Background: This study aims to clarify the role of FinTech digital banking start-ups in the financial industry. We examine the impact of the funding of such start-ups on the stock returns of 47 incumbent US retail banks for 2010 to 2016. Methods: To capture the importance of FinTech start-ups, we use data on both the dollar-volume of funding and number of deals. We relate these to the stock returns with panel data regression methods. Results: Our results indicate a positive relationship exists between the growth in FinTech funding or deals and the contemporaneous stock returns of incumbent retail banks. Conclusions: Although these results suggest complementarity between FinTech and traditional banking, we note that our results at the banking industry level are not statistically significant, and that the coefficient signs for about one-third of the banks are negative, but not statistically significant. Since the FinTech industry is young and our sample period short, we cannot rule out that our findings are spurious.

We are the first to investigate the cross-section of stock returns in the new emerging equity markets, the so-called frontier emerging markets. Our unique survivorship-bias free data set consists of more than 1,400 stocks over the period 1997 to 2008 and covers 24 of the most liquid frontier emerging markets. The major benefit of using individual stock characteristics is that it allows us to investigate whether return factors that have been documented in developed countries also exist in these markets. We document the presence of economically and statistically significant value and momentum effects, and a local size effect. Our results indicate that the value and momentum effects still exist when incorporating conservative assumptions of transaction costs. Additionally, we show that value, momentum, and local size returns in frontier markets cannot be explained by global risk factors.

JEL classification: C53 F31 G15 Keywords:Emerging markets Foreign exchange rates Structural exchange rate models Technical trading Heterogeneous agents a b s t r a c tWe measure the economic value of information derived from macroeconomic variables and from technical trading rules for emerging markets currency investments. Our analysis is based on a sample of 21 emerging markets with a floating exchange rate regime over the period 1997-2007 and explicitly accounts for trading restrictions on foreign capital movements by using nondeliverable forward data. We document that both types of information can be exploited to implement profitable trading strategies. In line with evidence from surveys of foreign exchange professionals concerning the use of fundamental and technical analysis, we find that combining the two types of information improves the riskadjusted performance of the investment strategies.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the investment performance of mutual fund managers who operate in the Polish market.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses monthly mutual fund returns over the period 2000‐2007 to investigate the manager's selectivity and market timing skills. It analyzes three investment mutual fund investment categories: equity, balanced, and bond mutual funds. The paper investigates several performance evaluation models, and shows that the findings are robust with respect to the model choice.FindingsFor each of the three categories, equity, balanced, and bond funds, the paper positive, but insignificant selectivity skill of the mutual fund managers. No evidence is found of bond or equity market timing skills in the sample.Research limitations/implicationsSince not many mutual funds exist over a long period, the sample used is relatively small with 38 mutual funds, while in April 2007 more than 300 funds are listed in the Polish market.Practical implicationsPrivate investors in Poland are not worse off by investing in mutual funds compared to passive market indices. Based on this research, they should select mutual funds that focus on selectivity rather than market timing.Originality/valueThe research on mutual fund manager skill in emerging economies is scarce. In addition, little is known on the performance of balanced and bond mutual funds, even in developed mutual fund markets. This paper contributes by filling both these gaps in the academic literature.

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