The Role and Activities of the Hellenic Red Cross During the First Five Years of the Economic Crisis in Greece (2010-2014)—A Retrospective Study

Aim. To investigate the contribution of the Hellenic Red Cross to the Greek Society during the first five and more severe years (2010-2014) of the profound financial crisis in Greece. Material And Methods. We retrospectively investigated the actions and contribution of the Hellenic Red Cross for the aforementioned five-year period. The research material was accumulated by research in the Internet, the archives, and the official webpage of the Hellenic Red Cross (Google, official web page of the ICRC and IFRC), from the Hellenic Ministry of Health and the Hellenic Ministry of Immigration and Asylum. Results. A huge amount of over 247 actions were detected for the research period. More than 17,708 people were examined and treated from the specialized medical personnel of the Hellenic Red Cross and 3,266 individuals were trained in basic first aid and hygiene. The final amount of 297,757€ were donated and 5,880 welfare packages were delivered. Conclusions. The current study has concluded that the contribution of the Hellenic Red Cross to the Greek society during the most severe phase of the recent financial crisis was outstanding and consists an example for any other Non-Governmental, Non for Profit Organizations in the future.

The Role of Islamic Law in Convergence to Western Corporate Governance Features in Pakistan

This article examines the role of Islamic Law in convergence to western corporate governance features in Pakistan. The recent financial crisis in the world highlighted the importance of good corporate governance features. This phenomenon highlighted the possibility of adopting an alternative to conventional financial system in Pakistan. Islamic finance has shown its presence in the wake of financial crisis in the world. Therefore, this articles analyses, in comparative perspective, the Islamic financial system viz a viz conventional financial system. It further analyses the possibility of convergence of corporate governance mechanism, which is key for good governance in any financial system, in Pakistan. It concludes that Islamic Financial System may be adopted as alternative financial system as well as corporate governance mechanism may be converged to western corporate governance features in Pakistan. However, while doing so Islamic norms may act as a litmus test which may not be as problematic as it appears at first sight.

Economic Decision-Making and Risk Management

Because of the recent financial crisis in the United States that shook the financial sector, the need for adopting effective Risk Management practices has increased. Essentially, the volatility of the sector calls for an augmented re-evaluation of the framework, as well as the components of uncertainty management practices by commercial banks, regulatory agencies, and scholars. By doing so, the stakeholders in the financial sector would ensure the conformity to the best practices. To further fortify this, the research herein uses the Ames National Corporation (ANC), which is a commercial Bank in Iowa, USA, as a case study. The institution risk profile and risk management practices are evaluated to give insights on conforming to the best international practices. The research also seeks to establish whether effective risk management results in enhanced performance and profitability for financial institutions.Stating areas on which further research should be conducted is how the study is concluded.

Economic Decision-Making and Risk Management

Because of the recent financial crisis in the United States that shook the financial sector, the need for adopting effective Risk Management practices has increased. Essentially, the volatility of the sector calls for an augmented re-evaluation of the framework, as well as the components of uncertainty management practices by commercial banks, regulatory agencies, and scholars. By doing so, the stakeholders in the financial sector would ensure the conformity to the best practices. To further fortify this, the research herein uses the Ames National Corporation (ANC), which is a commercial Bank in Iowa, USA, as a case study. The institution risk profile and risk management practices are evaluated to give insights on conforming to the best international practices. The research also seeks to establish whether effective risk management results in enhanced performance and profitability for financial institutions.Stating areas on which further research should be conducted is how the study is concluded.

Economic Decision-Making and Risk Management–A Relation Between From the Banking Perspective

Because of the recent financial crisis in the United States that shook the financial sector, the need for adopting effective Risk Management practices has increased. Essentially, the volatility of the sector calls for an augmented re-evaluation of the framework, as well as the components of uncertainty management practices by commercial banks, regulatory agencies, and scholars. By doing so, the stakeholders in the financial sector would ensure the conformity to the best practices. To further fortify this, the research herein uses the Ames National Corporation (ANC), which is a commercial Bank in Iowa, USA, as a case study. The institution risk profile and risk management practices are evaluated to give insights on conforming to the best international practices. The research also seeks to establish whether effective risk management results in enhanced performance and profitability for financial institutions.Stating areas on which further research should be conducted is how the study is concluded.

