Search results

Banditry and terrorism constitute serious security risks in Nigeria. This follows the fact that Nigeria is rated as one of the leading states in the world that is plagued by terrorism. Terrorists and bandits usually embark on predicate crimes such as kidnapping, smuggling, narcotics trade, and similar trades to finance their terrorist enterprises in Nigeria. The funds realized by criminals from nefarious sources such as sales of narcotics and ransom from kidnapping are usually laundered to make their criminal enterprises self-sustaining. Thus, all “dirty” money is laundered so as not to attract the attention of law enforcement agents. The funds realized through receipt of ransom from kidnapping, smuggling or funds from sponsors are laundered through channels such as bureau de change, which are difficult to monitor by the Nigerian authorities due, in part, to flaws and loopholes in the current anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist laws. This paper aims to adopt a doctrinal and qualitative desktop research methodology. In this regard, the current anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist laws are discussed to explore possible measures that could be adopted to remedy the flaws and loopholes in such laws and combat money laundering and financing of terrorism in Nigeria.

The article analyses the regulation and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria. In this regard, a doctrinal and qualitative research method is used to explore the flaws in the Nigerian anti-money laundering laws so as to recommend possible remedies in respect thereof.

It is hoped that policymakers and other relevant persons will use the recommendations provided in this article to enhance the curbing of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria.

The article is not based on empirical research.

This study is important and vital to all policymakers, lawyers, law students and regulatory bodies in Nigeria and other countries globally.

The study seeks to curb money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria.

The study is based on original research which is focused on the regulation and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria.

This study examines the role of institutions and governance on the digital financial inclusion and economic growth nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 2014 to 2020.

This study adopts the generalised method of moments technique which controls for endogeneity. The authors employed four main variables namely, index of digital financial inclusion, gross domestic product per capita growth, institutions and governance.

The results suggest a significant positive effect of institutional quality and governance on the digital financial inclusion-economic growth nexus in SSA. Furthermore, the authors find that effect of trade and population growth on economic growth was significantly positive while inflation reduces economic growth in the region.

This study also ignored the effect of digital financial inclusion on environmental quality. Future researches should focus on addressing these drawbacks and replicating the study in Africa as a whole and other developing countries across the world that are experiencing digital financial inclusion and economic growth challenges. The results from the study imply that a positive relationship between digital financial inclusion and economic growth. It is important to note that the study was carried out on the premise that institutions play a pivotal role in enhancing economic growth in SSA.

The results confirm the significance of policies that enhances institutional quality and governance which are other avenues the authorities can pursue to enhance economic growth in SSA.

The paper documents the importance of institutions in boosting economic growth which impacts on social life rather than digital financial inclusion only.

The paper makes a contribution through analysing the role of institutions and governance on the digital financial inclusion-economic growth nexus rather than the traditional financial inclusion–economic growth nexus which is common to the majority of the available empirical studies.

The market for counterfeit goods worldwide has continued to grow significantly over the years, attracting the curiosity of researchers in the marketing field. This study aimed to analyse the influence of price-quality inference and attitudes towards economic rewards of purchasing counterfeit products on the intentions to purchase non-deceptive counterfeit products.

The research adopted a quantitative methodology and utilised the cross-sectional survey method to collect data from a sample of 381 respondents comprising university students. The data was then analysed using the computer software Smart PLS 4.

The results established that the respondents’ price-quality inference of counterfeit products was positively associated with the attitudes towards economic rewards of purchasing counterfeit products and intention to purchase counterfeit products. Furthermore, the study revealed that attitudes towards economic rewards of purchasing counterfeit products partially mediated the influence of price-quality inference on customer intention to acquire non-deceptive counterfeit goods. A multigroup analysis of the proposed relationship did not find any statistically significant differences in the pattern of results concerning the gender groups.

The significance of the study findings is hampered by the singular focus on university students as a reference point for young people’s perceptions of counterfeit goods in South Africa. The study, however, presents verifiable evidence that marketers and brand managers of genuine products may utilise to develop intervention measures to sway young African consumers away from counterfeits and towards genuine brands.

This is one of the few studies in the literature that addresses young adults’ deliberate purchasing of non-deceptive counterfeits in South Africa, an important consumer market in Africa.

