Virtuelle Währungen wie Bitcoins geraten zunehmend in den Blickpunkt des öffentlichen Interesses. Sie funktionieren auf Basis der Blockchain- bzw. Distributed-Ledger-Technologie. Volker Brühl erläutert ihre Funktionsweise und zeigt auf, dass diese Technologien nicht nur den Finanzsektor...

With the creation of the euro by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, European integration has deepened. Even with this step done the financial market is fragmented. In order to eliminate this disadvantage, the European Union has taken a number of measures. The first step is the Financial Services...

We analyze the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis showing that the European network exhibits a strong community structure with two main blocks acting as shock spreader and receiver, respectively. We provide evidence of the prominent role played by insurances in the...

This study examines the role of information sharing in modulating the effect of financial access on income inequality in 48 African countries for the period 2004-2014. Information sharing is proxied with private credit bureaus and public credit registries. All dynamics of financial development...

This study investigates linkages between the mobile phone, information sharing offices (ISO) and financial sector development in 53 African countries for the period 2004-2011. ISO are private credit bureaus and public credit registries. The empirical evidence is based on contemporary and...

In this study, we examine the role of information and communication technology in complementing information sharing bureaus (or private credit bureaus and public credit registries) for financial sector competition. Hitherto unexplored dimensions of financial sector competition are employed,...

This article is intended to introduce the Reader to the definition of professional secrecy as defined by Polish Organization and Functioning of Pension Funds Act (OFPF Act) and to highlight the essence of the most extensive legal protection of professional secrecy related to the activities of...

We develop and apply a procedure to test the welfare implications of a beauty and non-beauty contest based on survey forecasts of interest rates and yields in a large country sample over an extended period of time. In most countries, interest rate forecasts are unbiased and consistent with both...

Guarantee insurance is used by the state to solve some questions of consumer protection. To be specific it is insurance of tour operators against bankruptcy and insurance of employment agencies against bankruptcy. In both cases the insurance covers business risks of businesses and legal entities...

This paper investigates the role of punctuation in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market. Using data from Renrendai, one of the largest P2P lending platforms in the People's Republic of China, we investigate how the amount of punctuation used in loan descriptions influences the funding...