Journal articles on the topic 'Payment intermediation'

AbstractDigital innovations in banking and payments recently have garnered a great deal of attention. Specifically, distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to fundamentally change the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in the financial sector. DLT is a novel and fast-evolving approach to record and share data, e.g., payment transactions, among members of a decentralized network. Using transaction cost theory, the paper examines how DLT will change the cross-border payment infrastructure. DLT can reduce the overall transaction costs potentially resulting in the disappearance of correspondent banks.

In this article, the relationship between innovations in the payment systems and financial intermediation is explored. By focusing on excess reserves and currency demand we provide evidence on the extant transmission mechanism. In this direction, a generalised method of moments (GMM) and vector error correction model (VECM) techniques are applied to a data set collated for Indonesia. We find that financial intermediation is affected by currency demand while we observe a limited role of excess reserves affecting financial intermediation. Credit card payments are found to have a statistically significant effect on currency demand, whereas debit card payments only influence financial intermediation in the long run. In addition, the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) exerts an upward pressure on excess reserves. The findings are of great importance as they provide support to policies that favour payment migration to an electronic platform, particularly that of card-based payment systems. JEL Classification: E42, E58, N25, G21

Abstract Suppose an intermediary provides a benefit to buyers when they purchase from sellers using the intermediary’s technology. We develop a model to show that the intermediary would want to restrict sellers from charging buyers more for transactions it intermediates. With this restriction an intermediary can profitably raise demand for its services by eliminating any extra price buyers face for purchasing through the intermediary. We show that this leads to inflated retail prices, excessive adoption of the intermediaries’ services, over-investment in benefits to buyers, and a reduction in consumer surplus and sometimes welfare. Competition among intermediaries intensifies these problems by increasing the magnitude of their effects and broadening the circumstances in which they arise. We discuss applications to payment card systems, travel reservation systems, rebate services, and various other intermediaries.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in home-stay arrangements in Ghana’s cultural city, Kumasi, and further assess NGO intermediation of home-stay from home-stay operators’ and international volunteer tourists’ perspectives. Design/methodology/approach A mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches is used to target three main stakeholders of volunteer tourism including international volunteer tourists, home-stay operators, and local NGOs. Findings There are seven major roles played by volunteer NGOs in the home-stay arrangement. However, from operators’ perspective, NGOs may hinder the economic viability of home-stay through inadequate/low payment. Originality/value The study highlights the unexplored brokerage role of NGOs in volunteer tourism in home-stay intermediation and its implications for sustainable tourism.

Before the introduction of the cashless policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2011, the Nigerian economy was heavily cash-oriented in its transaction of goods and services contrary to the global trends. With the aid of paired data samples between 2007 and 2017, this study evaluates the impact of cashless policy on the Nigerian payment system. The operations of a cashless economy were assessed based on the use of Cheques, funds transfer channels and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). Analysis of data showed that the volume and usage of cheques as a means of financial settlement has failed and was partially replaced by electronic payment systems. Banks are getting more involved in the use of interbank fund transfers rather than a cash settlement. It was also ascertained that the use of ATM’s as a means of financial intermediation is increasing. It is anticipated that the use of ATMs will become even more popular in Nigeria in the near future. To some extent, the outcome of the study has justified the implementation of the cashless policy initiative in Nigeria. However, the innovation and operations of the policy are not without its related limitations. There are various challenges associated with its practice, ranging from poor infrastructural facilities and difficulty in imbibing the e-payment culture due to illiteracy. Other socio-cultural factors that constitute an impediment include celebrations like weddings, birthdays and festivals. On such occasions, Nigerians prefer to ”display or spray raw cash’’ rather than issuing cheques. Thus, more effort needs to be put in place by the regulatory authority to re-orientate the masses and to encourage the use of E–payments channels, cheques, funds transfer options and, owning/ operating of bank accounts. This will give a further boost to the development of the Nigerian payment system.

Abstract The reasons for disintermediation in the financial systems can be found on both sides of supply and demand. This progressing phenomenon is a result of numerous changes in the post-crisis financial sector landscape. In this article, the authors analyse the underlying causes of the shift away from formal financial institutions in the area of financial services as well as present the Polish payment services market as an example of banks’ receding role in the traditional intermediation between market players.

Abstract This study documents a substantial decline in the exports of major trading nations taking place in March 2020. Accounting for product-specific seasonality and annual trends, the data suggest a drop by 38 per cent in France, about a quarter in Turkey and Germany, and 12 per cent in the US, relative to their historical averages. Detailed export data from Turkey, disaggregated by financing terms, show another striking pattern. Flows using bank intermediation which eliminates or reduces the risk of non-payment or non-arrival of prepaid goods, such as letters of credit or documentary collection, appear to have been much more resilient to the current downturn relative to flows using other financing terms. These findings suggest that access to trade finance is vital during times of heightened uncertainty.

Rapid spread of cryptocurrencies and the underlying technologies (blockchain) can transform the global financial system, as cryptocurrency has the potential to become a universal global currency. The article makes the conclusion concerning the timeliness and importance of cryptocurrency legitimization in Russia, which alongside the identified shortcomings contains significant competitive preferences for the banking industry, financial services market as well as for the state, drawing on quality blockchain technology mastering. The paper recommends to clarify the definition of electronic money in the Federal law «On National Payment System» under which a transaction with the cryptocurrency eliminates a third party intermediation. According to the authors, the spread of cryptocurrencies and the use of the blockchain technology will with a high degree of probability result in the transformation of the world monetary system due to the development of cryptoeconomy.

In India, the Commercial Banking sector has been the dominant element in the country’s financial system and performed the key functions of providing liquidity and payment services to the real sector, and has accounted for bulk of the financial intermediation process. However, since early 1990s, the Indian banking sector has been subjected to various reform measures initiated by the Government at the backdrop of economy-wide structural adjustment programme and also in response to the unsatisfactory economic and qualitative performance of the Public Sector Banks owing to lack of competition, low capital base, low productivity and high intermediation cost.Financial sector reforms have uprooted many of the outdated regulatory fences within which banks were required to carry out their activities. This provided more liberty to banks and they started exploiting different areas of operation. Gradually, many of the banks, apart from their indigenous function i.e., banking, started having substantial interests in all sorts of financial businesses like insurance, funds management, mutual funds, securities trading etc. Eventually, such a bank acquired the status of Financial Conglomerate and slowly began moving towards Universal Banking framework. However, in this process, the risk exposure of banks increased further and also it has raised a question on what should be the effective regulatory system for monitoring such conglomerates.Therefore, an attempt is made to trace the path of transition of Indian banks towards Universal banking framework, their risk exposure, opportunities and challenges confronted in this process of transition and the regulatory system needed to monitor such entities.The Journal of Nepalese Business Studies Vol. Vii, No. 1, 2010-2011Page : 17-30Uploaded date: July 7, 2012

