1,602,761 research outputs found
A pilot-scale trial comparing mesophilic and thermophilic digestion for the stabilisation of source segregated kitchen waste
No full textSource segregated food waste was collected from domestic properties and its composition determined together with the average weight produced per household, which was 2.91 kg per week. The waste was fed over a trial period lasting 58 weeks to an identical pair of 1.5 m3 anaerobic digesters, one at a mesophilic (36.5 oC) and the other at a thermophilic temperature (56 oC). The digesters were monitored daily for gas production, solids destruction and regularly for digestate characteristics including alkalinity, pH, volatile fatty acid (VFA) and ammonia concentrations. Both digesters showed high VFA and ammonia concentrations but in the mesophilic digester the pH remained stable at around 7.4, buffered by a high alkalinity of 13,000 mg l-1; whereas in the thermophilic digester VFA levels reached 45,000 mg l-1 causing a drop in pH and digester instability. In the mesophilic digester volatile solids (VS) destruction and specific gas yield were favourable, with 67% of the organic solids being converted to biogas at a methane content of 58% giving a biogas yield of 0.63 m3 kg-1 VS added. Digestion under thermophilic conditions showed potentially better VS destruction at 70% VS and a biogas yield of 0.67 m3 kg-1 VS added, but the shifts in alkalinity and the high VFA concentrations required a reduced loading to be applied. The maximum beneficial loading that could be achieved in the mesophilic digester was 4.0 kg VS m-3 d-1
Pink Wild Rose quilt by Gladys Behang Banks
No full textImage of Pink Wild Rose quilt created in 1930 by Gladys Behang Banks. Also includes questionnaires describing the quilt completed by Gladys Banks as part of the Utah Quilt Guild\u27s documentation days held from 1988-1994. Members of D.U.P. Chapter chose a pattern and each appliqued her own quilt. Several years after the top was finished her daughters had the quilt quilted by the ward for a birthday present
Banks : Subdivision ordinance
No full textItem contains three files. Zoning Ordinance, 40 pp. Land Division Ordinance, 20 pp. Text Amendments to the City of Banks Land Division Ordinance, 4 pp. Last amended January 14, 1997. Captured December 28, 2006.Development codes are ordinances implementing a local government’s comprehensive plan. They include two components: a zoning ordinance and a subdivision ordinance, which may be adopted and published as separate documents under their own titles. In some cases the sections pertaining to subdivision of land may be included in the zoning ordinance
X-efficiency Analysis of Commercial Banks in Pakistan: A Preliminary Investigation
No full textThe emergence of a fast-paced dynamic environment in the business world in general, and in the financial services sector in particular, has highlighted the significance of competition and efficiency. The need for deregulation has become a touchstone of success in fostering both competition and efficiency especially in the economies, which are exposed to structural reforms. In addition to that, intense competition both among domestic and foreign banks, rapid speed of innovations and introduction of new financial instruments, changing consumer’s demands and desire for product augmentation have changed the way a bank conducts business and services its customers. Larger the degree of competition, it is perceived that the firms would become more efficient. However, when the structure of an industry is product of the government regulations, the degree of competition is impaired markedly implying that the efficiency suffers negatively. Banking industry acts as life-blood of modern trade and commerce acting as a bridge to provide a major source of financial intermediation. Thus, appraisal of its efficiency is vital in context of an efficient and competitive financial system. Study of x-efficiency is believed to be important in particular as Berger, et al. (1993) found that x-inefficiencies account for around 20 percent or more of banking costs. Similarly, recent drive among banks towards downsizing, rightsizing and rationalisation of banking costs also implicates for the assessment of x-efficiency analysis of banks. It becomes vital in Pakistani context as there appears to be no study in literature on efficiency or x-efficiency analysis of banks in Pakistan. “A great deal more work is needed on x-efficiency research in banking. Managerial efficiency, the concept of x-efficiency, appears to be a much more important strategic and policy consideration” [Molyneux, et al. (1960), p. 273]. Given
Strong governments, weak banks. CEPS Policy Brief No. 305, 25 November 2013
No full textBanks in the northern eurozone have capital ratios that are, on average, less than half of the capital ratios of banks in the eurozone’s periphery. The authors explain this by the fact that northern eurozone banks profit from the financial solidity of their governments and follow business strategies aimed at issuing too much subsidised debt. In doing so, they weaken their balance sheets and become more fragile – less able to withstand future shocks. Paradoxically, financially strong governments breed fragile banks. The opposite occurs in countries with financially weak governments. In these countries banks are forced to strengthen themselves because they are unable to rely on their governments. As a result they have significantly more capital and reserves than banks in the northern eurozone.