This study aims to understand consumer behaviour in the context of online food delivery (OFD), especially given the mandatory lockdown imposed in some countries that have modified the behaviour of consumers. Using model goal-directed behaviour (MGB), this study was conducted to investigate consumer perceived risk on the use of OFD services.

Responses of food delivery services users were collected online throughout April 2020 to understand their risk profile and behaviour. A total of 339 responses were collected and subsequently analysed using partial least square (PLS). Both measurement and structural model were evaluated to ensure that the structural equation modelling (SEM) is valid.

The results revealed that attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), positive anticipated emotion (PAE) and negative anticipated emotion (NAE) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) significantly influenced users' desire. It was also found that PBC significantly influenced users' intention. The empirical result suggests that performance, privacy, financial, physical and the risk of contracting COVID-19 negatively influenced users' desire. In contrast, only physical and the risk of contracting COVID-19 negatively influenced users' intention to use OFD services.

These findings provide OFD service providers and scholars with significant insights into what compels urbanites to adopt OFD services amid a health pandemic. It also allows OFD companies to realign their operation in addressing these concerns and changes in consumer behaviour.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, this study provides insights for OFD providers in developing new strategies and approaches for business development and consumer retention in a post-pandemic world.

本研究擬瞭解與網上訂餐相關的消費行為；尤其當有些國家推行了改變消費者行為的強制性封鎖政策的情況下，這類研究更具意義。透過應用目標導向行為模型，本研究擬探討消費者在使用網上訂餐服務時所意識到的風險。

研究人員於 2020年4月網上收集使用訂餐服務人士的意見，以瞭解其風險狀況和行為。研究共收集了339位人士的意見，並以偏最小二乘法進行分析。測量和結構模型均加以評估，以確保結構方程模型是站得住腳的。

研究結果顯示，態度、主觀規範、預期的正面和負面情緒、以及感知的行為控制，顯著地影響了用戶的慾望。研究結果亦發現，感知的行為控制顯著地影響了用戶的意圖。研究的經驗性結果暗示了表現、私隱、金錢上的爭議、可能會導致的身體損傷和感染2019冠狀病毒病的風險，負面地影響用戶的慾望。相比之下，影響著用戶使用網上訂餐服務的意圖的因素就只有可能會導致的身體損傷和感染2019冠狀病毒病的風險。

研究的結果，為提供網上訂餐服務的營運者和研究學者提供了重要的啟示，使他們更瞭解是什麼因素會迫使都市人在與健康息息相關的大流行病期間使用網上訂餐服務。而且，提供網上訂餐服務的公司亦可藉此重新調整其營運，以能處理客戶的憂慮和應付消費行為的變化。

在大流行病肆虐的背景下，本研究為網上訂餐服務提供者給予了啟示，以便他們能在後疫情時代制定新的策略和營運方法，以拓展其業務和留住消費者。

This chapter examines representations of gender in online modafinil markets. While gender has often been absent from scholarship on online drug markets, our analysis demonstrates the ubiquity of gender in representations of modafinil users and sellers. The analysis draws on visual images, blogs, and marketing emails relating to three websites selling modafinil, discussed pseudonymously. We describe the range of ways that notions of gender are represented in advertising. Although women represent around 40% of that buying modafinil online, websites and communications tended not to feature women. Although sexist stereotypes of women were rarely present (in contrast to direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising), the ways that modafinil was imagined tended to focus narrowly on corporate spheres of work and productivity. We contrast this narrow imaginary with female journalists’ own accounts of using modafinil to manage illness and enhance creativity. Thus, we conclude that the ways that modafinil has been imagined reflects working assumptions as to who is considered the ‘normal’ participant in online modafinil markets.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyze impacts of the monetary policy (MP) – money aggregate and interest rate – on the exchange rate in Vietnam.

The study uses data over the period of 2008–2018 and applies the vector autoregression model, namely recursive restriction and sign restriction approaches.

The main empirical findings are as follows: a contraction of the money aggregate significantly leads to the real effective exchange rate (REER) depreciating and then appreciating; a tightening of the interest rate immediately causes the REER appreciating and then depreciating; and both the money aggregate and the interest rate strongly determine fluctuations of the REER.

The quantitative results imply that the MP affects the REER considerably.

Response to suggestion that EU-wide cash payment limits would assist in the control of terrorism finance and money laundering.