Purpose. The aim of the article is deepening ideas about the place, role, tasks and mechanism of operation and prospects for the spread of cryptocurrencies as an innovative institutional form of money circulation in the context of globalization. Methodology of research. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study are the dialectical method of cognition, the conceptual provisions of economic theory, scientific works of foreign and domestic scientists on the mechanism of operation and prospects for the spread of cryptocurrencies in the context of globalization. A systematic approach to the study and timely detection of global problems of transformation of the nature of financial intermediation in the monetary system is also used. The study of economic aspects of the content of virtual digital assets (cryptocurrency) is carried out using such methods as analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, scenario planning and forecasting of economic processes. Findings. A critical review of scientific developments on the content and features of the mechanism of cryptocurrencies in the economy with further outline of prospects for their spread in the context of globalization is performed. The developed theoretical and practical principles made it possible to reveal the content of transformations in the system of money circulation. The conducted research allowed to state the difference between the quasi-financial assets (digital virtual money) and traditional (fiduciary) money. Originality. The substantiation of theoretical and applied ideas about the speed and volume of distribution of virtual digital currencies in the conditions of globalization has been further developed, approaches to non-state payment support systems have been systematized. Practical value. The results of the conducted study can be the basis for further research on the spread of virtual digital currencies (cryptocurrencies), can also be used to shape the financial policy of Ukraine in the monetary system. Key words: cryptocurrency, global economy, financial intermediation, central bank, digital platforms.

The purpose of this study is to examine the policies of granting credit in PT. Bank Mestika Dharma, TBK along with bonded legality of credit agreement with mortgage guarantee and to find out legal certainty for creditors who hold mortgage rights guarantee. The method of this research is descriptive analytic where the facts found are described in general along with their legal provisions. This research is carried out by doing on the spot and books research by looking the problems and compared with laws and/or implementing regulations which related to the binding of these mortgage rights guarantee. The results of this research is knowing that the collateral binding is very important for all financial institutions which perform their function as intermediation. In PT. bank Mestika Dharma, TBK, every credit must have credit agreement by binding certain guarantees, one of them is mortgage rights guarantee as regulated in UU No.4 in 1996 where this right will give creditor who have this mortgage rights guarantee to take precedence in obtaining payment of the claim from the sale of objects belonging to the debtor and based on the binding value rather than othe creditors in paying their obligation.

Blockchain is an innovative technology, where in the hospitality and leisure industry, travelers can obtain their tourism products and services through an intermediation between travelers and service providers that causes many different problems (e.g. inefficient payment system, extra cost, etc.). The operative effect of blockchain on the hospitality and leisure industry is based on removing the intermediary from the supply chain. Blockchain capabilities are determined according to a number of massive industries, including financial sectors. Such organisations generate various methods in order to simplify trading for smaller and medium sizes of industries. The networks of the tourism value are based on power dependencies’ relationships in such a way many expert staff members have acquired additional values that are taken from their partnerships. The structure of a market can be improved based on the value, which relates to different online travel agencies via converting power from suppliers to consumers. The assessment demonstrates that the blockchain technology represents an effective technology that removes mediators, which are originally sourced from the supply chain. This technology does not allow any mediators to gain entry along towards the tourism industry, and by eliminating the market’s power.

Islamic banking is basically a system of financial intermediation, its primary objective is to avoid receipt and payment of interest. Islam does not only prohibit dealing with interest but also with liquor, pork, gambling, pornography and any other thing which are considered haram according to Shariah. The objectives of the research is to study and describe the Islamic financing techniques used by Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia and Pakistan. For this research seven variables Promotion, Product, Preference, Knowledge, Performance, Problem and Infrastructure was taken. Qualitative technique was used to answer the research objective. The findings of research indicate that lack of awareness of Islamic banking is very high in Pakistan as compared to Malaysia. A few promotions were used by Islamic banks in Pakistan while in Malaysia customers are knowledgeable about Islamic banking because banks promote them aggressively. There is a need of government and education sector support to promote Islamic banking in both countries. The study also found that Islamic banks in Malaysia have large range of products as compared to Pakistan. The practitioners from both countries are agreed at this point that BBA, Ijarah and Murabaha are more profitable and less risky than Musharaka and Mudaraba. The Islamic banking products are almost used for same purposes in both countries while some differences are also exists.

Islamic banking is basically a system of financial intermediation, its primary objective is to avoid receipt and payment of interest. Islam does not only prohibit dealing with interest but also with liquor, pork, gambling, pornography and any other thing which are considered haram according to Shariah. The objectives of the research is to study and describe the Islamic financing techniques used by Islamic banking institutions in Malaysia and Pakistan. For this research seven variables Promotion, Product, Preference, Knowledge, Performance, Problem and Infrastructure was taken. Qualitative technique was used to answer the research objective. The findings of research indicate that lack of awareness of Islamic banking is very high in Pakistan as compared to Malaysia. A few promotions were used by Islamic banks in Pakistan while in Malaysia customers are knowledgeable about Islamic banking because banks promote them aggressively. There is a need of government and education sector support to promote Islamic banking in both countries. The study also found that Islamic banks in Malaysia have large range of products as compared to Pakistan. The practitioners from both countries are agreed at this point that BBA, Ijarah and Murabaha are more profitable and less risky than Musharaka and Mudaraba. The Islamic banking products are almost used for same purposes in both countries while some differences are also exists. Keywords: Islamic Finance, Comparative Study, Malaysia, Pakistan

An overview of the definitions of central bank digital currency (CBDC), formulated by researchers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Bank of England, is presented, and the essence of the CBDC is revealed. It is stated that the existing electronic money is a digital form of obligations of financial intermediaries, and CBDC is a form of emission and obligations of central banks. The types and forms of CBDC are generalized, namely: retail or wholesale, account-based or token-based ones. The structure and functionality of the register, payment authentication, access to infrastructure, and governance are defined as factors taken into account during CBDC designing. Similar models of launching national CBDC by the Bank of England (economy-wide access or financial institutions access, and financial institutions plus CBDC backed narrow bank access) and BIS (direct, indirect, hybrid) are under consideration. The synthetic CBDCs are marked as a theoretical concept of CBDC. The overview of projects of the People's Bank of China – "e-renminbi", the Central Bank of the Uruguay – "e-peso", the Central Bank of the Bahamas – "sand dollar" and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank affirm the interest of developing countries in launching national retail CBDCs. It was found that apart from the Riksbank with the successful "e-krona" project, most of the monetary authorities of developed countries (BIS, Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank, FRS) are just planning or starting to experiment with the issuance of digital securities, which demonstrates their concern about the restructuring of the banking system and the changes of global role of traditional currencies. Among the positive consequences of the introduction of CBDC for the domestic banking system are the emergence of an alternative payment instrument, the implementation of effective monetary policy through increased influence on interest rates, and regulation of the legal regime of crypto currencies. At the same time, the introduction of CBDC involves certain changes in financial intermediation (replacement of the deposits of commercial banks with the CBDC, the performance of functions inherent to commercial banks by the central bank or fintech companies), and will require powerful technical capabilities, including those related to protection from cyber risks. The results of the study point to the need for a cautious approach to the implementation of the Ukrainian CBDC only after the NBU assesses the public demand for new forms of money and the impact of the launch of CBDC models on price and financial stability, and compares available payment technologies that can achieve the same goals as the CBDC.

