Business and Management (R0)

This is an Open Access book.

Hoping to incubate a unique idea about workplace design, Dr. Agustin Chevez walked in isolation for 42 days from Melbourne to Sydney. His pilgrimage delivered 34 Signposts, a collection of insights which hold the promise to guide us to a better place to work.

While firmly positioned within the shifting context of work, the Signposts point away from reactive solutions with a short shelf life. Instead, these markers are infused with a diversity of thought instilled by Agustin’s pilgrimage and reclaim the forgotten qualities of solitude, boredom, adversity, and absurdity as mechanisms to deliver innovation and create improved working environments. 

On his way to Sydney Agustin relied on maps and people with local knowledge of the lands he traversed. Similarly, in this book, he consults people with local knowledge in various design disciplines, management, and technology as he navigates the many regions of the workplace and work practices covered by the Signposts. When he reaches the end of the known trails, he starts laying paths that take us closer to where the Signposts converge.

“This book takes about three hours to read, and it could take a lifetime to fully extract all the benefits that it contains. This does not suggest that there are not immediate benefits available from reflecting on and applying the Signposts that are core to the book's intellectual contribution.”
                                                                       - Peer Review extract

This book discusses all aspects of money laundering, starting from traditional approach to financial crimes to artificial intelligence-enabled solutions. It also discusses the regulators approach to curb financial crimes and how syndication among financial institutions can create a robust ecosystem for monitoring and managing financial crimes. It opens with an introduction to financial crimes for a financial institution, the context of financial crimes, and its various participants. Various types of money laundering, terrorist financing, and dealing with watch list entities are also part of the discussion. Through its twelve chapters, the book provides an overview of ways in which financial institutions deal with financial crimes; various IT solutions for monitoring and managing financial crimes; data organization and governance in the financial crimes context; machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in financial crimes; customer-level transaction monitoring system; machine learning-driven alert optimization; AML investigation; bias and ethical pitfalls in machine learning; and enterprise-level AI-driven Financial Crime Investigation (FCI) unit. There is also an Appendix which contains a detailed review of various data sciences approaches that are popular among practitioners.

The book discusses each topic through real-life experiences. It also leverages the experience of Chief Compliance Officers of some large organizations to showcase real challenges that heads of large organizations face while dealing with this sensitive topic. It thus delivers a hands-on guide for setting up, managing, and transforming into a best-in-class financial crimes management unit. It is thus an invaluable resource for researchers, students, corporates, and industry watchers alike.

Technological innovation has been a major catalyst for the financial sector's progression, leading to the emergence of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending as a novel source of small-scale funding. This book undertakes a comprehensive examination of the regulatory framework governing P2P lending in Vietnam, illuminating the diversification of risks inherent in this lending industry.

While P2P lending is anticipated to address the credit gap and enhance financial inclusion in Vietnam, it concomitantly poses potential risks for all stakeholders. Utilizing fundamental economic tools, the book conducts a comprehensive analysis, demonstrating that apprehensions regarding these risks are not inflated.

In the context of the Vietnamese government's endeavors to identify legal solutions to P2P lending operations, the book undertakes a comparative analysis of risk diversification strategies in micro- and/or small-sized financing schemes in Vietnam, the United States, and Japan. The book's proposed solution to mitigate risks for lenders in P2P lending through a collective funding scheme draws from legislative experiences in the United States and Japan, and it further explores how this innovative approach benefits borrowers and platform service providers, ensuring a balanced and secure lending environment.

The book aims to contribute to the literature on regulatory practices for small finance in Vietnam and emerging markets, providing insights and practical solutions for effective regulation.