Majority-Minority Boards of Directors and Decision Making: The Effects of Homophily on Lending Decisions

In this study, I examine the role racial minorities in the boardroom can play in reducing social injustice by promoting more equal access to mortgage credit to minority households. I develop a simple theoretical model that posits directors who are racial minorities provide the credit unions they govern with a perspective that shapes lenders’ trust of minority applicants. This trust is shaped by homophily and the tendency of individuals to prefer interactions with similar individuals. Using mortgage loan data from a cross-section of credit unions in the United States from 185,446 applications, I find that credit unions where the majority of board members are minorities are less likely to reject a similarly qualified minority applicant than their counterparts. Governance by minority directors significantly reduces the effects of discrimination faced by minority applicants. The board’s effect is strongest in minority neighborhoods and where the homophily is stronger between directors and applicants.

Cloud Computing Strategy and Impact in Banking/Financial Services

With recent advances in technology, internet has drastically changed the computing world from the concept of parallel computing to distributed computing to grid computing and now to cloud computing. The evolution of cloud computing over the past few years is potentially one of the major advances in the history of computing. Unfortunately, many banks are still hesitant to adopt cloud technology. New technologies such as cloud and AI will have the biggest impacts on the banking industry. For banks and credit unions wanting to achieve greater business agility, cloud technology enables organizations to respond instantly to changing market conditions, leveraging data and applied analytics to achieve customer experience and operational productivity benefits. As a result, cloud computing comes in to provide a solution to such challenges making banking a reliable and trustworthy service. This paper aims at cloud computing strategy, impact in banking and financial institutions and discusses the significant reliance of cloud computing.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Amount of Credit Distribution at Credit Unions

Capital is the most important thing in production activities. Without capital, it is impossible for a production activity to run as it should. Likewise for entrepreneurs, especially micro, small and medium entrepreneurs who generally experience problems in terms of capital. These capital giving institutions are generally handled by the banking sector. However, for various reasons, these micro, small and medium entrepreneurs rely more on credit originating from non-governmental organizations which are currently emerging in the community. The institution emerged to develop a small credit mechanism specifically for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs. Like the Credit Union, it is one of the credit providers for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs.

Who Could We Blame? The Impact of Strategic Orientations on the Failure of Financial Institutions

We evaluate the impact of strategic orientation on the failure probability of financial institutions. Using the US credit union industry as the empirical setting, we find that credit unions which exhibit preferential treatment to borrowers are more likely to fail, whereas those who set operational strategies towards balancing the benefits between savers and borrowers experience a lower failure probability. The impacts appear to be more pronounced in small credit unions and in credit unions which have a lower operating experience. We also find that borrower-oriented credit unions generate lower interest margins while neutral behavior credit unions generate higher margins.

Performance assessment of the operations strategy of credit unions

PurposeIn this study, the performance assessment of credit unions is developed, seeking to demonstrate how the content of their operations strategy is present in the structuring of unique models of organisational performance assessment. The main objective is to compare sources of knowledge through the content analysis of the service operations strategy as proposed by the literature and validated by specialists.Design/methodology/approachThis research is a qualitative study that uses the knowledge of specialists to frame a performance assessment structure applied to credit unions. The research strategy is based on multicriteria analysis, and the selected techniques are based on the MCDA-C procedure, that is, the processes of structuring, evaluating and recommending improvements.FindingsThe research results provided: a data set external to the context that serves as theoretical support for the comparisons made; the structuring of 4 unique organisational performance assessment models carried out through the MCDA-C procedure; conceptual interpretation using the lens of the operations strategy in the cognitive maps of the assessment models, which identifies the operations strategy carried out; and comparison of the result models that show their uniqueness.Originality/valueThe comparison between the origins of knowledge is highlighted, and the demonstration of the content was proposed by the literature and by specialists to evaluate the performance in operations. This was then compared with the content constructed with credit union managers in structuring models based on the singularities of the respective contexts. The theory was compared to practice, and it was demonstrated how the content of the operations regarding the performance could be used in decision contexts.