Macroeconomy & Globalization

Electronic payment can refer just to e-commerce--or payments for buying and selling goods or services offered online--or to any type of electronic funds transfer. It includes such payment channels as direct debit, e-money, card payments, and credit transfers. Data is ...

According to the Bank for International Settlements, card-based payment products are electronic money products that provide the customer with a portable, specialized computer device, typically an integrated circuit card containing a microprocessor chip. Data is from the Bank for International ...

The European Commission Office of Internal Markets defines e-money--or electronic money--as the digital equivalent of cash, stored on an electronic device or remotely at a server. Data is from the Bank for International Settlements' Statistics on payment, clearing and settlement ...

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS,) a direct debit is a preauthorized debit on a payer’s bank account initiated by the payee. It is also known as a pre-authorized debit (PAD) or pre-authorized payment (PAP.) Data is from ...

According to the BIS, a credit transfer is a payment order made for the purpose of placing funds at the disposal of the beneficiary, with the payment instructions and funds moving from the bank of the payer/originator to the bank ...

According to the Bank for International Settlements, a check is a written order from one party (the drawer) to another (the drawee, normally a bank) requiring the drawee to pay a specified sum on demand to the drawer or to ...

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a payment system consists of a set of instruments, banking procedures and, typically, interbank funds transfer systems that ensure the circulation of money. More simply, it is a system to handle the ...

The ease with which companies can start and run their businesses correlates with countries’ regulations and protection of property rights, according to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 report. In 2013 like in 2012, Singapore ranks first for the ease ...

MILESTONES: RUSSIA/CYPRUS By Kim Iskyan As the Cypriot banking sector imploded in mid-March, Russia, for which Cyprus is an offshore financial services center, was expected to step in and help. But when Moscow decided to keep its wallet in its ...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a lasting investment into a country by an investor located in a different country. There are two types of FDI: inward and outward foreign direct investments. They result in a net FDI inflow, which can ...

International reserves are a country’s “external assets”—including foreign currency deposits and bonds held by central banks and monetary authorities, gold and SDRs. The top 10 holders of international reserves account for nearly two-thirds of the world’s total foreign currency reserves. ...

TRANSITION AND TRANSFORMATION   By Valentina Pasquali   Saad Mohseni is the chairman of Moby Group, Afghanistan's largest media conglomerate. Mohseni founded the company in 2002 upon returning home to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.   Global Finance: What ...

RESILIENCE UNDER PRESSURE   By Denise Bedell   Gerald Hassell is chairman, president and CEO of the Bank of New York Mellon. The bank, which focuses on investment management and investment services, has $26.6 trillion in assets under custody and administration, ...

TURBULENT TIMES   By Gordon Platt   Ibrahim Dabdoub has been CEO of National Bank of Kuwait since 1983.   Global Finance: What are the key risks over the next 5, 10 and 25 years? Ibrahim Dabdoub: As a banker, I ...

SUSTAINING THE MIRACLE   By Anita Hawser   Mike Rees, CEO, wholesale banking, Standard Chartered, discusses the risks and opportunities for emerging markets going forward, and China's economic transformation.   Global Finance: What key events have shaped the current global economy? ...

REVOLUTION   By Laurence Neville   The scale of the crisis that has engulfed much of the world since 2008, which—like a virus—has mutated from a financial sector crisis to an economic crisis to a sovereign debt crisis, is so great ...

SUCCESSES   By Laurence Neville   A quick glance at the Fortune 500 for 1987 and 2012 reveals a number of similarities in the ranking of the largest companies in the US: ExxonMobil, GM, Ford, GE and AT&T all feature prominently ...

SEARCHING FOR STABILITY   By Denise Bedell   James K. Galbraith is a well-known economist and author of a number of books, including The Predator State and Inequality And Instability. He spent much of his career helping to shape US and ...

DISINTERMEDIATION AND GLOBALIZATION   By Thomas Clouse   Piyush Gupta is CEO of Singapore's DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank.   Global Finance: What have been the key financial trends since 1987? Piyush Gupta: On a global level, disintermediation, not just ...

THE BIG PICTURE   By Anita Hawser   Herbert Stepic is the chief executive officer of one of the largest banking organizations in Central & Eastern Europe, Raiffeisen Bank International.   Global Finance : What are the key events over the ...