G21 - Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; MortgagesReturn

The study analyses mass media communication by mortgage lenders in the Czech market and builds on Kotler's competitive strategies concept and aims to answer the question of whether there is a relationship between the mortgage lenders' market position and their mass media communication profile. Furthermore, it analyses the mass media communication of mortgage lenders according to their financial performance. The analysis utilises complete monitoring data from the mass media market in the Czech Republic. As a result of this study, the different advertising patterns of the market leaders and challengers on a highly commoditised market are shown. Market leaders do not utilise defensive strategies to protect their market shares but employ more offensive strategies to increase the size of the market. Market challengers have no resources to implement a massive and offensive communication strategy to challenge the market leaders. Such a conclusion contributes to the debate on communication strategies for distinct types of companies according to their position on the market and their market share.

The concept of microfinance has developed rapidly since its inception in 1976. Despite its development, the impact it has on entrepreneurship is a subject of debate. Scholarly articles have recently emerged outlining that successful entrepreneurship depends on individual and household characteristics, and on the status of the microfinance loan received. This paper investigates the impact of microfinance on entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan using the nationally representative household survey data for 2013. Due to the endogeneity issue, we applied the binary response model with instrumental variables. After the adjustment for endogeneity, the result indicates that access to microcredit has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurship and shows there is a significant gender difference between men and women when making the decision to become an entrepreneur. Thus, men are more likely to become an entrepreneur than women. Another interesting finding is that elderly, less educated, and married individuals are more likely to be entrepreneurs. Therefore, it can be assumed that entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan is mostly represented by unskilled workers, many of which are unpaid family workers and self-employed who manage small trade markets, shops, and own land in order to generate income that does not require a particular education or labour skills.

This paper focuses on using survival analysis models in the area of credit risk and on the modelling of the probability of default (i.e. a situation where the debtor is unwilling or unable to repay the loan in time) in particular. Most of the relevant scholarly literature argues that the survival models produce similar results to the commonly used logistic regression models for the development or testing of samples. However, this paper challenges the standard performance criteria measuring precision and performs a comparison using a new prediction-based method. This method gives more weight to the predictive power of the models measured on an ex-ante validation sample rather than the standard precision of the random testing sample. This new scheme shows that the predictive power of the survival model outperforms the logistic regression model in terms of Gini and lift coefficients. This finding opens up the prospect for the survival models to be further studied and considered as relevant alternatives in financial modelling.

The latest financial crisis, among other consequences, has led to significant reductions in bank lending. Because cashless bank loans granted to non-bank clients are the dominant way of issue of money into the economy, reducing of them influenced also deflationary pressures. Central banks have tried to respond by expansionary monetary policy in the form of purchases of debt securities from banks and interest rate cuts. However, without any significant effect. Banks did not use a higher quantity of money in the banking system to order to increase granting of loans into the economy. We could observe the similar problems in the Czech Republic. Analysis of data between late 2008 - mid-2014 reliably confirms the weak impact of the Czech National Bank on the development of credit and the quantity of money in the economy. We analyzed data on currency, bank reserves, the monetary base, the monetary aggregates, deposits and loans. Separate analysis concerned the money multipliers and the credit multiplier. The banking system in the Czech Republic is also very specific in the existence of large excess bank reserves. The policy of lowering interest rates by the central bank had not the desired effect, so the only possibility was depreciation of the domestic currency. Another enormous increase in bank reserves as a direct result of unsterilized foreign exchange intervention again did not lead to a significant growth in loans and the quantity of money in the economy. Pressures against deflation can therefore be expected only from the reaction of households and firms to weaker domestic currency.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the structure of the current financial system, including money circulation in it, and define its influence on business cycles. The paper examines causes of disturbances in money circulation which lead to shallow or even deep economic crises. The role of central banks is marginal. The author concludes that proper functioning of the current financial system is subject to constant credit growth. If credit growth is insufficient, the system collapses due to money hoarding and other disorders in money circulation. It causes inability to repay the debts, which results in uncertainty and reduces aggregate demand. The entire study is based on US data.

This paper focuses on the current issues of the new banking regulation and its expected impact on the banking sector in the Czech Republic. Its aim is to provide current information on the basic regulatory proposals issued under Basel III and their potential impact on the functioning of the banking sector in the CR and then on real economic development in the Czech Republic. The paper will analyze the basic characteristics of the banking sector in the CR and the current situation with regard to the stability of the European banking sector, which are relevant for setting regulatory measures. Finally, the paper will examine the potential effects of the essential elements of the new banking regulation on the functioning of the banking sector in the CR. More detailed research shows that the CR's banking sector is ready for adopting the new banking regulation and a fundamental change in its operation with significant impacts on the economy is not expected.

The authors of the article point out that economic theory has failed to yield a solid theoretical background in critical situations such as the current financial and economic crisis and the transformation of post-communist economies. Mainly the present crisis opens the question of the unsatisfactory status of economic science. While classical liberal or Keynesian concepts are failing, theorists cannot look to mathematical modelling for help. It seems that traditional concepts malfunction, and the financial market is particularly predisposed for this process. The application of mathematical models is overvalued. The article calls attention to the possible influence and adequacy of regulatory attitudes on a return to equilibrium. It seems that the part of ethics must be upgraded decidedly. The challenge for today's theoretical economists is to find a new paradigm of economic science for today's global era.

Over the past few years, the Value at Risk indicator (VaR) has evolved, without doubt, into the most frequently used comprehensive tool for assessment of potential losses caused by adverse changes in market rates. However, the common models used for VaR assessment are based only on mid prices and do not take into account the existence of time-varying bid-ask spreads. In addition, they assume that any amount of instruments can be sold almost immediately without an adverse impact on prices. Thus, they focus only on pure market risks without taking into account the market liquidity. As a consequence, they underestimate the total risk.
This paper focuses on the importance of market liquidity and describes ways to integrate it into the VaR calculation.

The paper concentrates on the description of the Czech institutions which provide credit support to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, farmers and exporters. The paper analyses the operations of the Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank and the Support and Guarantee Agricultural and Forestry Fund. The activities of these institutions are covered in the general context of development and guarantee banking, and the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy. A separate section of the paper is devoted to the operational programs of the European Union.

The paper provides an overview of several selected topics dealing with application of agency theory to the credit contracts. The costly state verification and costly punishment models of optimal debt contracts are introduced and compared with respect to their performance in the situation characterized by risk aversion. Adverse selection in credit markets and its solution with a menu of screening contracts is described and the use of collateral as a screening instrument is discussed. The dynamic relationship between the lender and borrower is introduced in a soft budget constraint model of default and bankruptcy decisions. Alternative assumptions about informational asymmetries in credit markets are presented as well. For all these topics a number of references from Czech and international economic literature is provided.