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The development of financial technology has promoted the innovation and digital transformation of commercial banks. Through digital transformation, commercial banks can improve bank efficiency and operational capabilities. Through empirical analysis, this study explored the relationship between digital bank transformation and commercial bank operating capabilities and how COVID-19, bank categories, and enterprise life cycles affect the relationship between digital bank transformation and commercial bank operating capabilities. This study selected data from China's commercial banks from 2011 to 2021 and used the regression method of fixed effects to conduct an empirical analysis. The research results show that the digital transformation of banks has improved the operational capabilities of commercial banks. Further analysis showed that the emergence of COVID-19 has negatively affected their relationship. At the same time, compared with rural commercial banks and commercial banks in the recession and phase-out periods, non-rural commercial banks and commercial banks in the growth and maturity stages play a more vital moderating role in the impact of the digital transformation of banks on the financial performance of commercial banks. The main research object of this study is Chinese commercial banks, and this study examines the results of banks' digital transformation and enriches the research on digital transformation. At the same time, this study is helpful to investors who like investment banks and has good practical significance.
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This paper empirically analyzes whether the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a significant impact on the lending of local banks and whether such impact has been different for public as compared to private local banks. Using panel data from 1344 Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPRs) –banks licensed to provide services within only a province's area– in Indonesia, this paper confirms the negative impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on local bank lending. This paper also confirms that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on lending has been smaller for local banks owned by majority government shareholders than for local banks owned by private shareholders, providing support to the "social” view of government intervention in the banking sector.
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Using IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) data for the macroeconomic variables, this study comparatively examines the sovereign debt crises in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It identifies different macroeconomic factors related to the sovereign debt crisis, investigates their interrelations, and explores if their debt crises are similar. It shows that the general revenue to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratios of Sri Lanka degraded to converge with the upgrading status of Bangladesh during the Covid-19 period. Since 2010, Sri Lanka has maintained a well-off economic status with per capita GDP, while Bangladesh has a long way to go yet. The general expenses to GDP ratio of Sri Lanka shows stresses on its GDP, while that of Bangladesh is more relaxed. Sri Lanka has overstressed debt to GDP ratio along with Balance of Payments (BOP) deficits, while Bangladesh has continued traces of managed debt to GDP ratio along with BOP surpluses. Bangladesh has taken enough precautions in their sovereign debt management, compared to Sri Lanka. Even in 2020, Bangladesh maintained progressive investment track over the threshold limit of 30%, while Sri Lanka fell into a debt trap. Following the pandemic, Bangladesh has enjoyed a gross national savings to GDP ratio of above the threshold of 25%, while Sri Lanka is going through a critical phase. It shows governance myopia of Bangladesh regarding its imbalanced current account positions, while governance myopia of Sri Lanka exists with reference to its imbalanced current account positions, adverse gross debts, and government borrowing as well.
