Contents Introduction The new economy in the information society creates a new business environment. What is different is that more and more business gets transacted in a computer-mediated environment. Transactions, bill payments, purchasing, reservations (hotels, travel or cinema tickets) are done electronically. A Credit Card is an electronic payment system that is used more than two decades....

Secure methods of payment are needed before we will see widespread commercial use of the Internet. Recently proposed and implemented payment methods follow one of three models: electronic currency, creditdebit, and secure credit card transactions. Such payment services have di erent strengths and weaknesses with respect to the requirements of of security, reliability, scalability, anonymity, ac...

On August 8, 2005, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) increased the Section 48 investment tax credit (ITC) for commercial photovoltaic (PV) systems from 10% to 30% of the project’s “tax credit basis” (i.e., the dollar amount to which the ITC applies), and also created in Section 25D of the Internal Revenue Code a new 30% ITC (capped at $2,000) for residential solar systems. Both changes...

The face of agricultural lending has changed dramatically over the last several decades from both a demand and supply perspective. Farm numbers are down, but size is up. The distribution of farms is increasingly bimodal; 2% of farms today produce over one half of total sales. Largesized operations are capital intensive, utilizing the latest technologies embodied in variable and fixed inputs to ...

In this paper, we present some guidelines for implementing various financial instruments for the purposes of credit and payment, including protocols for commercial transactions, dispute resolution, and establishing credit reputation. We strive to employ only widely used, standardized cryptography and keep the proposed procedures as simple as possible on the conceptual level. Also, we want all t...

Until 1994, when inflation was brought down from the sky-high levels that had prevailed since the mid seventies, the financial system in Brazil was almost entirely geared towards maximizing float income, which answered for close to half of the overall earnings of commercial banks. In that environment, being efficient in processing transactions, such as the payment of bills and checks, was param...

Corporate credit risk assessment decisions involve two major issues: the determination of the probability of default and the estimation of potential future benefits and losses for credit granting. The former issue is addressed by classifying the firms seeking credit into homogeneous groups representing different levels of credit risk. Classification/discrimination procedures commonly employed f...

By the end of 2011, agricultural population in accounted for 48.73% in China. Also, farmers in China are dispersed and their financial information is incomplete, which leads to credit risk evaluation system of farmers in China is not sound at all. Most Chinese banks even have not established the rating system, so farmer credit risk rating system pressed for solution. This study proposes an inde...

BanK oF canaDa FinanciaL SYStem reVieW JUne 2011 obtain credit that they might not have been able to obtain otherwise . thus, if the associated risks—including both credit risk and liquidity risk—are properly managed, mBF can be a welfare-enhancing financial innovation . But the mBF sector involves a wide range of activities with different levels of benefits and risk . at the riskier end of the...