Banking and finance is one of the most successful and rapidly expanding sectors in the world economy. From the 1960s this whole area of employment has undergone profound changes. The banks diversified, adopted new corporate strategies, introduced new technologies and faced new and intense competition. This book examines the importance of employee relations strategies in contributing to a prosperous industry. Drawing upon a wide range of original and undocumented material derived from the banks and the unions, it explores both employer and union strategies and examines the continuing competition for predominance between the ‘orthodox’ trade unions and the staff associations.

This is a clear guide to the German financial system. It begins by outlining its historical development, emphasising the growth of close ties between the banking system and industry, and goes on to describe in details the nature of the credit institutions in general and the money and capital markets. The book emphasizes the crucial role played by the autonomy of the Bundesbank and it explains with clear illustrations the instruments available to it to conduct monetary policy. It analyses the type of monetary target adopted by the Bundesbank in the early 1970s and deals with the ‘transferability’ of the West German financial system to other countries. Wherever relevant, parallels and differences between that system and the ones operating in the US and UK are pointed out.

This comparative, international study looks at origins and business strategies of multinational banks. A distinguished team of bankers and academics from the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia survey the evolution of multinational banks over time and suggest a conceptual framework in which this development can be understood. In-depth analyses of the multinational banking strategies of selected countries and institutions lead from early nineteenth century on to late twentieth century developments and future trends in investment banking. The approach is interdisciplinary, with economists and business historians joining together to confront theory with facts. The findings presented in this major study will be of interest to scholars and professionals in international business, banking and finance, economists and business and economic historians.

How does financial deregulation affect the operation of the banking system in the UK? What are the consequences of the development of an electronic banking system? This book addresses these and other important questions in a survey of UK change in the financial sector and in banking in particular. Attention is given to the role of building societies after the ‘big bang’ and the implications for retail banking of competition in the housing finance market. Both the long and short term implications of regulatory reform for banks are dealt with together with the role of the Bank of England and what the changes have meant in terms of international banking. Concentrating on the three main areas of change deregulation, regulatory reform and technical innovation the book is an important pointer to the shape of banking in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

This book provides a comparative analysis of the several types of banking structure and the ways in which banks undertake their business. It surveys central banking arrangements in a number of countries. Against an historical background, it describes banking systems ranging from the so-called ‘unit banking’ of the USA to the branch banking arrangements that derive from British experience, as well as many systems in between. The business of banking is analysed comparatively within the framework of a simplified bank balance sheet, special attention being given to industrial banking and to assets and liabilities management. It explores how money markets function and, within this framework, how central banks operate and attempt to implement monetary and credit policy. The book includes the results of extensive new research, part of which involved interviewing many key figures throughout the banking industry.

The first comparative survey of the experiences of Islamic banking across the Muslim world, covering Turkey, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

When originally published this was the first reference book to address itself to Islamic banking and finance and it offers comprehensive information on all major institutions which have commercial or banking interests in this field. It includes analysis of the principles behind interest-free banking and indicates its relationship with financial institutions in both Islamic countries and Western ones. It also lists the laws governing interest-free banking in countries where it is extensively in operation and provides essential information for all international financial institutions. The Directory lists all banks and financial institutions by country, giving details of their specific role and areas of operation.

This and the following volume chart the history of financial institutions in England in the mid-late nineteenth century as well as examining the periods of boom and bust, their causes and effects. Using hitherto unpublished sources from the International Financial Society this book provides an unrivalled record of the development of the modern banking industry.

Global payments imbalances and the rise of emerging economies provide the background to this analysis of risk exposure and near-insolvency at the world’s major banks. Emerging Risk was published in 1985, three years after the first international banking crisis of the post-War era, but prior to resolution after 1989 of the underlying sovereign debt overhang. With episodes of international financial instability punctuating the following quarter century until the Lehman collapse of 2008, this re-issue will contribute to the historical perspective on modern diagnoses of policy weakness and financial sector excess that is clearly needed. Whereas OPEC price increases in the 1970s were a source of the earlier global imbalances, Chinese surpluses and those occasioned by her rapid growth among commodity and oil producing countries are today’s equivalents. Emerging Risk documents the earlier poor employment of surplus funds ‘recycled’ to Latin America, much as the failure of the USA and others to use Asian financing productively is now evident. The role of the main global banking institutions in each of these outcomes reveals common threads. As a reading of Emerging Risk will confirm, both the special consequences of free competition in a global banking market, and the perverse incentives inherent in the remuneration of loan officers, were clearly present in the mid-1980s. The interaction of regulation and the competitive response of banks to produce increased reliance on wholesale borrowing and lending, together with enhanced gearing, have clear echoes in modern debates over the consequences of the Basel provisions.

This book examines the fundamental nature of banking in the economy of the 1970s and 80s, arguing that banking cannot be properly understood unless it is regarded as the retailing of financial services. In analysing the nature of banking the book demonstrates how banking might operate without regulatory constraints; surveys the patterns of regulatory constraint in a wide range of economies; analysis the effects of these various forms of constraint on the operation of a previously unregulated bank; examines the move to multinational banking; explores risks peculiar to multinational banking, whilst providing a diagrammatic illustration of those risks. When originally published this was one of the first books to treat banking from both a theoretical and empirical perspective and is unique in reviewing the case of a completely unregulated commercial bank and following the progression of banking through to the multinational stage.