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PurposeAmid the COVID-19 contamination, people are bound to use contactless FinTech payment services. Because of restrictions on physical movement and avoidance of touching physical money, people willingly choose mobile payment, resulting in enormous growth in FinTech payment service industries. Because of this, this study aims to examine the effect of factors affecting Gen X and Millennials users to use FinTech payment services.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used 328 responses collected through convenience sampling of Indian users aged between 26 and 57 years in the Delhi-NCR region who are users of FinTech payment services.FindingsThe authors' findings verified that in India, perceived COVID-19 risk, perceived severity for COVID, individual mobility, subjective norms, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have statistically significant impacts on FinTech payment services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling was used to study the proposed research model. Overall, the model predicted 76.9 % of the variation in intention to use FinTech payment services by the abovesaid variables by Indian users during a pandemic.Practical implicationsThis study will provide valuable insight to all FinTech service providers and stakeholders in planning and designing the concerned policy. It will be able to draw the attention of users more.Originality/valueThis research added a valuable theory to the existing technology adoption model (TAM) theory. It demonstrated the utility of the above variables in adopting and using FinTech payment services, which will help service providers to develop future strategies because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has a substantial impact on food bank operations. This article aims to provide an overview of the challenges and responses of food banks in Germany. Publicly available data was used and surveys were conducted among 948 food banks, at three time points in 2020. More than half of participating food banks were closed in spring, whereas nearly all were open again in summer. Food banks implemented alternative modes of food distribution and response measures to stay open. However, they seem to be less resilient to challenges like COVID-19, in particular due to their reliance on volunteers.Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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Este estudo tem como objetivo determinar os fatores que impactam a intenção de Micro, Pequenas e Médias Empresas (MPMEs) em usar aplicativos de empréstimo fintech como uma fonte opcional de financiamento de negócios usando a abordagem do modelo de aceitação de tecnologia. A população neste estudo eram MPMEs na Indonésia. As amostras foram coletadas por amostragem intencional, selecionando indivíduos com base no critério de terem utilizado um aplicativo de empréstimo fintech licenciado para financiamento de negócios. A amostra consistiu de 171 indivíduos. Este estudo utilizou o modelo de equação estrutural (SEM) como técnica de análise. Os seus resultados mostram que a Facilidade de Uso Percebida tem impacto na Utilidade Percebida, mas não teve efeito na Atitude Face ao Uso. O fator de Utilidade Percebida tem um efeito na Atitude Face ao Uso, e Atitude Face ao Uso influenciam a Intenção Comportamental de Uso. A empresa fintech pode desempenhar um papel ao fornecer educação e capacitação para promover a compreensão da alfabetização digital para as partes interessadas das MPME. Os governos precisam desenvolver políticas que podem equilibrar inovação e mitigação de riscos. Alternate :This study aims to determine factors impacting the intention of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in using fintech lending applications as an optional source of business financing using the technology acceptance model approach. The population in this study were MSMEs in Indonesia. Samples were taken by purposive sampling with the criteria of having used a licensed fintech lending application for business financing. The samples used were 171 samples. This study used structural equation model (SEM) as the analysis technique. The results of this study showed that Perceived Ease of Use had an impact on Perceived Usefulness but had no effect on Attitude Toward Using. The factor Perceived Usefulness had an effect on Attitude Toward Using, and Attitude Toward Using influences Behavioral Intention to Use. Fintech companies can play a role by providing education and empowerment to foster understanding of digital literacy for MSME stakeholders. The governments need to develop policy frameworks that can balance innovation and risk mitigation.
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Digital transformation is a keyword that has not only been mentioned in recent years but is also strongly applied by companies. However, the benefits of digital transformation for companies are still an issue that needs to be researched. Therefore, this study is conducted to determine the dynamics of digital transformation on banking business results. The research was conducted with joint stock commercial banks in Vietnam listed on the stock exchange. Based on text analysis on annual reports to measure banks' digital transformation level from 2015 to 2021. Research results have shown that digital transformation has a negative impact on bank's performance (through the return on assets and return on equity). Furthermore, the study also found that there was a paradoxical situation where COVID-19 increased the profits of banks. This result provides exciting discussions related to digital transformation and bank performance.