An overview of the definitions of central bank digital currency (CBDC), formulated by researchers of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Bank of England, is presented, and the essence of the CBDC is revealed. It is stated that the existing electronic money is a digital form of obligations of financial intermediaries, and CBDC is a form of emission and obligations of central banks. The types and forms of CBDC are generalized, namely: retail or wholesale, account-based or token-based ones. The structure and functionality of the register, payment authentication, access to infrastructure, and governance are defined as factors taken into account during CBDC designing. Similar models of launching national CBDC by the Bank of England (economy-wide access or financial institutions access, and financial institutions plus CBDC backed narrow bank access) and BIS (direct, indirect, hybrid) are under consideration. The synthetic CBDCs are marked as a theoretical concept of CBDC. The overview of projects of the People's Bank of China – "e-renminbi", the Central Bank of the Uruguay – "e-peso", the Central Bank of the Bahamas – "sand dollar" and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank affirm the interest of developing countries in launching national retail CBDCs. It was found that apart from the Riksbank with the successful "e-krona" project, most of the monetary authorities of developed countries (BIS, Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank, FRS) are just planning or starting to experiment with the issuance of digital securities, which demonstrates their concern about the restructuring of the banking system and the changes of global role of traditional currencies. Among the positive consequences of the introduction of CBDC for the domestic banking system are the emergence of an alternative payment instrument, the implementation of effective monetary policy through increased influence on interest rates, and regulation of the legal regime of crypto currencies. At the same time, the introduction of CBDC involves certain changes in financial intermediation (replacement of the deposits of commercial banks with the CBDC, the performance of functions inherent to commercial banks by the central bank or fintech companies), and will require powerful technical capabilities, including those related to protection from cyber risks. The results of the study point to the need for a cautious approach to the implementation of the Ukrainian CBDC only after the NBU assesses the public demand for new forms of money and the impact of the launch of CBDC models on price and financial stability, and compares available payment technologies that can achieve the same goals as the CBDC.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the consumer motivation to buy products on consumer-to-consumer (C2C) communities on social networking sites (SNSs). These transactions involve no intermediation or payment of fees by any party. The phenomenon is in contrast with the traditional C2C transactions, on websites such as eBay, where the company website facilitates the transaction between consumers, charges a fee to sellers and provides limited information about buyers and sellers. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from media richness theory and social capital theory, this paper thus proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model developed using data collected from people making transactions on these communities that synthesize the motivations behind consumers’ intention to buy. Findings The results indicate that the media richness of the Facebook platform increases the social capital and sense of virtual community among users, which further impacts the purchase intentions of users. Social capital alone does not lead to purchase intention and indirectly impacts purchase intentions through the trust dimension. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to theorizing the role of the platform, social capital and sense of virtual community in buying behavior on SNSs and provides valuable new insights into these constructs for the brand managers on social media sites. Originality/value Existing research on social commerce does not hold true for C2C communities on SNSs. This paper provides a new perspective into these communities through the lens of media richness and social capital constructs as antecedents of purchase intentions on these communities.

<p>The potential of Branchless banking is good enough for revolution of payment system in the emerging markets. Which aims to expand financial services to unbanked communities and provide a platform to contact MSMEs to the global economy can be achieved. Bank Indonesia (BI) targets the percentage of people reaching bankable services to reach 50% by 2019. By the end of 2014, the new bankable group reaches 36%. Meanwhile, as many as 64% are unreached groups of services from banks (unbankable), now our society tend to have mind-minded economy mindset. For that, need an increase from the side of savings. Digital financial services (LKD) such as Branchless Banking initiated by Bank Indonesia may be part of this intermediation. Some of the reasons that make the unbankable group exist, ie they do not understand how to open an account. In addition, people may also prefer to save themselves, shy with the formalities, or they are no money. Branchless Banking Agent as one of the elements in the implementation of Branchless Banking very need to be studied existence. To assist this research, and also use primary data needed and secondary in the implementation, in-depth interviews, observation and other in reviewing this qualitative research. The purpose of this study was to determine whether branchless banking agents were able to reach the bankable community. Methods of data collection in this study are, documentation studies, Direct observation, Indepth interview Open Questions, as well as provide a question sheet to the respondents and other sources. Qualitative Data Analysis Method used in this research is successive approximation method. The results of this study indicate that Agent Banking is able to become one of the elements in achieving Bankable society, where with its existence, its proximity and intensity with unbanked communities, can slowly increase bankable society.</p>

SUMMARY Pablo Zbinden?&gt;We consider the drivers and implications of the growth of ‘BigTech’ in finance – i.e. the financial services offerings of technology companies with established presence in the market for digital services. BigTech firms often start with payments. Thereafter, some expand into the provision of credit, insurance and money management products, either directly or in cooperation with financial institution partners. Focusing on credit, we show that BigTech firms lend more in countries with less competitive banking sectors and less stringent bank regulation. Analysing the case of Argentina, we find support for the hypothesis that BigTech lenders, by acquiring a vast amount of non-traditional information, have an advantage in credit assessment relative to a traditional credit bureau. They also serve unbanked borrowers, and may have an advantage in contract enforcement. It is too early to judge the extent of BigTech’s eventual advance into the provision of financial services. However, the early evidence allows us to pose pertinent questions that bear on their impact on financial stability and overall economic welfare.

The development of the economy directly depends on the state of the banking system, financing and servicing of enterprises by banking institutions. A prerequisite for this is to ensure a stable financial position of banks, which is the main task of both their owners and the regulator of the banking sector. In transition economies with poorly developed financial markets, in most cases, banks are the only institutions that form the necessary information for financial intermediation, provide diversification of financial resources, reduce the level of risk of financial activity, and promote the implementation of leading standards of corporate governance. Even in economically developed countries, banks remain centers of financial and economic activity, while taking a special place among financial institutions as instruments of making credit investments, creating savings and ensuring payments. In addition, stability is extremely important given the functions of financial intermediation, the provision of cash flow, customer satisfaction in financial services, the efficient allocation of credit resources and the maintenance of financial discipline among borrowers. In transition economies with poorly developed financial markets, in most cases, banks are the only institutions that form the necessary information for financial intermediation, provide diversification of financial resources, reduce the level of risk of financial activity, and promote the implementation of leading standards of corporate governance. Even in economically developed countries, banks remain centers of financial and economic activity, while taking a special place among financial institutions as instruments of making credit investments, creating savings and ensuring payments. In the article, the directions of improvement of the mechanism of state regulation of anti-crisis management by the economic security of banking institutions of Ukraine are systematized by systematizing the main measures, which are united in the main directions, in particular such as: the period of implementation; by the entities that implement them; on the mechanisms of implementation; by types of banking activity.

