Find Right Finance

Monday, March 9, 2009

Find Right Finance,

Campaign finance refers to the means by which money is raised for election campaigns. As campaigns have many expenditures, ranging from the cost of travel for the candidate and others to the purchasing of air time for TV advertisements, candidates often devote substantial time and effort raising money to finance campaigns.

Although the political science literature indicates that most contributors give to support candidates with whom they are already in agreement,[1] there is wide public perception that donors expect illegitimate government favors in return. (such as specific legislation being enacted or defeated) so some have come to equate campaign finance with political corruption and bribery[citation needed]. These views have led some governments to reform fundraising sources and techniques in the hope of eliminating perceived undue influence being given to monied interests. Another tactic is for the government, rather than private individuals and organizations, to provide funding for campaigns.

Democratic countries have differing regulations on what types of donations to political parties and campaigns are acceptable.

The causes and effects of different campaign finance rules are studied in a number of disciplines including political science, economics and public policy.

Some democracies rely heavily on private donors to finance political campaigns. In these countries, fundraising is often a significant activity for the campaign staff and the candidate, especially in larger and more prominent campaigns. For example, one survey in the United States found that 23% of candidates for statewide office surveyed say that they spent more than half of their scheduled time raising money, and over half of all candidates surveyed spent at least 1/4 of their time on fundraising. The tactics used can include direct mail solicitation, attempts to encourage supporters to contribute via the Internet, direct solicitation from the candidate, and events specifically for the purpose of fundraising, or other activities.

Most countries that rely on private donations to fund campaigns require extensive disclosure of donations, frequently including information such as the name, employer and address of donors. This is intended to allow for policing of undue donor influence by other campaigns or by good government groups, while preserving most benefits of private financing, including the right to make donations and to spend money for political speech, saving government the expense of funding campaigns, and keeping government from funding partisan speech that some citizens may find odious (see ). Supporters of private financing systems believe that, in addition to avoiding government limitations on speech, private financing fosters civic involvement, ensures that a diversity of views are heard, and prevents government from tilting the scales to favor those in power or with political influence.

Public financing
Other countries choose to use government funding to run campaigns. Funding campaigns from the government budget is widespread in South America and Europe.The mechanisms for this can be quite varied, ranging from direct subsidy of political parties to government matching funds for certain types of private donations (often small donations) and many other systems as well. Supporters of government financing generally believe that the system decreases corruption; in addition, many proponents believe that government financing promotes other values, such as civic participation or greater faith in the political process. Not all government subsidies take the form of money; some systems require campaign materials (often air time on television) to be provided at very low rates to the candidates. Critics sometimes complain of the expense of the government financing systems. Libertarian critics of the system argue that government should not subsidize political speech. Other critics argue that government financing, with its emphasis on equalizing money resources, merely exaggerates differences in non-monetary resources.

In many countries, such as Germany and the United States, campaigns can be funded by a combination of private and public money.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Many Other types of bank services

The primary operations of banks include:

Keeping money safe while also allowing withdrawals when needed
Issuance of checkbooks so that bills can be paid and other kinds of payments can be delivered by post
Provide personal loans, commercial loans, and mortgage loans (typically loans to purchase a home, property or business)
Issuance of credit cards and processing of credit card transactions and billing
Issuance of debit cards for use as a substitute for checks
Allow financial transactions at branches or by using Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs)
Provide wire transfers of funds and Electronic fund transfers between banks
Facilitation of standing orders and direct debits, so payments for bills can be made automatically
Provide overdraft agreements for the temporary advancement of the Bank's own money to meet monthly spending commitments of a customer in their current account.
Provide Charge card advances of the Bank's own money for customers wishing to settle credit advances monthly.
Provide a check guaranteed by the Bank itself and prepaid by the customer, such as a cashier's check or certified check.
Notary service for financial and other documents

Other types of bank services
Private banking - Private banks provide banking services exclusively to high net worth individuals. Many financial services firms require a person or family to have a certain minimum net worth to qualify for private banking services. Private banks often provide more personal services, such as wealth management and tax planning, than normal retail banks.
Capital market bank - bank that underwrite debt and equity, assist company deals (advisory services, underwriting and advisory fees), and restructure debt into structured finance products.
Bank cards - include both credit cards and debit cards. Bank Of America is the largest issuer of bank cards.
Credit card machine services and networks - Companies which provide credit card machine and payment networks call themselves "merchant card providers".

Foreign exchange services
Foreign exchange services are provided by many banks around the world. Foreign exchange services include:

Currency Exchange - where clients can purchase and sell foreign currency banknotes
Wire transfer - where clients can send funds to international banks abroad
Foreign Currency Banking - banking transactions are done in foreign currency

Investment services
Asset management - the term usually given to describe companies which run collective investment funds.
Hedge fund management - Hedge funds often employ the services of "prime brokerage" divisions at major investment banks to execute their trades.
Custody services - Custody services and securities processing is a kind of 'back-office' administration for financial services. Assets under custody in the world was estimated to $65 trillion at the end of 2004

Other financial services
Intermediation or advisory services - These services involve stock brokers (private client services) and discount brokers. Stock brokers assist investors in buying or selling shares. Primarily internet-based companies are often referred to as discount brokerages, although many now have branch offices to assist clients. These brokerages primarily target individual investors. Full service and private client firms primarily assist execute trades and execute trades for clients with large amounts of capital to invest, such as large companies, wealthy individuals, and investment management funds.
Private equity - Private equity funds are typically closed-end funds, which usually take controlling equity stakes in businesses that are either private, or taken private once acquired. Private equity funds often use leveraged buyouts (LBOs) to acquire the firms in which they invest. The most successful private equity funds can generate returns significantly higher than provided by the equity markets
Venture capital - Venture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided by professional, outside investors to new, high-potential-growth companies in the interest of taking the company to an IPO or trade sale of the business.
Angel investment - An angel investor or angel (known as a business angel or informal investor in Europe), is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.
Conglomerates - A financial services conglomerate is a financial services firm that is active in more than one sector of the financial services market e.g. life insurance, general insurance, health insurance, asset management, retail banking, wholesale banking, investment banking, etc. A key rationale for the existence of such businesses is the existence of diversification benefits that are present when different types of businesses are aggregated i.e. bad things don't always happen at the same time. As a consequence, economic capital for a conglomerate is usually substantially less than economic capital is for the sum of its parts.

History of financial सर्विसेस In the United States

The term "financial services" became more prevalent in the United States partly as a result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which enabled different types of companies operating in the U.S. financial services industry at that time to merge.[citation needed] Companies usually have two distinct approaches to this new type of business. One approach would be a bank which simply buys an insurance company or an investment bank, keeps the original brands of the acquired firm, and adds the acquisition to its holding company simply to diversify its earnings. Outside the U.S. (e.g., in Japan), non-financial services companies are permitted within the holding company. In this scenario, each company still looks independent, and has its own customers, etc. In the other style, a bank would simply create its own brokerage division or insurance division and attempt to sell those products to its own existing customers, with incentives for combining all things with one company.