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This volume presents a broad sweep of modern economic history underpinning aid, trade, development and globalization in the last half century and the salient challenges facing the global community today. The author draws on his long years as an academic and development practitioner to recommend what needs to be done to cope with the backsliding of the fight against global poverty, fractured geopolitics and the threats to the multilateral economic order. The new, revised edition analyses how unilateralism, rising protectionism and the Covid-19 pandemic seriously threaten global sustainable development. It concludes with recommendations on the policy changes needed to make globalization more equitable and development more sustainable. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of economic development and economic history, as well as all those concerned about global inequality and sustainability. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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Background & Aim: The pro-angiogenic, immunoregulatory and anti- inflammatory properties of MSCs are being exploited for the development of cellular therapies, including the treatment of graft versus host disease (GvHD), inflammatory bowel disease and COVID-19. SNBTS have developed a GMP process to bank umbilical cord MSCs (UC-MSCs) whereby we can reliably bank 100 vials of 10 million P2 UC-MSCs per cord. Each of these vials can be extensively expanded and stored for specific applications. The ultimate aim of the bank is for off-the-shelf clinical use, e.g., in GvHD or as an adjuvant therapy in Islet transplantations. Methods, Results & Conclusion(s): During process development, different basal media and supplements were screened for proliferation and MSC marker expression. Cells grown in promising media combinations were then tested for tri-lineage differentiation (identity), their chemokine/cytokine expression and T-cell inhibition (function) assessed. Medium selected for further GMP development and scale up was ultimately determined by all round performance and regulatory compliance. GMP-like UC-MSCs were shown to have immune-modulatory activity in T-cell proliferation assays at 4:1 or 16:1 ratios. Co-culture of UC-MSCs and freshly isolated leukocytes, +/- the immune activating agent LPS, show a dose dependent survival effect on leukocytes. In particular, neutrophils, which are normally very short lived in vitro demonstrated increased viability when co-cultured with UCMSCs. The survival effect was partially reproduced when UC-MSC were replaced with conditioned medium or cell lysate indicating the involvement of soluble factors. This improved neutrophil survival also correlates with results from leukocyte migration studies that demonstrate neutrophils to be the main cell type attracted to MSCs in in vitro and in vivo. Genetic modification of UC-MSC may improve their therapeutic potential. We have tested gene editing by CRISPR/Cas9 technology in primary UC-MSCS. The CXCL8 gene, highly expressed in UC-MSC, was targeted in isolates from several different donors with editing efficiencies of 78-96% observed. This translated to significant knockdown of CXCL8 protein levels in resting cells, however after stimulation levels of CXCL8 were found to be very similar in edited and non-edited UC-MSCs. This observation requires further study, but overall the results show the potential to generate future banks of primary UC-MSCS with genetically enhanced pro-angiogenic, immunoregulatory and/or anti-inflammatory activities.Copyright © 2023 International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy
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We recently concluded a four-year University Leadership Initiative (ULI) project sponsored by NASA, which investigated multiple aviation communications technology areas aimed at enhancing future aviation safety. These areas were dual-band air-ground communications for air traffic management, detection and interdiction of small drones, and high-capacity terrestrial airport communications networking. In this paper we report on flight test results of our dual-band radios. These radios were designed to use a spectrally efficient multi-carrier modulation, filterbank multicarrier (FBMC), which we had previously shown to improve resilience to high-power distance measurement equipment (DME) adjacent-channel interference, in comparison to existing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) schemes. In our NASA project, we designed the FBMC radios to extend performance even further, using the following techniques: (i) simultaneous dual-band transmission and reception;(ii) ground station (GS) spatial diversity;(iii) higher-order modulation for a factor of 5 capacity increase over QPSK;(iv) a Doppler-resilient option using a smaller number of subcarriers;and, (v) 5-MHz bandwidth C-band transmissions for an order of magnitude capacity increase over existing 500-kHz channel schemes. To our knowledge, these are novel achievements for civil aviation, and our flight test results attained a technology readiness level (TRL) of 5. In this paper we briefly describe the project history, in which we spent approximately one year working with Boeing to participate in one of their Eco-Demonstrator flight trials, and obtained special temporary authorizations to transmit in both the L-band and C-band, from the FAA, the FCC, and the DoD. When COVID-19 dispersed worldwide, Boeing was no longer able to support us, so we revised our plans and teamed with the South Carolina Civil Air Patrol (SC CAP) to conduct smaller-scale flight tests. This paper summarizes the radio designs and the novel features we employed, as well as analyses, computer simulations, and laboratory tests prior to terrestrial mobile testing, all of which culminated in our successful flight tests. We show example flight test results that serve as proof of concept for all the five aforementioned radio performance enhancements. Example results include signal-to-noise ratio and bit error ratio, diversity gains, and throughput gains through both higher-order modulation and wider bandwidth channels. We also report on some lessons learned, and some ideas for future advancement of our work. © 2023 IEEE.