We develop a general equilibrium model where entrepreneurs finance random investment opportunities using trade credit, bank-issued assets, or currency. They search for bank funding in over-the-counter markets where loan sizes, interest rates, and down payments are negotiated bilaterally. The theory generates pass-through from nominal interest rates to real lending rates depending on market microstructure, policy, and firm characteristics. Higher banks' bargaining power, for example, raises pass-through but weakens transmission to investment. Interest rate spreads arise from liquidity, regulatory, and intermediation premia and depend on policy described as money growth or open market operations. (JEL E43, E52, G21, G31, G32, L26)

ABSTRACTNumerous archival documents show how the suspension of payments by Philip II, in September 1575, on the contracts with Genoese bankers (asientos) induced a freeze of the domestic credit market in Castile through the bankers’ intermediation forasientosand the credit interconnections. Commercial fairs stopped, banks failed and trade suffered while the king granted legal protection to the Genoese bankers. The evidence strikingly confirms that by his strategy, Philip II was able to remove thede factoceiling on the domestic debt (juros) imposed by the fixed revenue commitment of the Castilian cities in the Cortes. The agreement with the bankers was signed in December 1577 immediately after the cities had agreed to the doubling of their commitment.

The literature on the financial revolution and the rise of the English fiscal-military state frequently gives the impression that a singular set of reforms emanating from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 changed the entire landscape of English army finances, allowing a fundamental shift from patchwork solutions based on short-term credit and managed through a system of wholesale venality to a solid system of long-term funded loans raised on an impersonal market. This article focuses on the crucial role that merchant networks and the personal connections of financial intermediaries continued to play in international troop payments arranged by the English state through the Dutch Republic. Even when the English or Dutch treasuries could find the necessary money to pay and provision the troops in time, getting the money to the military commanders in the field or to their distant suppliers often depended on long and complex credit lines. Short-term loans acquired in making military expenditure – consisting of unpaid bills to suppliers, payments advanced by officials and officers, and temporary loans contracted by financial intermediaries – as well as the widespread reliance on commercial credit in the form of bills of exchange as a way to transfer funds effectively formed the life thread of army finance. The ability to finance the military in times of exploding costs and permanent emergencies without defaulting rested not only on the capacity to draw on financial resources at home, but also on the strength of commercial and financial networks abroad. In doing so, closeness to the centres of emerging international financial capitalism seems to have been of greater importance than a specific set of institutional innovations.

In this paper, the authors examined the efficiency of deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria in three years after, during and before the 2004–2005 capital consolidation in Nigeria. This consolidation period was the last period the Central Bank of Nigeria implemented an official recapitalization policy of the deposit money banks in the country. The authors predicated the study on a modified intermediation and efficiency measurement frameworks. It utilizes deposits, fixed assets and employees as inputs, whose costs are interest payments, depreciation and staff expenses. Performing loans and advances, investments and liquid assets constituted the output variables. The authors computed the efficiency scores, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. The data used were obtained from the DMBs that retained their identities and controlled over 75% of the banking industry’s total assets. They were purposively selected to maintain data consistency, and were size-classified by total assets. The findings show that small banks tend to be more cost efficient than medium and big banks. More so, medium sized banks tend to be more cost efficient than big banks, while big banks take the lead in cost efficiency score in post consolidation period. Cost efficiency of the banks was the highest during consolidation, followed by pre-consolidation and least in three years after consolidation.

Traditionally, corporate treasury management has been strategically based on the idea of advancing collections and delaying payments, which has been regulated through the intermediation of financial entities using, for example, credit accounts. New technologies applied to the financial field facilitate direct interaction between companies and reduce the transaction costs, because they allow adjustment of the flows of needs, but high confidence is required. The current ease of access to credit does not promote the incorporation of new financial relationship systems, but the operation of these systems should be studied, since a future credit restriction, like that known in Europe at the end of the 2000s, could change the situation. The aim of this paper was to identify the factors involved in this relationship among companies and establish the main conditions for cash sharing between companies to achieve a successful financial function. The investigation is based on a Delphi analysis used to analyze the successful experiences of shared cash (Mondragon Corporation, Trocobuy, and Arboribus), the needed variables, and their context. Then, our model was created from that exploratory knowledge. Our model is called mutual cash holding and its relevance and reliability were contrasted using structural equations based on a questionnaire administered to financial managers of large- and medium-sized Spanish companies. The result generates knowledge that articulates a new collaborative tool that expands the possibilities for treasury management among companies.

The important goal of the funded pension provision is to create developmental effects since pension payments from all components of the pension system, funded or non-funded one, are financed out of a country’s output. In the context of financial intermediation, the funded pension provision (compulsory state system of funded pension insurance and system of non-state pension provision) contributes to economic growth through, firstly, transformation of long-term savings into long-term investments, and secondly, promotion of technological changes and structural shifts in the economy. In Ukraine, the funded pension provision have not been adequately developed (assets of the system of the funded pension provision accounts for 0.14% of the total assets of financial corporations), and, consequently, has no significant impact on the economy. Strong impetus for the development of the funded pension provision in Ukraine should be, firstly, the introduction of the funded pension insurance system beginning 2019 and, secondly, qualitative upgrading of institutional conditions of non-state pension institutions in connection with the implementation of the requirements of the EU Directive 2016/2341 of December 14, 2016 on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision (IORPs) (recast) and the realization of the measures provided for by the Complex Program for Development of the Financial Sector of Ukraine by 2020. The positive economic effect from introduction of corporate pension programs can also be achieved at the level of corporate units. Corporate pension schemes, as a component of corporate social responsibility, contribute to the growth of the social resources of corporations and at the same time serve as a flexible tool for personnel management under conditions of growing labor shortage and increasing competition from employers in the labor market.

The author examines problems of Russia’s integration into the global financial system since early 1990s. During this short period of time Russia has turned from a net debtor into a net creditor. This is evidenced by its current net international investment position, as well as by active participation in the formation of credit resources of the key international financial institutions, particularly IMF. Still, the net investment income of Russia is negative. Such a disadvantage is explained by the difference in interest rates between payments of Russia on its external obligations and receipts as income from investments in foreign assets, mainly low-income bonds of developed countries, which form Russian international reserves. For three centuries the United Kingdom and the United States have been playing key role in the development of the global financial system. Today London and New York still operate nearly two thirds of the volume of global flows of capital in the international financial markets. Thus, as one of major economies in terms of GDP and as a resource-richest country of the world, Russia, as author argues, can rightfully claim for a more adequate share of income from the global financial intermediation. Obstacles include the lack of development of the domestic financial market and insufficient international demand for financial instruments denominated in Rubles. Russian Ruble remains a purely internal currency which practically is not used in the international trading and financial operations. At this stage, Russia’s inability to influence the basic conditions of refinancing on international capital markets, as well as the recent Western sanctions make impossible the full-scale participation of Russia in the processes of financial globalization. The author concludes that alternative way of Russia’s entry into the global financial system lays in playing the key role in the creation of the regional financial market of the Eurasian Economic Space.

