Timothy King – författare

“Who knows Bob,” John said to the Colonel in a solemn tone.  “As far as I am aware, nobody has ever done what we are about to do.  Think about it: we are going to put twelve strangers in a bunker one hundred feet underground, and then tell them that all we are going to do is observe their interactions while they perform basic tasks for two weeks.  Then we are going to fake a cataclysmic event followed by a complete disconnect for an additional two weeks while we secretly monitor their meltdown from inside.  After two weeks of subliminal messaging, and with our guy inside feeding fear into them, they will think World War Three has happened and they are the lone survivors trapped one hundred feet underground.  How would you react, Bob?”  John asked the Colonel.

HOW WOULD YOU REACT?

This book exemplifies the potential of FinTech to deliver important economic and societal gains, such as enhancing competition and financial inclusion to deliver tailored financial products and services at more affordable prices and at greater convenience. The emergence of FinTech directly challenges the business models of incumbent financial intermediaries like banks, which are adapting by developing their own FinTech offerings and partnering with FinTech and large technology firms. FinTech also constitutes both known and unknown risks to financial stability and challenges regulators to evaluate whether existing regulations are sufficient. The emergence of FinTech as a global phenomenon requires insightful cross-country analysis and different perspectives to evaluate its development and associated opportunities and challenges. This book will be of interest to practitioners, regulators and students of this essential enabling technology that is a major component of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This book examines several contemporary issues which are shaping corporate governance in the banking sector. These issues have been evolving over the past decade and even more so since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC, 2007-09) revealed many significant weaknesses in corporate governance structures at banks. Alongside major reforms to the architecture of the global financial system, like the introduction of the Basel 3 Accord, the post-GFC emergence of new issues and acceleration in the importance of others is affecting banks, their competitiveness and business models, and their governance structures. For instance, the emergence and rapid growth of FinTech (financial technology), the increasing focus of government and society on CSR (corporate social responsibility) and ESG (environment, social and governance) investing that speaks to the generational issue of the environment, climate change and associated risks. On top of these developments came the COVID-19 health pandemic that has impacted banks and significantly increased the rate of digitalization. Given the many challenges culminating around banks, this book in three sections provides a timely comparison of the factors influencing corporate governance at banks before and after the GFC, and will be of interest to researchers and students in banking and corporate finance alongside practitioners and policymakers.