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PurposeThe authors seek (1) to identify the profiles of subjective financial well-being (SFWB) of bank customers before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, (2) to analyze the transition to profiles of lower SFWB during the pandemic and (3) to identify the factors driving such transitions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed five countries during 2019 and 2020 to measure SFWB. The authors applied latent class analysis (LCA) to identify profiles of bank customers according to a mix of SFWB indicators in pre-pandemic times (Study 1). The authors validated the profiles during the pandemic and identified the SFWB dimensions that deteriorated during the crisis (Study 2). Finally, the authors applied latent transition analysis (LTA) to explore transitions to profiles of lower SFWB and identify the drivers.FindingsThe authors identified three profiles of customers in pre- and post-pandemic periods for four dimensions of SFWB: control over finances, capacity to absorb financial shocks, ability to track financial goals and financial freedom. Gender, age, trust in banks and bank-supporting policies were related to transitions across profiles of SFWB during the pandemic. These relationships are contingent upon contextual country-related variables.Research limitations/implicationsBanks and policymakers should reduce customers' exposure to the pandemic's long-lasting adverse effects on SFWB and should identify and control the multiplier role that contextual variables play.Originality/valueExtant literature has not fully identified the dimensions of SFWB that changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors narrow this gap by identifying three SFWB profiles of customers, analyzing the patterns of SFWB change and connecting these changes to individual, provider and contextual factors.
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The Blood Bank mobile application is an effort of easing the process of receiving and donating blood. This application helps the users to seamlessly donate and receive the required blood and also gives the availability of oxygen and ambulance in nearby hospitals. It gives the user information related to the availability of blood types in different hospitals and blood banks. Taking in mind the COVID-19 pandemic situation, in which the requirement for blood and oxygens were reached an unmanageable level. Blood and Oxygen is an essential part of the healthcare system. Day by day, the requirement for blood and oxygen is increasing, but still, there is unavailability and shortage. This project aims to give people a single platform to resolve these issues. © 2023 IEEE.
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The main purpose of this research is to analyze the using of bank loans provided by the banking sector in accommodation companies traded in Borsa Istanbul in terms of type, maturity and cost. The study also examined the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the accommodation companies' use of bank loans. In this context, the level of bank loan usage, the type of bank loans, interest rates, maturity and their distribution in currency between the years 2009 and 2021 were tried to be determined by ratio and document analysis. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that 10,84% of the assets in accommodation companies are financed by bank loans, the use of bank loans in total liabilities is 19.92% and short-term bank loans are preferred. It was also detected that accommodation companies mainly benefit from business loans, daily spot loans, revolving loans, current account loans, foreign exchange earning loans, vehicle loans and investment loans in Turkish Lira, Dollar, Euro and Sterling with interest rates varying every year. However, compared to the pre-Covid-19 outbreak period, it was observed that the level of bank loans used by accommodation companies first decreased, but then increased again.
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The objective was to determine the prevalence of household food insecurity (FI) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary analysis was performed using the waves 1 to 3 of the 2020 COVID-19 High Frequency Phone Surveys in 13 LAC countries. The countries with the highest FI in the first wave were Honduras (60.3%), Peru (58.1%) and Ecuador (57.9%). Likewise, the countries with the greatest differences in the prevalence of FI between the first and last waves in percentage points (PP) were Peru (-29), Guatemala (-27.7) and Bolivia (-21.8). LAC countries face a great burden of FI.Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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According to World Bank statistics in 2019, Indonesia ranked two in the average unemployment rate with 5.28% in South East Asia. Although the unemployment rate can be reduced by an equitable distribution of human resource empowerment and national development, the global pandemic COVID-19 made a major impact on increasing the rate of unemployment. This paper tests the spatial autocorrelation on the average unemployment in Indonesia using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Moran's I. The OLS method was used to examine the effects that affect the unemployment rate using an independent variable. In contrast, the Moran's I used to prove the existence of spatial effect on the level of movement in Indonesia. From the experiment, there are four variables that influence the unemployment rate by using the OLS modeling method. The Moran's I test showed a p-value = 0.006 with α = 0.05. Therefore, there is a spatial autocorrelation between provinces in Indonesia. In addition, the model is tested using the Variance Inflation Factor. The model showed a VIF score ¡10, therefore there is no collinearity and the assumption is fulfilled. The model is also being tested using dwtest, bptest, and Lilliefors test. The result showed p-value = 0.6231 for dwtest, p-value = 0.932 for bptest, and p-value = 0.08438 for Lilliefors test.. © 2022 IEEE.