During 1870–1914, business actors were concerned about the increasing uncertainty and occasional cheating in commercial relationships. In such situations, economic actors seek to improve the information they have, so as to benefit from strong comparative advantages over their competitors. This essay analyzes the acquisition and circulation of information and the actors and rules involved between 1870 and 1914, through a comparative approach (France and Italy). It considers individual trading firms, professional associations, information intermediating agencies, and state offices. We argue that these agencies (and therefore markets and institutions) acted much less as rivals than as complements in this era. Indeed, product information is different from information on the reputation of economic actors, the latter generating further distinctions between reputation for payment, respect of deadlines, and fidelity to the terms and objects of the contract. In turn, such kinds of situated micro-information differ from general statistics on market evolution and prices. We show that most economic actors were much more interested in the former (specifics) than in the latter kinds of information. To demonstrate this point, we compare the way traders, their associations, and private and state agencies intervened in the gathering, circulation, and interpretation of economic information in two countries, Italy and France, between 1870 and 1914. We argue that their opposite outcomes were not simply the result of different “mentalities” or attitudes to risk (as exogenously given), but rather can be traced to the different institutional settings and economic segmentation of the market for information in these two countries. In fact, unlike the Italian government, French ministries refused to provide their traders with micro-information on potential overseas correspondents and product characteristics. That is to say, “attitude to risk” and “animal spirits” are not exogenous and cannot be studied outside a given historical and institutional context.

Interest is the main source of income for commercial banks and therefore capping of interest rate may affect the performance of commercial banks and resort into measures such as downsizing to minimize the operational costs in order to remain sustainable. Put differently, the imposition of interest rate capping may have a bearing on the performance of commercial banks through interest margins generated. Against this background, the general objective of this study is to determine the effect of interest rate capping on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. Specifically, the study seeks to establish the effect of credit supply on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya as well as to analyze the effect of asset quality on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. Moreover, the study seeks to determine the effect of cost of credit on financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya. The study is anchored on three key theories: Financial intermediation theory, fractional reserve theory of banking, the credit creation theory of banking; and theory of rational expectation. The study used quarterly secondary data from 2013 to 2017 collected from forty commercial banks licensed in Kenya. The choice of period is justified on the ground of data availability and the period when this study was started. The data was obtained from the bank’s financial statements and other publications by the Central Bank of Kenya. To analyze the data, the study used descriptive analysis approach and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method. The descriptive statistics and the regression results indicate that Interest rate capping has a positive effect on financial performance of commercial banks. It is evident from the results that capping interest rate has impacted commercial banks positively. In addition, the results reveal that the quality of assets measured by the share of Non-performing loans affects financial performance negatively. Further, it was evident that credit supply measured by gross loans and advances has negative effect on banks’ financial performance. Based on the findings, this study recommends commercial banks to look into ways of reducing the proportion of non-performing loans in their books in order to improve their returns on assets. This can be achieved by assessing credit worthiness of individuals and companies before advancing loans. The cost of credit measured by the interest rate shows it has positive effect on financial performance and therefore the study recommends the government through the Central Bank to continue monitoring the cost of credit so as to make loans accessible to low income earners. This can contribute to increases in the uptake of loans thereby raising bank’s profitability through interest payments. Commercial banks should also find alternative ways of increasing their interest income thereby improving returns on assets.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how online crowdfunding is strategically applied to artistic productions featuring strong social and cultural values, exploring potential and risks of networking value creation and community engagement. Mission-driven initiatives and their crowdfunding campaigns are analyzed through platform society framework (van Dijk, 2019), considering the business models and marketing strategies that support the scope and intentions of a variety of agents involved within the online networks. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple case-study approach is adopted to sample and analyze in depth significant examples from the most representative crowdsponsoring platforms in Portugal. Agents’ perspectives and practices are collected through semi-structured interviews with campaign creators and platform managers, and complemented by the design of specific business model canvas (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010) adapted to crowdfunding projects. Communication strategies and social media marketing are considered, metering agent’s profile and comparing performance and online engagement through profile and official pages observation. Findings Main findings point out that a crowdfunding campaign requires to set up a specific business model and marketing strategy articulation that go beyond the traditional cultural enterprises differentiation criteria, hybridizing them through experience-led marketing logic, extended product conceptualization and a critical cultural entrepreneurship approach. Community engagement operations need to be structured and integrated through online and offline social networks activities, and the value creation is build through shared meaning construction and interpretation between creators and backers, with the support of others agents involved within crowdfunding value network. It also states that the conceptualization of crowdfunding phenomenon as a service ecosystem (Quero and Ventura, 2019) could be extended, to comprehend other actors and power position within intermediation processes, namely, social network and social media platforms corporations, online payments services, online users, legacy media entities and others stakeholders as matchfunding organizations and partners for products’ development and distribution. Research limitations/implications The research design could be improved by adding more quantitative and social analytics data or an international cases comparison to complete these preliminary results. Practical implications The findings could assist arts and media managers as well as cultural agents to adapt their strategies to emergent business and marketing models, strongly influenced by dominant barging positions in the value chain held by new digital intermediaries, and to better explore product levels to strengthen interactions and engagement with communities of interest and supporters for the creation of value. Social implications This paper contributes to elaborate a more accurate scientific knowledge and critical perspective about crowfunding system evolution, concerning both individual and collective agencies, and their implication for different types of agents and networked individuals between institutions (Dutton, 2009). Originality/value This study is unique, as it adopts a multidisciplinary approach and a comprehensive analysis of Portuguese crowdsponsoring phenomenon, and it offers a valid contribution to the analysis of crowdfunding as value-creation network.

We study the optimal design of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in an environment where agents sort into cash, CBDC and bank deposits according to their preferences over anonymity and security; and where network effects make the convenience of payment instruments dependent on the number of their users. CBDC can be designed with attributes similar to cash or deposits, and can be interest-bearing: a CBDC that closely competes with deposits depresses bank credit and output, while a cash-like CBDC may lead to the disappearance of cash. Then, the optimal CBDC design trades off bank intermediation against the social value of maintaining diverse payment instruments. When network effects matter, an interest-bearing CBDC alleviates the central bank's tradeoff.

Europe’s high pre-existing level of financial development can partly account for the relatively smaller reach of fintech payment and lending activities compared to some other regions. But fintech activity is growing rapidly. Digital payment schemes are expanding within countries, although cross-border and pan-euro area instruments are not yet widespread, notwithstanding important enabling EU level regulation and the establishment of instant payments by the ECB. Automated lending models are developing but remain limited mainly to unsecured consumer lending. While start-ups are pursuing platform-based approaches under minimal regulation, there is a clear trend for fintech companies to acquire balance sheets and, relatedly, banking licenses as they expand. Meanwhile, competition is pushing many traditional banks to adopt fintech instruments, either in-house or by acquisition, thereby causing them to increasingly resemble balanced sheet-based fintech companies. These developments could improve the efficiency and reach of financial intermediation while also adding to profitability pressures for some banks. Although the COVID-19 pandemic could call into question the viability of platform-based lending fintechs funding models given that investors could face much higher delinquencies, it may also offer growth opportunities to those fintechs that are positioned to take advantage of the ongoing structural shift in demand toward virtual finance.

