The Royal Bank of Scotland

About: The Royal Bank of Scotland is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Swaption & Forward rate. The organization has 103 authors who have published 121 publications receiving 2377 citations.

Risk management, corporate governance, and bank performance in the financial crisis

Abstract: The recent financial crisis has raised several questions with respect to the corporate governance of financial institutions. This paper investigates whether risk management-related corporate governance mechanisms, such as for example the presence of a chief risk officer (CRO) in a bank’s executive board and whether the CRO reports to the CEO or directly to the board of directors, are associated with a better bank performance during the financial crisis of 2007/2008. We measure bank performance by buy-and-hold returns and ROE and we control for standard corporate governance variables such as CEO ownership, board size, and board independence. Most importantly, our results indicate that banks, in which the CRO directly reports to the board of directors and not to the CEO (or other corporate entities), exhibit significantly higher (i.e., less negative) stock returns and ROE during the crisis. In contrast, standard corporate governance variables are mostly insignificantly or even negatively related to the banks’ performance during the crisis.

Online transactions systems and methods

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to an online transaction method enacted between a first party and a second party, for example a customer and a bank respectively. The method of the embodiment includes the steps of the first party transmitting a transaction request comprising transaction details and the second party receiving the transaction request and generating, for the first party, an authentication request, comprising transaction details and challenge data. In order to increase the security of the overall transaction, the authentication request is adapted so that it is difficult for an automated process to use or modify information therein to generate a replacement authentication request. Such a method finds application in reducing the potential for a man-in-the-middle attack, wherein an intermediate, subversive process can behave as a legitimate second party in order to steal money from the first party.

The impact of assuming the primary caregiver role following traumatic spinal cord injury: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the spouse's experience

Abstract: This study aimed to explore the lived experience of assuming the primary caregiver role in a group of spouses of individuals living with a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) (injuries ranged from paraplegia to quadriplegia). Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 participants who were both the spouse and primary caregiver of an individual with a SCI; of these, 10 were female and 1 was male. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Here we present three inter-related master themes: 'The emotional impact of SCI'; 'Post-injury shift in relationship dynamics' and 'Impact of caregiving on identity'. Regarding the emotional impact of spinal injury, participants reported an almost instantaneous sense of loss, emptiness and grief during the injured person's rehabilitative period and feelings of anxiety were reported in anticipation of their return to the family home. A distinct change in role from spouse and lover to care provider was reported and this ultimately contributed to relationship change and a loss of former identity. The findings are discussed in relation to extant caregiver literature and recommendations for future caregiver support are highlighted.

Promoting end-of-life care in nursing homes using an ‘integrated care pathway for the last days of life’

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to promote quality end-of-life care in eight independent nursing homes using an ‘integrated care pathway (ICP) for the last days of life’ document. Action research methodology underpinned the design of this study in order to promote collaboration between staff in the nursing homes and the research team, empower staff in the practice of quality end-of-life care, and promote sustainable development of end-of-life care once the study finished. Considerable barriers within the nursing home context highlighted initial difficulties. This is reported elsewhere (Watson et al., in press) (Bridges Initiative, 2004). However, key champions appointed in each nursing home and their subsequent support was a major part of facilitating the ICP implementation. This paper reports the qualitative analysis from the summative evaluation of the study. One overarching pattern of ‘dying being more central to care in the nursing homes’ emerged as a result of the study; five themes that contributed to...

Optimizing SHA256 in Bitcoin Mining

Abstract: Bitcoin is a “crypto currency”, a decentralized electronic payment scheme based on cryptography. It implements a particular type of peer-to-peer payment system. Bitcoin depends on well-known cryptographic standards such as SHA-256. In this paper we revisit the cryptographic process which allows one to make money by producing new bitcoins. We reformulate this problem as a specific sort of Constrained Input Small Output (CISO) hashing problem and reduce the problem to a pure block cipher problem, cf. Fig. 1. We estimate the speed of this process and we show that the amortized cost of this process is less than it seems and it depends on a certain cryptographic constant which is estimated to be at most 1.89. These optimizations enable bitcoin miners to save countless millions of dollars per year in electricity bills.