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Donated human milk is the best substitute for breast milk in the case when the mother cannot feed her baby. Human milk banks provide safe and high quality donated human milk. That was the reason why the Human Milk Bank was established in the Croatian Tissue and Cell Bank at the Zagreb University Hospital Centre in January 2020. The Bank works in accordance with the Law on the Application of Human Tissues and Cells. In this paper, we present the results of the Bank work since from its opening until June 2020. Due to logistic reasons caused by the COVID-19 epidemic and the earthquake in Zagreb, the Human Milk Bank did not collect milk for 43 days. Milk was donated by 31 mothers. Their median age was 31 years and 81% of them had high education level. In 52% of cases, mothers started donating milk three months after giving birth. Most donors donated milk only once (45%). The median period of donation was 46 days. The majority (52%) of donors gave birth for the first time, in the expected term of childbirth (94%), birth weight was >2500 g. Only three of donors' children (9%) were in intensive care. A total of 175.5 L of milk were collected (mean 5.7 L per donor), of which 151.5 L met the requirements of input quality control, and 141 L were pasteurized. A critical number of viable aerobic and facultative bacteria were identified in 32.6% of milk pools prepared for pasteurization, and 8.9% after pasteurization. For clinical use, 78.7 L were dispensed in three neonatal intensive care units. The Human Milk Bank has already shown the importance of its activities during the first months of operation. In order to be able to meet the needs for donated human milk at the national level, it is necessary to constantly inform mothers about the importance of human milk and to promote its donation.Copyright © 2020 Croatian Paediatric Society. All rights reserved.
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Two major economic crises in the early twenty-first century have had a serious impact on monetary policy and CB independence. Disruption in financial intermediation and associated deflationary pressures caused by the global financial crisis of 2007–2009 and European financial crisis of 2010–2015 pushed central banks (CBs) in major currency areas towards adoption of unconventional monetary policy measures, including large-scale purchase of government bonds (quantitative easing). The same approach has been taken by CBs in response to the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 even if the characteristics of this crisis differ from the previous one. As a result of both crises, CBs have become major holders of government bonds and de facto – main creditors of governments. Against rapidly deteriorating fiscal balances, CBs have become hostages of fiscal policies, which compromises their independence. Risks to the CB independence also come from their additional mandates (beyond price stability) and populist political pressures.
