Why Wasn’t there a Nonbank Mortgage Servicer Liquidity Crisis?

In March 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many were concerned about the liquidity of nonbank mortgage servicers. As it turned out, the vast majority of these servicers did not face a liquidity crisis. In this Commentary I detail the reasons why, including lower than expected take up rates of forbearance, the role played by mortgage origination income, and the actions taken by the government-sponsored enterprises, Ginnie Mae, and housing agencies.

Challenges and Opportunities From COVID-19 vis-à-vis Informal Cross-Border Women Entrepreneurs Scenario in Zimbabwe

Although entrepreneurship is widely accepted as a driver of economic development and growth across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic and several lockdowns have created a unique situation in the entrepreneurship discourse. Accordingly, this chapter aims at providing empirical evidence on the challenges and opportunities emanating from COVID-19 within the context of informal cross-border women entrepreneurs. This study establishes five challenges, namely, business closures, caregiving responsibility, the decline in demand, shortage of goods, and liquidity crisis. Moreover, it also establishes digital marketing and business networks as opportunities. The recommendations to deal with these challenges are proffered and the suggestions for further study are captured.

THE USE OF SURROGATE CURRENCY TO ADDRESS LIQUIDITY CRISIS: THE ZIMBABWEAN EXPERIENCE

Zimbabwe has experienced an economic meltdown dating back to 2000, which created perennial economic woes such as a liquidity crisis that continued haunting the country to date. Various possible solutions were explored but did not yield the desired results. Amongst the explored solutions was an introduction of surrogate currency specifically to curb the liquidity crisis. This paper sought to explore the effects of using "surrogate currency" to address the liquidity crisis in Zimbabwe by employing a desk review. Currently, there is a dearth of literature on using surrogate currency in African countries. Hence this study contributes to the existing literature on the use of such currency. The review established that the surrogate currency led to the emergence of bad money as propounded by Gresham’s law of currency systems. Moreover, the surrogate currency rapidly lost its value, whereas the introduction of the surrogate currency failed to address the liquidity crisis, leading to other socio-economic challenges. Finally, financial reporting under the surrogate currency became a challenge as well. This study recommends the withdrawal of the surrogate currency and the use of multicurrency along with the promotion of products for export to attract more foreign currency into the economy.

Liquidity crisis, criminal sanctions and non-payment of VAT according to the Court of Justice of the European Union

The continuing cash-flow crise of taxpayers, and in particular of businesses, recently exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19, raises the question whether it is acceptable in law today that the fulfilment of a debt, even if that debt is of a fiscal nature, to be subject to criminal sanctions. In the light of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 2 May 2018 in Case C-574/15, this article is fundamentally concerned with the legitimacy of the use of criminal law to sanction taxpayers who find themselves unable to fulfil their tax obligations, although they were timely and truthfully declared to the tax authorities.