Desk review and interviews

The inception impact assessment (IIA) is ill-conceived, not grounded on firm empirical evidence and harmful to both crime control and the legitimate interests and rights of the EU citizens. The action under discussion is presented as a measure against terrorism finance, serious crime and tax evasion. The problem is that these criminal acts correspond to very different methods, volumes, perpetrators, causes and control challenges. Cash payment limitations (CPLs) are nowhere near a panacea that can address all of them and cannot make any of them go away magically. Even when each of these crime challenges are considered on their own, the empirical linkage of CPLs to effective controls is not there. The evidence from EU countries with CPLs in place shows higher levels of informal economy, corruption, tax evasion and terrorism risks than those without. There is substantial evidence of non-cash, very serious and organized crime, while the amounts needed and used by terrorists in Europe are usually very small in cash transactions, way below the thresholds under consideration. In fact, determined offenders will shift to other methods and become more sophisticated, posing new problems to controllers. Displacement and incentives for better-organized crime may well be the main products of such measures.

It counters the argument that the cash payment limits can help reduce serious crime, while pointing to several adverse consequences on legitimate interests and human rights.

The purpose of this paper is to map anti-money laundering policy and its impact on money laundering. The AML system is discussed from the perspective of the compliance officer, who is responsible for translating AML law into practice in Belgian banks.

Literature review, based largely on a PhD study (2009) that involved a survey and interviews. Additionally, 12 compliance officers were interviewed in 2015.

The global AML system impacts significantly on issues of privacy and due process but has not yet been evaluated. The system’s preventive effect is difficult to measure because of a lack of (cross-border) information. The way in which Risks are currently managed in diverse ways.

Results from the first study in 2009 (based on interviews in 2007-2008) were potentially outdated. This recent update (2015) confirms that compliance officers are still dealing with the same issues.

The study clarifies the ways in which compliance and AML is dealt with and mapped, providing insights into an often closed setting.

The battle against money laundering is very costly and intrusive, making the need for stringent evaluation more pressing.

The study is both original and valuable because compliance officers have rarely been the subject of research. The study discloses useful information about their role.

This paper analyzes variations in the effects of monetary and fiscal shocks on responses of macroeconomic variables, determinacy region, and welfare costs due to changes in trend inflation.

The authors develop the New-Keynesian model, in which the central banks can employ either nominal interest rate (IR rule) or money supply (MS rule) to conduct monetary policies. They also use their capital and recurrent spending budgets to conduct fiscal policies. By using the simulated method of moment (SMM) for parameter estimation, the authors characterize Vietnam's economy during 1996Q1–2015Q1.

The results report that consequences of monetary policy and fiscal policy shocks become more serious if there is a rise in trend inflation. Furthermore, the money supply might not be an effective instrument, and using the government budget for recurrent spending produces severe consequences in the high-trend inflation economy.

This paper's findings are critical for economists and monetary and fiscal authorities in effectively designing both the monetary and fiscal policies in confronting the shift in the inflation targets.

This is the first paper that examines the effects of trend inflation on the monetary and fiscal policy implementation in the case of Vietnam.

The aim of the paper is to examine the various aspects of the 1MDB scandal including the extent and types of corruption that occurred and the action taken to deal with them. In doing this, the paper seeks to identify the reasons for the scandal and the lessons that can be learnt to avoid such a scandal in Malaysia and elsewhere in the future.

The research for the paper is based on evidence from court hearings, reports of watchdog and regulatory agencies, media reports, and various articles and books written about 1MDB.

The paper shows that most of the scandal involved embezzlement, bribery, false declarations and bond mispricing relating to extensive borrowing by 1MDB, and entailed a global network of shell companies and individuals through which the illicit money was passed. It also shows weak governance in 1MDB, poor internal controls within banks, the failure of watchdog and enforcement bodies to take the necessary action partly due to political control over them, and overall the lack of political will to deal with the scandal.

The paper builds on the findings of other papers and books written on the 1MDB scandal. It does this by linking the corruption to the borrowings of 1MDB, the international network of money-laundering and bribery through which illicit money flowed, and the poor internal controls in the organisation. It also builds on previous research by highlighting the failure of banks to identify money-laundering and of watchdog and enforcement bodies to deal with the corruption. A further value of the paper is to identify the lessons that can be learnt about combatting corruption on such a scale.