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This study aims to expand the current knowledge of the Six Sigma approach in a period of time when there is little direct evidence of the need to improve the credit card account opening process. This is an important but neglected area of focus in the Six Sigma literature. This study explores the extent to which process improvement practices are extended to the credit card department.

A case study methodology is adopted in this study to facilitate an exploration of the implemented Six Sigma approach in the credit card department of a leading commercial bank. The process improvement tool used is the define, measure, analyze, improve and control (DMAIC) cycle.

The study’s results confirm that the Six Sigma approach improves the quality of the credit card account opening process. So, the Six Sigma approach can account for a reduced number of keying-in errors, resulting in better data accuracy and improved customer satisfaction.

The authors, in an attempt to render the study results more feasible for data collection, have chosen to focus on the process of the new accounts unit of the credit card department. Therefore, the authors have not taken into account the other units (e.g. transaction processing) of the same department.

The results of this study will be useful in persuading bank management to evaluate and implement the Six Sigma approach. Hence, this research will assist bank managers with replies to questions, such as: “What impact will Six Sigma have on process-centric improvement, such as the new accounts opening process of a credit card department?”

Within the literature on the Six Sigma practice, there is little research that focuses on the implementation of this particular toolset especially for credit card departments. This indicates a gap in the field. A new contribution to bridging that gap comes from the analysis of the results for the Six Sigma concept, which addresses the new accounts opening process.

On 1 January 1981, banks and savings and loans in the United States started to compete nationwide for chequing account deposits. Prior to this date, in areas outside the New England region, banks and credit unions were the only institutions allowed to offer transaction accounts. A study carried out to compare the relative competitive advantages of banks and savings and loans institutions is reported.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the identity and payment method verification procedures implemented by a number of popular massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) and online financial service providers (OFSPs) to determine if the systems they currently have in place are sufficient to uncover the identities of those who may wish to use such environments to conduct money laundering or terrorism financing activity.

The paper investigates whether the payment instruments or methods used by account holders to place funds into their account(s) hinder or assist investigators to expose the real‐world identity of the account holder. The paper then discusses whether it is feasible and/or desirable to introduce know your customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD) legislation into virtual environments and illustrates an effective KYC approach which may assist MMOGs and OFSPs to correctly identify their account holders, should legislation be put in place.

The systems currently in place by all of the MMOGs investigated are wholly inadequate to successfully establish the real‐world identities of account holders. None of the information required at the account setup stage is verified and, therefore, cannot be reliably associated with an account holder in a real‐world context. It appears that all three of the MMOGs investigated are leaving the serious matter of identity and payment method verification to the organisations that assist in the sale and purchase of their in‐world currency such as third party currency exchanges and Internet payment systems (collectively referred to as OFSPs). However, many of these OFSPs do not have adequate systems in place to successfully verify the identities of their account holders or users either. The authors' experiments show that it can be a very simple process to open accounts and perform financial transactions with all of the OFSPs investigated using publicly available or fictitious identity information and a prepaid Visa® gift card. Although all five OFSPs investigated in this research claim to verify the identity of their account holders, and may already be subject to KYC and CDD legislation, their systems may need some work to ensure that an account holder or user is accurately identified before financial transactions can take place.

The authors believe that the electronic KYC approach discussed in this paper deals effectively with the challenges of global reach, anonymity and non‐face‐to‐face business relationships experienced by virtual environment operators, thereby assisting in the effective detection and possible prosecution of individuals who wish to use these platforms for illicit and illegal purposes.

Discusses the increasing school‐leaving population and the number of school children entering full‐time further education, and the proportion of school‐leavers in full‐time further education remaining constant and around 21/22 percent. Proposes that UK clearing banks should be targeting these young people to open accounts with their grant cheques, therefore perhaps persuading them to say with the banks after graduation. States that specialist student advisers, or officers, may be seen as key personnel by helping banks to establish and maintain a ‘feel good’ image with students, showing that banks understand the relevant needs of young people, and providing a good service to them. Concludes that it is not surprising that banks are, in general, turning attention more to school leavers, and in particular to those reaching early employment.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the anti-money laundering measures of the UK and Nigeria, to determine what the best approach is. The best approach is likely the one that strikes a fair balance between protecting the financial system against money laundering and promoting financial inclusion.

This paper relies mainly on primary and secondary data drawn from the public domain. It also relies on documentary research.

This paper critically analysed the anti-money laundering measures of the UK and Nigeria to determine that the anti-money laundering measures of Nigeria does not strike a fair balance between protecting the financial system against money laundering and promoting financial inclusion because it does not expressly provide for verification of a customer’s identity at the account opening stage for low risk accounts. The paper, however, determined that the anti-money laundering measures of the UK does strike a fair balance between protecting the financial system against money laundering and promoting financial inclusion because it requires customer identification and verification before the establishment of a business relationship for customers who want to open a basic bank account.

This paper focuses on the anti-money laundering and financial inclusion measures in the UK’s Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism in Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria) Regulations, 2013.