Modelling Credit Risk: Evidence for EMV Methodology on Portuguese Mortgage Data

ABSTRACTTraditional credit risk models failed during the recent financial crisis and revealed weaknesses in forecasting and stress testing procedures. One of the reasons for this failure was the fact that they did not include lifecycle and macroeconomic adverse selection effects. In this article, we assess the applicability of the Exogenous-Maturity-Vintage (EMV) models to study the determinants of default rates. We obtain and examine the exogenous, maturity and vintage curves from a dataset of Portuguese mortgage data. We show that the exogenous, maturity and vintage curves follow the expected behavior, and, we identify and discuss a set of explanatory variables.

Modeling and Simulating Cross Country Banking Contagion Risks

The recent financial crisis proved that financial contagion could spread among countries resulting in disruptive effects. In this paper, by modeling and simulating banking system behavior and linkages across countries, we assess, based on data from the BIS and IMF, the possible outcome of domestic crises and how contagion spreads over countries. Results allow detailing the role of a “lighter” or of a “fueler” of financial crises for each country and assessing how each country can affect each other country by contagion, signaling the importance of financial interdependence between some neighboring countries, and detailing which counterpart country would be affected by the ring-fencing of each considered country’s banking system. The method also allows for what-if analyses to optimize the risk exposures, and to plan an emergency strategy in case of alarms coming from specific countries.

The rationale for embedding ethics and public value in public administration programmes

When crises occur, revisiting given knowledge and practices seems sensible and necessary. For instance, the recent financial crisis in 2008 lead to questioning the role played by financial institutions and business schools in precipitating the crisis by allowing questionable professional ethics to go unchallenged. There is a current crisis in public administration in the UK, visible in the growing challenges to public sector professionals in their practice and in the increased questioning of the government as a guarantor of public services and welfare. To understand the current situation, exploring the role of public administration teaching and professional organisations in the UK is key. Have we perhaps neglected the teaching of ethics and public value as crucial tenets to the profession and to its practice? This paper explores the necessity, merits, and difficulties of embedding ethics and public value concepts into the curriculum.

Computing nonperforming loan prices in banking efficiency analysis

Within the framework of banking efficiency analysis, we propose a methodology for computing unobservable shadow prices for nonperforming loans (NPL). Our approach is to include NPL as an undesirable output variable in a distance function stochastic frontier analysis. We conduct a panel study of US and European banks during the most recent financial crisis by adopting a semi-nonparametric Fourier specification, which ensures convergence to the true values of both the estimated function and the related efficiency. Computing NPL prices has several advantages, such as identifying approaching crises, quantifying the responsibilities of governments and banks for credit risk and determining appropriate regulatory interventions.

The European identity in the classical psyche of Greece: Between values and strategic vision

The purpose of this article is to provide a reference appropriate to both current specialists in the field of International and European Studies and those delving into the subject for the first time. As Greece celebrates 200 years since the launch of the Greek Struggle for Independence (1821-2021) and the 40th anniversary of Greece's accession to the European Communities (now European Union), this article aims at a reflective analysis across the key themes that have shaped Greece’s strategic identity, from 1821 until the recent financial crisis. The current study reviews the existing literature on the subject and outlines an agenda for future research to build up knowledge and awareness on the importance of deepening our knowledge on the distinct strategic identities of the various EU Member-States. It comprises conceptual and empirical dimensions to deepen the appreciation on Greek politics, institutions, and policies and to connect them to a wider, international historical context. The main argument is that Greece has made strategic choices responding to the international political environment over time, in which the liaison between its classical legacy, Europe and the West have always been present.