Banking and Financial Services

Banks and financial service providers often seek expert guidance on regulatory compliance, ethics, insurance liability, and investment safety. RAND's commitment to objective, nonpartisan analysis has helped us to forge ongoing partnerships with national and international institutions to explore policy questions that affect infrastructure, safety, investment, compliance, and ethical aspects of the banking and financial services industries.

  • RAND Weekly Recap

    Blog

    Opioids in America, Silicon Valley Bank, Semiconductors: RAND Weekly Recap

    This weekly recap focuses on addressing America's illicit opioids problem, Silicon Valley Bank’s demise, Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance, and more.

    Mar 17, 2023

  • A customer is escorted into the Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, California, March 13, 2023, photo by Brittany Hosea-Small/Reuters

    Commentary

    Financial Panic in the Age of Digital Banking and Social Media

    Bank runs as a source of systemic risk are nothing new. To manage systemic risks in the age of social media, regulators may need to anticipate where the crisis will go and build in automatic brakes to slow them down. There likely won't be time to react at the speed of negotiation between regulators and bankers.

    Mar 14, 2023

  • Stock market trends overlaid on picture of houses with solar panels, photos by BAIVECTOR/Adobe Stock and ebobeldijk/Getty Images

    Commentary

    More Than Green: Leveraging Green Bonds to Invest in Greater Climate Resilience

    The significance of green bonds may depend not only on having a lot of them but also on carefully developing, investing, and tracking projects against the larger goal of climate resilience.

    Nov 24, 2021

  • Watering a topiary depicting growth, photos by robert and Naypong Studio/Adobe Stock

    Commentary

    The Growing Green Bond Market Could Plateau. How Can It Grow Further?

    If green bonds are a viable tool to reduce emissions and adapt infrastructure to the effects of climate change, how can governments encourage the issuance, sales, and growth in the share of green bonds in the total bond market?

    Nov 23, 2021

  • Green business growth and finance sustainable development, photo by mihacreative/Adobe Stock

    Commentary

    Green Bonds Can Leave Issuers in the Red

    To achieve the Biden administration's blueprint for solar energy and focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation, green bonds may be worth considering. But, like any other financing instrument, they may be best considered through a cost-benefit lens.

    Nov 22, 2021

  • Report

    Report

    Future of the Credit Information Market: Final report

    This project identified the factors influencing change and developed four plausible future scenarios for 2030 that provide insights into the implications for the credit information market, the lending markets, consumers and wider society.

    Jul 29, 2021

  • Representations of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, DogeCoin, Ripple, and Litecoin placed on a PC motherboard, June 29, 2021, photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters

    Commentary

    Cryptocurrency Should Be Added to the U.S.-Japan Trade Deal

    As the Biden administration begins to define its approach to international trade, and the Suga administration looks to further tighten cooperation with the United States, it may be worth reconsidering the exclusion of cryptocurrency from the U.S.-Japan trade deal. Substantial economic equities are at stake for both sides.

    Jul 28, 2021

  • Dissertation

    Dissertation

    How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Blockchain: Implications and Applications of Blockchain

    Explores the implications and applications of blockchain, the technology underpinning contentious cryptocurrencies.

    May 25, 2021

  • Cloud service icon with options and devices, photo by artisteer/Getty Images

    Commentary

    Too Interconnected to Fail

    The 2007–08 financial crisis made regulators and lawmakers acutely aware that some financial institutions had become too big to fail. The next big economic crisis may arise outside the financial sector, in highly networked companies that are too interconnected to fail.

    Aug 22, 2020

  • Report

    Report

    Exploring the use of Zcash cryptocurrency for illicit or criminal purposes

    To help inform public debate and decision making, RAND Europe explored the uses of cryptocurrencies for illicit or criminal purposes, focusing on the Zcash cryptocurrency, in a research project commissioned by the Electric Coin Company.

    May 6, 2020

  • Temporary closed signage is seen at a store in Manhattan following the outbreak of COVID-19, in New York City, March 15, 2020, photo by Jeenah Moon/Reuters

    Commentary

    The Danger of Converting a Health Crisis into a Financial Crisis

    The impulse to do something to help businesses right now is well-intended, but lending to companies that were highly leveraged pre-crisis is a risky bet. Assistance could be best directed toward sound enterprises that are likely to survive and contribute to boosting the economy in the coming years.

    Apr 13, 2020

  • Research Brief

    Research Brief

    Systemic Risk: It's Not Just in the Financial Sector

    After a decade of focus on financial firms, new analysis using an innovative approach and new dataset shows that firms in a diverse range of sectors, such as technology and telecommunications, pose a systemic risk to the economy at large.

    Feb 3, 2020

  • Visualization of network graph, image by Jonathan William Welburn/RAND Corporation

    Report

    Systemic Risk in the Broad Economy

    After the 2008 financial crisis, research and policy focused on the risk that heavily interconnected networks could fuel the spread of economic crises—a problem known as systemic risk. A new analysis considers systemic risk in other sectors like technology, telecommunications, and health care.

    Jan 21, 2020

  • Mock Bitcoins are displayed in Berlin, January 7, 2014, photo by Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters

    Report

    Terrorist Use of Cryptocurrencies

    Counterterrorism finance strategies have reduced terrorist access to official currencies. Will terrorist groups therefore increase their use of digital cryptocurrencies? New ones have emerged, including some that claim to be more private and secure than Bitcoin, but they also have limitations that make them less viable.

    Mar 27, 2019

  • Graphic of digital integrated network technology

    Testimony

    A Close Look at Data Thieves

    What do cyberattackers do with the data they steal? And how do they monetize it? Grouping hackers by their goals, motivations, and capabilities can shed light on these questions.

    Mar 15, 2018

  • cash in wallet

    Project

    Behavioral Finance (BeFi) Forum Promotes Research on Consumer Behavior

    The RAND Behavioral Finance (BeFi) Forum is a collective of academic, financial, and government leaders who meet regularly in person and via web seminars to foster cutting-edge behavioral research for practical application. BeFi's mission is to help consumers make better financial decisions.

    Oct 24, 2017

  • Blockchain vector background with various icons

    Journal Article

    Distributed Ledger Technologies/Blockchain: Challenges, Opportunities and the Prospects for Standards

    An overview of the current landscape of DLT/Blockchain developments and the issues that are central to the development of DLT/Blockchain.

    May 11, 2017

  • Empty courtroom with scales of justice

    Commentary

    Discount Justice: Fiscal Austerity and State Courts

    Budget cuts at the state court level can mean courthouse closures, hiring freezes and layoffs, leading to longer wait times for the public. Educating the public about the role and importance of the state courts is key to preventing more budget cuts in the future.

    Apr 18, 2017

  • Infographic

    Infographic

    Data Theft Victims, and Their Response to Breach Notifications

    This infographic highlights the results of a study of consumer attitudes toward data breaches, notifications of those breaches, and company responses to such events.

    Apr 14, 2016

  • Woman typing into a laptop

    Report

    Few Consumers Penalize Hacked Companies for Data Breaches

    About a quarter of American adults surveyed reported that they received a data breach notification in the past year, but 77 percent of them were highly satisfied with the company's post-breach response. Only 11 percent of respondents stopped dealing with the company afterwards.

    Apr 14, 2016