European Business Organization Law Review 

About: European Business Organization Law Review is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): European Union law & Corporate governance. It has an ISSN identifier of 1566-7529. Over the lifetime, 656 publications have been published receiving 5468 citations. The journal is also known as: EBOR.

Sustainability, FinTech and Financial Inclusion

Abstract: We argue financial technology (FinTech) is the key driver for financial inclusion, which in turn underlies sustainable balanced development, as embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The full potential of FinTech to support the SDGs may be realized with a progressive approach to the development of underlying infrastructure to support digital financial transformation. Our research suggests that the best way to think about such a strategy is to focus on four primary pillars. The first pillar requires the building of digital identity, simplified account opening and e-KYC systems, supported by the second pillar of open interoperable electronic payments systems. The third pillar involves using the infrastructure of the first and second pillars to underpin electronic provision of government services and payments. The fourth pillar—design of digital financial markets and systems—supports broader access to finance and investment. Implementing the four pillars is a major journey for any economy, but one which has tremendous potential to transform not only finance but economies and societies, through FinTech, financial inclusion and sustainable balanced development.

Patterns of Legal Change: Shareholder and Creditor Rights in Transition Economies

Abstract: The reform of the enterprise sector in the former socialist countries has been at the core of the economic reform programs, which were launched ten years ago, beginning in Poland and followed by other governments throughout the region. A key element of the enterprise reform package was privatisation. Depending on the country and the specific area of the law in question, this reform measure was preceded, accompanied, or followed by legal reforms. Legal reforms in the region have been comprehensive and affected not only areas immediately relevant for the enterprise sector, but the entire legal system ranging from constitutional, administrative, criminal and civil law to the organization and procedural rules of the court system. This paper focuses on laws that are immediately relevant for the restructuring and financing of enterprises, in particular the rights of shareholders as stipulated in company laws, securities regulations, and the right of creditors as holders of collateral and in bankruptcy. The paper investigates the patterns of legal change in these areas of the law and identifies key determinants of legal change. The method employed is a formalised comparison of legal change based on pre-defined legal indicators. A data base was constructed, which codes the development of shareholder and creditor rights from 1990 through 1998 for 24 transition economies (excluding only Serbia, Tadjikistan and Turkmenistan). The paper joins a growing literature that uses cross-country formalised legal indicators to investigate the interaction between legal and economic change using statistical tools. It introduces the data used and descriptively analyses the patterns of legal change that can be observed. A statistical analysis of the interaction between legal and economic change is addressed in a separate paper.

The New Institutional Economics: Its Start, its Meaning, its Prospects

Abstract: This article first describes the history of the use of the term ‘new institutional economics’ (NIE) since its introduction by Oliver Williamson. It shows how the term has evolved from a generic term to a standard term on the basis of NIE conference publications and collective volumes that appeared between 1984 and 1997. In 1997, the International Society for New Institutional Economics was founded. Ronald Coase, Douglass North and Oliver Williamson were the driving force behind this development. In the second part of this article, the meaning of the NIE is outlined according to the basic concepts of Williamson and North. The ideas of these two protagonists are compared with each other and their better-known criticisms are described and assessed. The final part of the article deals with possibilities for broadening and deepening the objectives and analytical style of the NIE. It concludes with the observation that the potentialities of the NIE are far from being exhausted.

Corporate Governance of Banks

Abstract: Good corporate governance of banks is of a vital concern to banks themselves as well as to the banking supervisors. During the past decade, listed banks and even non-listed institutions worldwide started to publicly emphasise that good corporate governance is of vital concern for the company, and even to adopt individualised corporate governance codices. In turn, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision already published two editions of a guideline entitled ‘Enhancing corporate governance for banking organisations’ which reflects the supervisors’ taking on the issue to perfection. Last but not least, two years into the financial crisis, the issue of banks’ good corporate governance has started to attract pronounced interest, with the OECD taking a leading role. Against this backdrop, the article, on the one hand, discusses the particularities of banks’ corporate governance — due in large part to banking regulation and to deposit insurance — in a principal-agent framework, and, on the other hand, presents the supervisors’ financial stability perspective taking the Basel Committee’s guidance as a starting point. The article concludes with reflections on some tentative lessons from the current crisis for (banks’) good corporate governance: banks’ corporate governance differs from that of a generic firm. Deposit insurance and prudential regulation, while aimed at compensating for deficits in the monitoring and control of banks, both act to exacerbate the particular problems that are inherent in banks’ corporate governance. From this perspective, banking regulation and banks’ corporate governance interact as the driving forces of a vicious circle that produces ever more regulation. Hence, one may doubt whether banks’ corporate governance should map the way forward for corporate governance in general. In particular, this holds true for the way forward to regulating bankers’ pay.

The End of ‘Corporate’ Governance: Hello ‘Platform’ Governance

Abstract: In a technology-driven, digital world, many of the largest and most successful businesses now operate as ‘platforms’. Such firms leverage networked technologies to facilitate economic exchange, transfer information, connect people, and make predictions. Platform companies are already disrupting multiple industries, including retail, hotels, taxis, and others, and are aggressively moving into new sectors, such as financial services. This paper examines the distinctive features of this new business model and its implications for regulation, notably corporate governance. In particular, the paper suggests that a tension exists between the incentives created by modern corporate governance and the business needs of today’s platforms. The current regulatory framework promotes an unhealthy ‘corporate’ attitude that is failing platforms, and a new direction (what we term ‘platform governance’) is urgently required. In identifying this new regulatory direction, the paper considers how firms might develop as successful platforms. Although there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, the paper describes three interconnected strategies: (1) leveraging current and near-future digital technologies to create more ‘community-driven’ forms of organization; (2) building an ‘open and accessible platform culture’; and (3) facilitating the creation, curation, and consumption of meaningful ‘content’. The paper concludes that jurisdictions that are the most successful in designing a new ‘platform governance’ based on the promotion of these strategies will be the primary beneficiaries of the digital transformation.