This paper offers a critical analysis of the anti-money laundering and financial inclusion measures of the UK and Nigeria as provided in the UK’s Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism in Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria) Regulations, 2013. The paper will provide recommendations on how the measures could be strengthened. This is the only article to adopt this kind of approach.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level and nature of criminal abuse of financial products that are classified as posing a low anti‐money laundering/combating of financing of terrorists (AML/CFT) risk in South Africa to determine the effectiveness of the simplified due diligence measures that apply to these products.

The paper presents empirical research on the views of bank officials and law enforcement officials regarding the criminal abuse of South African financial products that are subject to simplified customer due diligence controls.

South Africa's AML/CFT laws allow certain deposit‐taking institutions and money remitters to implement simplified customer due diligence measures in relation to specific low‐risk products that are mainly designed to allow previously unbanked persons to access financial services. The paper finds that the products have been abused by criminals but that the incidence of such abuse and the amounts involved are low. The paper investigates possible weaknesses in the current system that allow limited criminal abuse to occur. It concludes with a number of guidelines that emerge from the study and are of value to regulators that wish to implement a similar system.

The South African AML/CFT scheme in relation to low‐risk products is of interest to many international regulators that are grappling with the interplay between effective AML/CFT controls and the impact of strict controls on the ability of socially and economically excluded persons to access appropriate financial services. This paper provides evidence that appropriately designed controls can facilitate financial inclusion while limiting the risk of criminal abuse.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical reflection on how ongoing revolutionary technological changes can extend the possibilities of accounting into artistic spaces. In addition, arts ability to protest, challenge, open and inspire may be instrumental to humanise technological advances transforming the accounting profession.

This paper draws upon the methodological, theoretical and empirical literature of accounting, technology and art and outlines a research and professional agenda for developing the role of art in the context of accounting and technology.

The authors unravel and navigate the paradoxical “in-between” of art, accounting and technology. It emerges that the transformative power of new technologies lies not only in the technologies themselves but also in their ability to extend the possibilities of accounting into the artistic spaces of visualisation, curation performance and disruption. New technologies, combined with artistic spaces, present a unique ability to open up the latent disruptive potential of accounting itself, pushing accounting in new directions towards more humanistic models of multiple narratives.

The insights of this paper are relevant to open professional and scholarly dialogue that relates accounting, art and technologies during a significant period of disruptive and transformative technological changes. This paper provides new understandings of how art through visualisation, curation, performance and disruption can force accounting researchers and practitioners to challenge the traditionally held views of accounting, opening us towards more futuristic models of accountability.

The anti‐money‐laundering provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 (the “Patriot Act”) continue to cause a profound transformation in the way the United States investment industry conducts its business. Over the past year under the authority of the Patriot Act, which amended the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”), the United States Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) and the relevant federal regulators have issued rules requiring a broad range of compliance mechanisms, including: the establishment of anti‐money‐laundering (“AML”) programs; the filing of suspicious activity reports; the prohibition against providing financial services to foreign shell banks (i.e., banks without physical locations); the maintenance of records with respect to accounts for foreign banks; and the sharing of transactional information among financial institutions and between financial institutions and law enforcement.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the management accounting practice in an organisational unit affects the ability to conduct inter‐organisational control.

Governmentality is used as the main theoretical basis for the interpretation of empirical data. A qualitative case study is used to gather information from an electronics company.

The company enters its inter‐organisational relationships with the ambition of being in power in the relationship. To begin with, management accounting plays a central role in the negotiation process. Due to inadequate management accounting practices, the company is unable to include cost information in their response to proposals made by their suppliers during negotiations. Consequently, the cost aspect of the product fades away from negotiations as they progress.

The study concludes that an important part of management accounting practice is to reveal the intra‐organisational cost consequences of proposals made by suppliers during negotiation processes. These cost consequences are central during negotiation processes since they will keep the focus on costs and cost improvements during the negotiation process. The study indicates that accounting technologies and the physical presence of the management accountant are not sufficient to keep costs on the agenda. Constant cost consciousness requires that the management accountant actively takes part in the joint problem solving process.

The purpose of this paper is to review the current research program in agonistic dialogic accounting and to reflect on future possibilities for broadening out and opening up accounting and accountability systems, especially as they relate to social and environmental accounting (SEA).

The authors describe an ethic of accountability as a context for dialogue and debate intended to broaden out and open up new imaginings of accounting for democracy. The authors review the accounting literature addressing dialogic accounting and agonistics as the precursor of what has evolved into agonistic dialogic accounting. The authors discuss their work to date on agonistic pluralism and engagement, recognizing the necessity of linking the normative framework to an effective political program. The authors review prior studies applying science and technology studies that have addressed these issues.

The authors consider how the application of agonistic ideas might facilitate the development of multiple accountings that take pluralism seriously by addressing constituencies and perspectives often marginalized in both SEA and mainstream accounting. An ethic of accountability and science and technology studies are useful for stimulating dialogue and debate regarding democratic and civil society institutions as they relate to economic entities, especially corporations.

Agonistic dialogic accounting in conjunction with other disciplines such as science and technology studies can be used in formulating, implementing and evaluating policy for advancing a progressive social agenda.

A reflective view of the current work in agonistic dialogic accounting highlights considerations for further research regarding the possible interdisciplinary work particularly with science and technology studies in broadening out and opening up accounting and accountability systems as facilitators of progressive social agenda.