In less than fifteen years, the world has experienced the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s, the worst global pandemic since the flu in 1918, and the largest war fought since the Second World War. This manuscript argues that these crises are not isolated events. The main thesis is that...

There have been increasing attempts recently to Islamize some financial derivatives. These attempts were initially meant to provide solutions to certain problems like the need to buy a currency or some commodity at a predetermined a price on a future date for hedging purposes, but they later...

There are mainly two types of theories explaining banking crisis, emanating from the monetarist school respectively institutional economics. Using an allegory, monetarists are discussing how much water in terms of liquidity that is needed to stop a fire escalating into a disaster, while...

This paper examines, from a historical perspective, the gradual entrance into the market of mutual and not for profit banks (specifically cooperative banks and savings banks), their continually increasing competitiveness with traded banks in France, Italy and Spain. In all three countries, these...

We offer a new interpretation of the sovereign and commercial debt repatriation to Germany that occurred between 1931 and 1938, involving German bonds held abroad. These bonds exhibited a non-negligible and varying spread between their domestic prices and their respective prices abroad. We...

This article explores the manipulation of published financial reports in order to counter the potentially unfavourable impact of newly introduced regulation. In this case the reported capital ratio of a major building society was enhanced using a sale and leaseback transaction with a related...

Shiwakoti et al. (2008) concluded that four of the largest UK mutual societies which converted to listed bank status in 1997 outperformed, on a variety of measures, those societies which did not convert in the four-year periods both before and after conversion. All four converting societies have...

Whilst in some financial systems in the early twentieth century commercial and investment banking activities were carried out by functionally separate firms, in others both kinds of operation were conducted under one roof by “universal banks”. Explaining the evolutionary paths that lead to...

Are there so many differences between "conventional" and islamic banking principles in France? French banks are active in islamic banking and finance outside France for years.

This teaching case study tells of the foundation and growth of the Virgin Group over the forty years to 2010. The creation of over 300 business interests in parts as far afield as the UK, South Africa, Australia and the USA resulted from a unique management style. Branson and the Virgin brand...