The combination of Internet technology and the financial industry makes information more symmetrical, improves the efficiency of payment and settlement in the financial industry, reduces the cost of currency financing, and makes risk management more effective based on big data technologies. Just the improvement of form and means has not changed the nature of finance. With the development boom of financial technology, blockchain technology seems to have become the key to start a new technological revolution. The value transfer of blockchain technology and the absence of credit intermediation, high security, decentralization, and de-monetization are a fundamental disruption of the financial industry.

This supplement presents ten case studies, which highlight the roles of targeted policies to facilitate sustainable financial deepening in a variety of country circumstances, reflecting historical experiences that parallel a range of markets in LICs. The case studies were selected to broadly capture efforts by countries to increase reach (e.g., financial inclusion), depth (e.g., financial intermediation), and breadth of financial systems (e.g., capital market, cross-border development). The analysis in the case studies highlights the importance of a balanced approach to financial deepening. A stable macroeconomic environment is vital to instill consumer, institutional, and investor confidence necessary to encourage financial market activity. Targeted public policy initiatives (e.g., collateral, payment systems development) can be helpful in removing impediments and creating infrastructure for improved market operations, while ensuring appropriate oversight and regulation of financial markets, to address potential sources of instability and market failures.

AbstractThis paper presents an analytical framework that describes the business model of banks. It draws on the classical theory of banking and the literature on digital transformation. It provides an explanation for existing trends and, by extending the theory of the banking firm, it illustrates how financial intermediation will be impacted by innovative financial technology applications. It further reviews the options that established banks will have to consider in order to mitigate the threat to their profitability. Deposit taking and lending are considered in the context of the challenge made from shadow banking and the all-digital banks. The paper contributes to an understanding of the future of banking, providing a framework for scholarly empirical investigation. In the discussion, four possible strategies are proposed for market participants, (1) customer retention, (2) customer acquisition, (3) banking as a service and (4) social media payment platforms. It is concluded that, in an increasingly digital world, trust will remain at the core of banking. That said, liquidity transformation will still have an important role to play. The nature of banking and financial services, however, will change dramatically.

Financial system stability is necessary to ensure a sustainable economic development. It undertakes 3 major functions: (i) payment system, (ii) financial intermediation, and (iii) managing risk. Data showed that the Indonesian economy experienced a negative correction in the event of financial instability, e.g bank panic in 1992, Asian financial crisis (1997), and Sub-prime mortgage crisis (2008). Therefore, it is necessary in having a method of financial stability index measurement, which in turn can be used to predict the direction of future financial stability. This research was conducted in order to provide an option incalculating the index of financial stability of Indonesia by two methods, namelyAggregation with Variance Equal Weight with Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show that the trend of Indonesian financial stability index which constructed through these two techniques have similar trend with a different magnitude. PCA method was employed in making reductions on variable dimensions without losing the information on the movement of the variable’s variation. There are four sectors to be included in the index. Those four sectors are banking sector, money market sector, capital market sector,and monetary sector. We found that the contribution of the financial performance of banks in Indonesia and the interest rate is the highest among other sector to the Indonesia financial stability.

It has been found that the history of credit institutions indicates the fact of their existence in the ancient economy. Historically, it has been found that the scientific understanding of the economic content and purpose of credit institutions in economic processes begins with the emergence of the capitalist socio-economic formation. At the same time, it was found that the nature of the predominantly bank loan. Even later, representatives of classical economic theory laid down the basic postulates for understanding the role of credit institutions. Consideration of the evolution of scientific thought on the interpretation of the role of credit institutions in the system of economic relations is impossible without explaining the basic concepts. The significance of credit institutions within the framework of the naturalistic theory of credit, namely as formal intermediaries in the process of redistribution of capital, which do not create but increase capital in circulation by exchanging metal money for paper, is substantiated. Scientific analysis shows that in the framework of the capital theory of credit, the main attention is paid to credit institutions in view not only of intermediation in credit relations, but also taking into account the ability to produce credit by deposit-check issue without the exclusive need to accumulate temporarily free funds as credit resources. The urgent need to interpret the modern nature of credit institutions has been identified. A retrospective analysis of the economic content, nature and peculiarities of the functioning of a credit institution proves the existing difficulty of clearly distinguishing its characteristics that significantly distinguish it from a financial institution. The relationship between the concepts of “credit institution” and “financial institution” in the regulations of different countries is presented. On this basis, it is proved that in Ukraine, at the legislative level, a financial institution absorbs a credit institution by its functional purpose. According to the results of the study, a set of generic features of the credit institution is formulated, which allow to distinguish it among other financial intermediaries, namely: 1) the right to form financial resources by attracting funds from individuals and legal entities on terms of maturity, payment and return; 2) recognition as a legal entity that carries out professional activities in the credit market to provide loans to economic agents on its own terms and at its own risk; 3) implementation of professional mediation in the field of settlements between economic agents. The author's interpretation of the concept of “credit institution” as a legal entity that has the right to carry out monetary intermediation, namely, is authorized to accumulate free cash of individuals and legal entities, including attracting deposits (deposits), their redistribution in compliance principles of lending, as well as the provision of other financial services in the financial market, the content and list of which is determined by the license conditions.

The role of financial intermediation in a modern capitalist system hinges mainly on the taking and charging interest. While some Islamic scholars consider interest to be lawful for Muslims to take or charge on their transactions, many Islamic scholars consider charging or taking interest to be non-shari’ah compliant. It is against this backdrop that the paper sets out to provide a correct articulation of the meaning of ribā [interest/usury], which is the foundation stone on which the conventional financial institutions are based and examines its effects on the Nigerian economy. Using information about the forms and structure of socio-economic transactions during al-Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic) period in Makkah and during the Prophet’s time in Makkah and Madinah, we found that interest of all kinds is prohibited. The practice of interest payment in a modern capitalist economy is against the dictates of the Shari’ah. The article finds that debt servicing has badly affected the economic growth development of Nigeria. The article reveals a sharp increase in the amounts used to finance the country’s debt obligation. The debt servicing as a percentage of the capital expenditure has been increasing greatly since 2011 to till date. The percentage of debt servicing to capital expenditure in Nigeria from 1981 to 2015 has been very high for the country, with an average of over 59.0% under the 35 years considered in this study. In some years, this ratio was over 100.0% reaching its peak at 150.4% in 2003. In 2015, the ratio stood at 129.57%. This could account for low level of development in the country. The negative impact of debt servicing on the economy serves as a barrier to poverty alleviation, economic growth and development.