Recommendations
More than in the south, the governments of northern Europe should stand up and force the banks to issue more equity. This should go much further than what is foreseen in the Basel III accord. If the experience of the southern eurozone countries is any guide, banks in the north of the eurozone should at least double the capital and the reserves as a percentage of their balance sheets. Failure to do so risks destroying the financial solidity of the northern European governments when, in the future, negative shocks force these governments to come to the rescue of their undercapitalised banks.
The new responsibilities entrusted to the European Central Bank as the single supervisor in the eurozone create a unique opportunity for that institution to change the regulatory and supervisory culture in the eurozone – one that has allowed the large banks to continue living dangerously, with insufficient capital
BANKS AS BLOCKHOLDERS
No full textIn this paper, we analyze the effects of banks as main blockholders on a firm’s returns and on the concentration of ownership in the hands of the controlling blockholders. Compared with previous studies, we approach to this problem by taking into consideration the type of blockholders building up coalitions with banks for controlling a firm. This allows us to reconcile different results, reported in relevant literature, on the impact of banks’ ownership of a firm on its returns. In short, we argue that the effect is only negative when banks are the main blockholders or when they build up coalitions with other banks. We prove empirically our theoretical contentions making use of a sample of Spanish firms for the period 1996-2000.
Assessment of Community Banks in Nigeria
No full textThis study on community banks in Nigeria was undertaken in June 2004 by the FAO Investment Centre, with financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Department for International Development (DFID), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Ford Foundation (FF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank (WB), and in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The objective of the study was to assess the past and present performance of community banks, in particular rural-based banks, and to propose a first framework for their support. --
Cost and profit efficiency of banks in Haiti: do domestic banks perform better than foreign banks?
No full textI use the stochastic frontier methodology to estimate a cost and a profit frontier functions. The Fourier-flexible form is used in this paper because of its flexibility. Results show that, although foreign banks are more cost efficient than domestic banks, domestic banks are more profit efficient than foreign banks, in Haiti. The paper reveals also that, although treasury bills constitute an alternative source of profit for banks in Haiti, a growth of interest rate on treasury bills increases profit efficiency in current period whereas it decreases profit efficiency one period after this growth. The main implication of this paper is that foreign banks are not always more efficient than domestic banks in developing countries, and even in a country with low income level.Cost Efficiency; Profit Efficiency; Foreign Banks; Domestic Banks
Before main banks : a selective historical overview of Japan's prewar financialsystem
No full textThe postwar experience of the Japanese banking system has received considerable attention recently partly because conditions in defeated Japan in 1945 (including high inflation and the need to switch from a military to a civilian economy) are similar to those in transition economies today. Policymakers in transition economies can learn a good deal from the experiences of Japan's postwar financial system but should remember that Japan also experienced extraordinary industrial growth and financial institution building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lessons to be learned from that experience include the following: Business conglomerates that did not continue to depend on government patronage were more successful than others in making the transition to a modern industrial economy. Banks that made a conscious effort to reduce their dependence on central bank credit were more successful than those that did not. The establishment of procedures for punishing defaulting borrowers helped the development of the payments system. Limits on the amount of lending to related parties appear to have contributed to financial stability (and could have contributed more if the newer"zaibatsu"had been as prudent as the older ones). Bank bailouts without accompanying reform (such as those the Bank of Japan undertook in 1920 and 1922) probably increased the likelihood of a more serious crisis, such as that of 1927. Capital standards - the minimum capital requirements established in the 1927 law - were a viable means of encouraging bank consolidation and more prudent lending. The public financial system served as a buffer when the banking sector was downsized.Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Decentralization,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Municipal Financial Management,Banking Law,Banks&Banking Reform
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