such as a bank) simultaneously interacts with savers (or lenders) and borrowers and produces a set of services which facilitate the transformation of its liabilities (such as deposits) into assets (such as loans). The function of facilitating liabilities (or assets) into assets (or liabilities) is called intermediation. Through intermediation financial intermediaries allow indirect lending (and borrowing)...
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