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Introduction: Laboratory training is an integral part of haematology specialty training. Trainees at ST3 usually have limited experience of laboratory functions and find approaching this daunting. Sound grounding in laboratory processes and techniques and rapport with the biomedical scientists is important in the first year. In the West Midlands, specialty trainees have dedicated ST3 laboratory induction time. Local discussions suggest variation in experiences and that training has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Method(s): To assess baseline laboratory induction, an electronic survey was sent to registrars who commenced ST3 haematology training in the West Midlands during the pandemic (February 2020 to February 2022). Questions assessed time spent in the laboratory, activities undertaken and self-reported confidence understanding tests and techniques before and after their placement. A range of strategies to improve and standardise laboratory training were proposed. The Laboratory Induction Workbook was designed and written by senior registrars in the West Midlands Deanery to complement existing training as part of a quality improvement project. Result(s): 7/8 (88%) trainees completed the survey. All trainees reported minimal prior experience of a haematology laboratory;during laboratory induction 3/7 (43%) were not provided with a local checklist or framework. Trainees spent most time on blood film morphology, with an increase in confidence reported by 7/7 (100%) trainees. Conversely, only 4/7 (57%) trainees visited blood bank, 2/7 (29%) learned about immunophenotyping, and 0/7 (0%) trainees explored genetic testing during this training period. A Laboratory Induction Workbook in three sections was developed: (1) An introduction to blood film and bone marrow morphology, (2) 22 cases covering the breadth of the curriculum and highlighting important topics and (3) signposting to key resources/contacts. The workbook focussed on linking clinical aspects with laboratory tests, encouraging self-directed study and empowering registrars to seek out learning opportunities in their local laboratory and within the region. The workbook was distributed to all new starting haematology trainees in the West Midlands in August 2022. Conclusion(s): Initial feedback has been positive, formal feedback is awaited. Future work includes the addition of extra cases to the workbook, transferring it into an interactive electronic format with use of QR coding, and regular review to ensure content is up to date. We also plan to extend the scope of the workbook for more senior trainees as an exam revision resource.
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Commercially available human platelet lysate (hPL) is produced using expired human platelets obtained from accredited blood banks in the United States. These platelets were originally intended for use in patient transfusion. The safety of platelets used in transfusion is managed by the U.S. Food Drug Administration (FDA), as well as the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). These organizations set standards, including testing for transmissible diseases. The United States record for blood safety is well established, with extremely low rates of disease transmission, making the platelet units used for hPL manufacture low risk. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased awareness of emerging infectious diseases, even though transmission of Covid-19 via blood transfusion has not been documented. For that reason, gamma irradiated hPL offers an additional safety measure in the clinic. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) expressing T-cells have demonstrated potent clinical efficacy in patients with hematological malignancies. In addition, there are several phase I clinical trials evaluating the use of CAR-T-cells for targeting of solid tumorassociated antigens. Some of the challenging issues found during production of CAR-T cells are the efficiency of T cell transduction to generate CAR-T cells, the expansion of T cells to clinically relevant numbers and the long-term survival in vivo of the therapeutic cells. The use of human platelet lysate has been demonstrated to improve these issues. Our data from experiments performed using human CD3+ from donors demonstrates that human platelet lysates offer an improved performance on T cell expansion versus serum derived products. hPL efficiently promotes T cell expansion, with higher cell yields and lower cell exhaustion rate. Additionally, we efficiently developed a protocol for suspension culture of T cells, which could facilitate the large-scale expansion of allogeneic CAR-T cells.
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Over the past few decades, large food banks that collect, warehouse, and redistribute food have become institutionalized across Europe. Although food banks gained increased visibility as important food relief mechanisms during the covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the crisis also highlighted their structural weaknesses and the fragility of the charity-based emergency food system. In particular, many European food banks faced higher costs, lower food stocks, uneven food donations, and lower numbers of volunteers and personnel as demand for food relief increased sharply. Also, many food banks lacked personal health and safety equipment for front-line staff and volunteers, many of whom were vulnerable or aged, thus forcing the closure of some charities due to health concerns. Yet, the impact of the pandemic was uneven across the continent as the covid pandemic strengthened some food banks while others were weakened. To explore these dynamics in detail, this paper utilizes in-depth interviews and surveys of key food bank operators in the Netherlands, Norway, and Greece to analyze how and why European food bank systems fared so differently from the pandemic. In short, the findings in this paper reveal how the Norwegian food bank system leveraged its position to increase fundraising and visibility, while the Netherlands food bank system suffered from long-term structural weaknesses, and the Greek food bank system was further embroiled in government tensions that threatened its existence. The preexisting structure of food bank systems, broader political economy, and historical context significantly impacted how food relief networks fared during the pandemic.