In 2011 The Economist alerted us to the claim that “digital data will flood the planet.” The exponential increase in data such as e-mails, Tweets and Instagram pictures underpins claims that we are living in an age of ‘infoglut’ (Andrejevic) and information superabundance (Internet Live Stats). Several years earlier, Shirky posed this as an issue not of “information overload” but of “filter failure” (Asay). Shirky’s claim suggests that we should not despair in the face of unmanageable volumes of content, but develop ways to make sense of this information – to curate. Reflecting on his experiences of curating the Meltdown Festival, David Byrne addressed the emergence of everyday curating practices: “Nowadays, everything and everyone can be curated. There are curators of socks, menus and dirt bike trails […] Anyone who has come up with a top-ten list is, in effect, a curator. And anyone who clicks ‘Like’ is a curator.” Byrne’s comments on socks and top ten lists captures how curating can be personal. In their discussion of curating as a new literacy practice, Potter and Gilje highlight how “as well as the institutional and professional contexts for such work through the centuries and across cultures, many people have made personal collections of texts and artefacts that have stood for them in the world” (123). The emergence of easily, and often freely, available content curating tools is linked to practices of accessible curating (Good). There has been a proliferation of content curating platforms and tools. Notwithstanding that accessibility and everyday usage are often the hallmark of content curating (for example, see Villi on social curating and user-distributed content), this article specifically focuses on content curating as a service. Defining the content curator as “someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online”, Bhargava in 2009 described content curating as the next big social media job of the future. Popova stresses the importance of authorship and approaching curating as a “form of creative labor in and of itself” and identifies content curators as “human sense-makers” in a culture of “information overload”. By addressing curating ‘content for others’ rather than other curatorship practices such as ‘content for me’ and ‘content about me’, we aim to offer insights into the professional and commercial practices of content curating. Through connecting autoethnographic research with academic literature on the concept of ‘cultural intermediaries’, we identify two ways of understanding professional content curating - connected cultural intermediation, and curating literacies. Researching Content Curators as Creative Labour In his introduction to Curation Nation, Rosenbaum suggests that there is “both amateur and professional curation, and the emergence of amateur or prosumer curators isn’t in any way a threat to professionals” (3). Likewise, we do not see a threat or tension between amateur and professional curating. We are, though keen to address ‘professional’ strategic content curating for an intended audience as a notable difference and departure. To generate detailed insights into the role of the professional content curator we employed an autoethnographic approach. Holt’s review of the literature and his own experiences of autoethnography provide a helpful overview: “autoethnography is a genre of writing and research that connects the personal to the cultural, placing the self within a social context” (2). Specifically, we focus on Couzins’ personal experiences of content curating, his professional practices and his ‘cultural milieu’ (Reed-Danahay). Couzins was a business-to-business journalist for 17 years before starting a content and communications agency that: helps organisations tell their story through curated and created stories; runs a media brand for corporate learning, which features curated content and a weekly curated e-mail; designs and delivers massive open online courses on the Curatr platform (a social learning platform designed for curating content). The research and writing process for our analysis was informed by Anderson’s approach to analytical autoethnography, and from this we stress that Couzins is a full member of the research setting. Our focus on his experiences also resonates with the use of first-hand narratives in media industries research (Holt and Perren). Following preliminary exchanges, including collaborative note taking and face-to-face conversations, Ashton created an interview schedule that was then reviewed and revised with Couzins. This schedule was used as the basis for a semi-structured interview of around 90 minutes. Both authors transcribed and coded the interview data. Through thematic analysis we identified and agreed on five codes: industry developments and business models; relationships with technologies; identifying and sharing information sources; curating literacies; expertise and working with/for clients. This research paper was then co-written. As a conversation with only two participants, our account runs up against the widely stated concern associated with autoethnography of observing too few cultural members and not spending enough time with others (Coffey; Ellis, Adams and Bochner). However, we would argue that the processes of dyadic interviewing underpinned by self-analysis provides accessible and “useful stories” (Ellis, Adams and Bochner). Specifically, Anderson’s five features helped to guide our research and writing from documenting personal experience and providing insider perspectives, to broader generalisation and “theoretical development, refinement, and extension” (387). Indeed, we see this research as complementing and contributing to the large scale survey research undertaken by Liu providing excerpts on how “technology bloggers and other professionals explain the value of curating in a networked world” (20). The major theme emerging from the interview exchange, perhaps not unexpectedly, is how professional content curating revolves around making sense of specific materials. In acting as a bridge between the content and publications of some and its reception by others, literature on cultural intermediaries was identified as a helpful conceptual pointer. The relevance of this concept and literature for exploring professional content curators is illuminated by Smith-Maguire and Matthews’ comments that “cultural intermediaries impact upon notions of what, and thereby who, is legitimate, desirable and worthy, and thus by definition what and who is not” (552). The process of curating content necessarily involves judgements on what is deemed to be desirable and worthy for clients. Scholarship on cultural intermediaries was explicitly explored in the interview and co-writing stages, and the following covers some of the meeting points between our research and this concept. Content Curators as Cultural Intermediaries: Taste, Expertise and Value The concept of cultural intermediaries has been explored by academics in relation to a range of industries. This paper does not necessarily seek to add content curators to the expanding list of occupations analysed through the cultural intermediaries’ lens. There are though a range of questions and prompts from studies on cultural intermediaries helpful for understanding the ways in which content is made sense of and circulated. Smith-Maguire and Matthews’s 2012 article ‘Are We All Cultural Intermediaries Now?’ is particularly helpful for connecting content curating with debates on cultural intermediaries. They consider how cultural intermediaries “effect other’s orientation” (552), and the question they pose is directly relevant for thinking through distinctions in curating ‘for/about me’ and ‘for others’. The following statement by Couzins on a client relationship with a private membership network provides a useful account of what the job of content curating involves: Each week I curate a set of articles or videos on hot topics that have been identified by network members. Once I have identified suitable content I upload links to their website, including a reading time and a short summary. These two elements serve to help members decide whether or not to read it and when to read it. For example, if they have a short train journey they might have time to read a ten-minute article. All articles are tagged so that the curated links become a deeper resource over time and members are alerted by e-mail each week when new links have been published. The reference to “suitable content” highlights how the curator can shape a narrative by intentionally deciding what to keep in and what to leave out. Beyond this choice of what the client is directed to, there is also the importance of the “short summary” and thus how this curated content is packaged and made sense of by the curator for the client. McFall, in her contribution to the Cultural Intermediaries Reader, offers a specific lens for examining the distinctive filtering practice of content curators as acts of ‘economization’. McFall outlines how economization “involves the work of ‘qualifying’ behaviours, organizations and institutions as economic. This is positioned in contrast to the idea that there is some kind of mystery “x-factor” which defines things as inherently economic” (46). McFall explains how “things are rendered (i.e. they become) economic through the actions of producers, governments, research organisations, media, consumers, and so forth. Economization allows for the ways things may, throughout their life cycle, move in and out of being economic” (46). Whilst McFall’s comments recognise how things may be rendered economic through, for example, a ‘top ten list’, we want to specifically examine what this rendering looks like with the ‘professional’ content curator. The act of filtering is one of rendering, and the content that is curated and shared (whether it be articles, videos, links, etc.) becomes economic within this specific context. Whilst there are many organisations that would provide the regular service of producing curated content, two distinctive approaches were revealed in our exchange. The first approach we identify concerns content curating as connected cultural intermediation, and the second approach we identify concerns facilitating curating literacies and co-creation with clients. Connected Cultural Intermediation Connected cultural intermediation refers to how content curators can connect with their own clients and with producers of content. As the following explores, these connections are built around being explicit and open about the content that curators identify and how they filter it. Being open with producers of content was important as these connections could lead to future opportunities for Couzins to identify content for his clients. Couzins addresses the connections he makes in terms of transparency, stating: “you just need to have some more transparency around you as the curator, like who you are, who you represent, why you are doing it, and the scope of what you are looking at.” Part of this involves identifying his impact and influences as a taste-shaper. Couzins remarks, “I'm creating a story […] but my point of view will be based on my interest in what I bring to the curating process.” Transparency was further presented as a part of the process in which judgements and validations are made: “My reputation as a curator is based on what I curate, right? So therefore it has to be as sound as it can be, and I try to be as dispassionate as I can be about this.” These comments capture how transparency is integral for how Couzins establishes his reputation as a content curator. Couzins promotes transparency in content usage by alerting content producers to where content is curated: I also share on Twitter, so they [producers] know it's been shared because they are included in the retweets, for example. I would tell some people that I've linked to their stuff as well, and sometimes I would also say "Thank you," to so and so for linking to that. It's like thanking my supply chain, if you like. Because it's a network. The act of retweeting also operates as a means to develop connections with producers of content. As well as indicating to producers that content is being used, Couzins’ reference to the “supply chain” indicates the importance he invests in establishing connections and the wide circulation of curated content. One approach to content curating as a commercial practice could be to limit access and create a “pay wall” style scenario in which the curated content can only be accessed after a payment. Curated materials could be sent directly to e-mail or uploaded to private websites. For Couzins however, it is access to the flows of content and the connections with others that underpin and enable his content curating commercial practice. It is important for Couzins that curated content is available to the producers, clients and more publicly through his free-to-access website and Twitter feed. The earlier reference to reputation as a curator in part concerned being dispassionate and enabling verification through open and explicit acknowledgements and links. This comment also addresses generating a reputation for “sound” information. The following comments pick this up and point to the need for engaging with different sources: “I have got my own bubble that I operate in, and it's really challenging to get out of that bubble, bring new stuff in, or review what's in there. I find myself sharing stuff quite a lot from certain places, sometimes. You've got to work at that. It's hard.” Working hard to escape from the bubble was part of Couzins’ work to build his reputation. Acknowledging producers is both a way for Couzins to promote transparency around his filtering and a way to foster new sources of content to escape the bubble: “I do build some relationships with some of the producers, because I get to know them, and I thank them, and I say, ‘That's really good,’ so I have a lot of relationships with people just through their content. But it's not a commercial relationship.” Whilst Couzins suggests there may not be a commercial relationship with the producers of content, economic significance can be seen in two ways. Firstly, moving outside of the ‘bubble’ can help the content curator make more diverse contributions and establish a reputation for this. Secondly, these connections can be of benefit to content producers as their material further circulates. Whilst there is no payment to the content producer, Couzins directs this curated content to clients and does not restrict wider public access to it in this curated form. McFall’s comments on economization stress the role of cultural intermediaries in the life cycle of how things “move in and out of being economic.” With content curating there is a ‘rendering’ of content that sees it become significant in new contexts. Here, the obvious relationship may be between Couzins and his clients. The references to transparent relationships and thanking the ‘supply chain’ show that relationships with content producers are also crucial and that the content curator needs to be continually connecting. Curating Literacies and Co-Creation In the earlier discussion of cultural intermediaries we addressed framing and how judgements can shape legitimacy, desirability and worth. With the content curating cultural intermediary practices under discussion here, a different perspective is possible in which subject specialist knowledge and expertise may not necessarily be the primary driver behind clients’ needs. The role of the content curator as cultural intermediary here is still in the rendering of content. However, it does not specifically involve the selecting content but guiding others in the framing and circulation of content. Where the concern of the client is finding appropriate ways to share the materials that they identify, then the content curator may not need subject-specialist knowledge. Here the interest in the content curating service is on the curating processes and practices, rather than content knowledge. Couzins’ account revealed that in some cases the intermediary’s role is not about the selection of material, but in the framing of material already selected by clients for wider engagement: “People internally will decide what to share and tell you why it’s worth looking at. Basically, it’s making them look like they know what they’re talking about, building their credibility.” The content curator role here does not concern selecting content, but offering guidance on how to frame it. As such, there remains a crucial “rendering” role in which the content selected by clients becomes meaningful through the guidance and input of the professional content curator. Our interview exchange also identified another scenario of relationships in which the content curator has little involvement in either selecting or framing content. Part of the commercial activity explored in our interview included supporting staff within a client’s company to showcase their expertise and knowledge through both selecting and framing content. Specifically, as Couzins outlines, this could be undertaken as a bespoke face-to-face service with in-house training: I helped one client put a curation tool into their website enabling them to become the curators. I spent a lot of time talking to them about curation and their role as curators. We split curation into topics of interest – based on the client’s area of expertise - which would be useful both internally for personal/professional development and externally for business development by sharing content relevant for their customers. In this respect, the service provided by the content curator involves the sharing of their own curatorial expertise with clients in order that clients may undertake their own curatorial practice. There is for the client a similar concern with enhancing their social reputation and profile, but this approach stresses the expertise of clients in identifying and responding to their own content curating needs. In part this emphasis on the client’s selection of material is about the challenges of establishing and maintaining legitimacy as a content curator across several fields: “You can't begin to say you're an expert when you are not, because you'll be found out.” More than this though, it was an approach to content curating literacy. As Couzins state, “my view is that if people with the domain expertise have an interest in doing this […] then they should be doing it themselves. If you gave it to me I hold the keys to all your knowledge. Why would you want that?” The content curator and client exchange here is not restricted to gathering interests and then providing content. This scenario sees content curating as accessible, but also sees the curator in their continued role as cultural intermediary--where expertise is about mediation more than content. Returning to McFall’s comments on rendering as how things “move in and out of being economic”, our second understanding of content curating intermediaries directs attention away from what the things/content are to instead how those things move. Conclusion Set within debates and transformations around content and information abundance and filtering, this paper explored how the practices of filtering, finding, and sharing at the heart of content curating have much in common with the work of cultural intermediaries. Specifically, this paper identified two ways of understanding commercial content curating. Firstly, content curating involves the rendering of content, and the ability to succeed here relies on developing connections outside the curator-client dynamic. 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