THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES (UWI) is moving to fill a void in information on Internet banking, a relatively new development.
It has announced a grant of US$15 000 for economists Dr Winston Moore and Dr Justin Robinson to conduct research into Internet bankingin the Caribbean.
The project is one of several which FirstCaribbean International Bank is financing to the tune of US$70 000.
The research grants, announced at the Cave Hill Campus yesterday, will finance projects at the local, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago campuses.
Robinson, head of the Department of Management Studies at Cave Hill, and Moore, lecturer in the Department of Economics there, will seek to gain an insight into customers' attitudes towards Internet banking and the use of Internet banking services in the Caribbean.
Online banking
The study will attempt to determine the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of those individuals who adopt online banking and compare these to people who do not use the service.
They will model the extent to which certain characteristics of Internet banking such as speed, convenience and complexity are reasons for or deterrents against the use of Internet banking.
Moore will also receive a grant of US$3 000 to conduct research on the management practices of mutual fund managers in the Caribbean.
The biggest grant (US$21 400) has gone to Dr Patrick Watson of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social & Economic Studies (SALISES) at the St Augustine, Trinidad Campus to research cross-border equity flows in the CARICOM region.
Dr Roger Hosein, also of the St Augustine Campus' Department of Economics, will research “the oil mentality and credit institutions in oil-rich host communities” with a US$2 440 grant.
Three grants
Three grants are going to the Department of Economics/SALISES Faculty of Social Sciences of the Mona Campus, Jamaica.
Georgia McLeod will research “the contribution of remittances to banking sector performance in Jamaica” under a US$14 500 grant.
Mikhail-Ann Urquhart will look into “electronic banking and cross-border financial activities in the Caribbean” (US$8 350) and Claremont Kirton “the CARICOM Financial Services Agreement and the CARIFORUM-Europe Economic Partnership Agreement – implications for the financial sector in Caribbean countries” (US$5 310).
US$375 000
In October 2006 FirstCaribbean signed a memorandum of understanding with the UWI Cave Hill Campus worth US$375 000, covering a three-year period ending in 2009.
Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr George Belle, welcomed the latest allocations, saying they were timely and would help the university address many aspects of what was required to achieve goals in its strategic plans.
Source: The Nation Newspaper
