Interactions between Jews and Christians in Later Medieval Provence

This study uses an extensive body of archival evidence from Latin-Christian sources to explore economic and social interactions between Provençal Jews and Christians. Evidence discussed in section one indicates that the city’s Jewish and Christian communities interacted to a significant degree, and not just in the domain of moneylending. Data derived from a network analysis suggests that Jews were prominent in providing brokerage services. In the second section, analysis of a small sample of Jewish estate inventories indicates that the material profiles of Jewish and Christian families were very similar. In the third section, an analysis of a register of debt collection shows that Jews were involved in credit relations at a rate that was proportional to their population. Jewish moneylenders filled an economic niche by providing Christians with the liquidity to pay off structural debts generated by the political economy of rents and taxes.

Economic diagnostics of accounts receivable and payable in the internal control system of the organization

Subject. This article considers the methodological aspects of economic diagnostics of accounts receivable and payable in the system of internal control of the organization. Objectives. The article aims to highlight the elements of economic diagnostics of the organization's debt in the internal control system and develop methodological approaches to the assessment of accounts receivable and payable. Methods. For the study, we used analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, as well as comparison, logical generalization, systemic reasoning, and analytical forecasting tools. Results. The article presents an author-developed methodology of economic diagnostics of resources in settlements in the internal control system of the organization. It is based on an algorithm for assessing the dynamics of the turnover of accounts receivable and payable and monitoring their mutual ratio, identifying debt collection reserves, monetizing and forecasting the repayment of current debts. Also, for the operational systematization of information and effective control over the rate of change in accounts receivable and payable, the article offers developed forms of management reporting. Conclusions and Relevance. The developed methodology for economic diagnostics of accounts receivable and payable helps, on the basis of information on the changes in mutual turnover of obligations in the context of counterparties, identify available financial resources, determine possible reserves for debt collection, and make payment predictions. The results of the study can be applied when organizing the internal control system of accounts receivable and payable in the context of assessing the financial condition of the organization.

Carrots or sticks in debt collection services? A voice metrics and text analysis of debt collection calls

PurposeAlthough phone calls are widely used by debt collection services to persuade delinquent customers to repay, few financial services studies have analyzed the unstructured voice and text data to investigate how debt collection call strategies drive customers to repay. Moreover, extant research opens the “black box” mainly through psychological theories without hard behavioral data of customers. The purpose of our study is to address this research gap.Design/methodology/approachThe authors randomly sampled 3,204 debt collection calls from a large consumer finance company in East Asia. To rule out alternative explanations for the findings, such as consumers' previous experience of being persuaded by debt collectors or repeated calls, the authors selected calls made to delinquent customers who had not been delinquent before and were being called by the company for the first time. The authors transformed the unstructured voice and textual data into structured data through automatic speech recognition (ASR), voice mining, natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning analyses.FindingsThe findings revealed that (1) both moral appeal (carrot) and social warning (stick) strategies decrease repayment time because they arouse mainly happy emotion and fear emotion, respectively; (2) the legal warning (stick) strategy backfires because of decreasing the happy emotion and triggering the anger emotion, which impedes customers' compliance; and (3) in contrast to traditional wisdom, the combination of carrot and stick fails to decrease the repayment time.Originality/valueThe findings provide a valuable and systematic understanding of the effect of carrot strategies, stick strategies and the combinations of them on repayment time. This study is among the first to empirically analyze the effectiveness of carrot strategies, stick strategies and their joint strategies on repayment time through unstructured vocal and textual data analysis. What's more, the previous studies open the “black box” through psychological mechanism. The authors firstly elucidate a behavioral mechanism for why consumers behave differently under varying debt collection strategies by utilizing ASR, NLP and vocal emotion analyses.

Prohibiting an activity when it cannot be managed by law: Legislative trends toward complex and sensitive economic and social activities in Vietnam today

Activities which are of sensitive and complex socio-economic characteristics have always been the principal focus of the legal system in every nation. “Prohibiting a sensitive and complex socio-economic activity when it cannot be managed by law’’ is a legislative trend in Vietnam which will be further clarified in the article by analyzing the activities that have been banned or just stopped at the level of banning proposals in Vietnam, namely debt collection, and sale and purchase of land in the suburbs of special urban areas. On the basis of analyzing the main causes leading to this legislative trend, the article will also propose solutions with a view to surmounting the current drawbacks and improve the Vietnamese legal system in the direction of democracy and transparency, which will contribute to the sustainable development of the economy and society.

A Critical Assessment of the Need for Harmonization of the Legal Framework Concerning Abusive Informal Debt Collection Practices in the European Union

The loss of jobs and the decline in real incomes caused by the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have affected consumers’ ability to repay their debts. These have led to high ratios of non-performing loans (NPLs), which affect the stability of the financial industry and undermine economic recovery. The result has been a need for faster debt enforcement and a drastic increase in abusive informal debt collection practices (IDCPs). In the EU, the need to regulate and harmonize abusive IDCPs surfaced in 2018 in connection to the Proposal for a Directive on Credit Servicers, Credit Purchasers and the Recovery of Collateral (CSDP). The directive would enable banks to outsource the servicing of NPLs to a specialized debt collector, but it contained no protection rules against abusive IDCPs. In this article, the researcher critically assesses the need for harmonization of the legal framework concerning abusive IDCPs in the EU, mainly from the standpoint of the initial and current text of the CSDP. Where necessary, the researcher will refer to both historical and comparative law perspectives. The researcher focuses on the legal character of informal debt collection, its relation to financial services, and its potential sui generis character. After that, the researcher will address the arguments for and against establishing pan-EU sector-specific legislation dedicated to IDCPs. Next, the researcher discusses the constitutional authority of the EU to regulate abusive IDCPs. Finally, the researcher will examine the interaction of the CSDP with other consumer (financial) protection instruments to identify the best solution for harmonizing abusive IDCPs at the EU level. The researcher will juxtapose several dichotomies: general versus sector-specific, procedural versus substantive, minimum versus maximum harmonization, and hard versus soft regulation. In the conclusion, the researcher shall synthesize the core problems and suggest an approach.

The use of electronic evidence in civil cases, arising from loan agreements, concluded in electronic form

This scientific article based on the analysis of case law, examines the theoretical and practical aspects of the use of electronic evidence in cases arising from loan agreements concluded in electronic form. Emphasis is placed on process of judicial proving in the most common categories of cases in judicial practice: in civil cases of debt collection under a loan agreement and cases on recognition of such agreements as invalid or unconcluded. The range of legally significant circumstances that are included in the subject of proof in cases of debt collection under a loan agreement is determined. The range of court evidence used in judicial practice to prove to the court the presence or absence of the circumstances of the subject of evidence in these cases is outlined. There is a relationship between the facts of the subject of proof, and the need to study and evaluate court evidence that confirms the fact of concluding a loan agreement only in conjunction with evidence that confirms the transfer of funds to the borrower. It is proved that the fact of concluding a loan agreement cannot be established by a court without establishing the fact of transferring funds to the borrower. There is a contradiction between the provisions of the Law of Ukraine «On Electronic Commerce» and the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine on the classification of evidence submitted in electronic form and/or in the form of paper copies of electronic communications related to electronic transactions, written or electronic evidence, and a method for resolving this contradiction is proposed. It is emphasized the importance for the court to pay special attention to the means of identification of the parties to the electronic transaction to determine the appropriate parties in resolving cases arising from loan agreements concluded through information and telecommunications systems. The conclusion is made about the possibility of procedural complicity on the part of the defendant if in the course of the trial was established that the loan was issued to one person, and the funds under the contract were transferred by the financial institution to another person's bank account.