Hire Purchase

There are things you can do to save yourself money however. For example, diesel vehicles are less thirsty, and will often be cheaper to run in the long run, despite being more expensive per litre of fuel. You should also check the car insurance group of any vehicle you are looking to purchase - a lower group often means not only are you more likely to get cheap taxi insurance, but that your vehicle will also be safer and cheaper to repair should you ever have an accident.

Of course, insurers will still consider your driving history when you apply for a taxi insurance quote online, and for this reason (amongst others) it is advisable for you to keep your license clean - a speeding conviction can make your premium around 20% more expensive, for example. You will also find that your taxi insurance will get cheaper as time goes on, in similar fashion to 'normal' car insurance - for example, once you have held your taxi badge for 12 months you may find that your premiums decrease, and drivers with a history of driving company vehicles will sometimes receive a discount from their insurers.

Hire Purchase

There are things you can do to save yourself money however. For example, diesel vehicles are less thirsty, and will often be cheaper to run in the long run, despite being more expensive per litre of fuel. You should also check the car insurance group of any vehicle you are looking to purchase - a lower group often means not only are you more likely to get cheap taxi insurance, but that your vehicle will also be safer and cheaper to repair should you ever have an accident.

Of course, insurers will still consider your driving history when you apply for a taxi insurance quote online, and for this reason (amongst others) it is advisable for you to keep your license clean - a speeding conviction can make your premium around 20% more expensive, for example. You will also find that your taxi insurance will get cheaper as time goes on, in similar fashion to 'normal' car insurance - for example, once you have held your taxi badge for 12 months you may find that your premiums decrease, and drivers with a history of driving company vehicles will sometimes receive a discount from their insurers.

Loan

To do a business, to built an apartment, to purchase vehicle, to open industry it lacks the capital. The formal capital mightn’t fulfill through a person. It needs the helping hands for established of them. So the loan is the thing which can fulfill the need of the establishment of the needed field. Loan is the money or the capital which can be used for a specific purpose. The loan is the future paying capital. And its using for the specific purpose of establishment of any business or the required field.

The word loan is really heavy word to listen but it has the different types and different varieties to invest according to the field. The loan not meant that the heavy for return but its meaning is to give support in the time of sad condition. The loan is exactly for the new investor and the new business people and new comers. Loan directly listens not well but it has its work character and it makes feel good.

Real State

Real state occurs the different field in terms of the situation. Real state mean the state of the current activities, likewise housing, apartment, business, hotshot job, vehicle, business. The real state states that the real business of the current situation of the business, work and the activities. It meant that the investment going on which field and what’s its condition for the real current time.

The word real state mean the real business of current time and it treats on the condition of the business for the real status. So the real state shows that the real status of the going concern business. It means the business or the investment is on the field of any categories which can be profitable.

The housing and the apartment is the current real business of Nepal and it shows the real stats or real condition of the investment and its profitable. The real status mean to state the real status of real state.

   

Real State

Real state occurs the different field in terms of the situation. Real state mean the state of the current activities, likewise housing, apartment, business, hotshot job, vehicle, business. The real state states that the real business of the current situation of the business, work and the activities. It meant that the investment going on which field and what’s its condition for the real current time.

The word real state mean the real business of current time and it treats on the condition of the business for the real status. So the real state shows that the real status of the going concern business. It means the business or the investment is on the field of any categories which can be profitable.

The housing and the apartment is the current real business of Nepal and it shows the real stats or real condition of the investment and its profitable. The real status mean to state the real status of real state.

   

Loan

To do a business, to built an apartment, to purchase vehicle, to open industry it lacks the capital. The formal capital mightn’t fulfill through a person. It needs the helping hands for established of them. So the loan is the thing which can fulfill the need of the establishment of the needed field. Loan is the money or the capital which can be used for a specific purpose. The loan is the future paying capital. And its using for the specific purpose of establishment of any business or the required field.

The word loan is really heavy word to listen but it has the different types and different varieties to invest according to the field. The loan not meant that the heavy for return but its meaning is to give support in the time of sad condition. The loan is exactly for the new investor and the new business people and new comers. Loan directly listens not well but it has its work character and it makes feel good.

Finance

Finance is directly related to money and the monitory activities. The finance is the ambition of the money and other seen properties and the unseen properties. Seen properties mean the money vehicle, ornament and unseen properties mean home, land etc. financial activities are directly known and occurs on the finance. The finance has different meaning but the real meaning of finance is to give the support to other in terms of money and the monitory work. The finance directly tells that the activities operating on the money is the finance.

There might be different kind of meaning in based of finance. The finance is the settlement, the collective. Finance is the especially for the support of the middle class people and it gives the support to the middle income people. So the finance is the term of the supporting for economically. There are different types of finance but the exact fact is that the main function of the finance.

Finance

Finance is directly related to money and the monitory activities. The finance is the ambition of the money and other seen properties and the unseen properties. Seen properties mean the money vehicle, ornament and unseen properties mean home, land etc. financial activities are directly known and occurs on the finance. The finance has different meaning but the real meaning of finance is to give the support to other in terms of money and the monitory work. The finance directly tells that the activities operating on the money is the finance.

There might be different kind of meaning in based of finance. The finance is the settlement, the collective. Finance is the especially for the support of the middle class people and it gives the support to the middle income people. So the finance is the term of the supporting for economically. There are different types of finance but the exact fact is that the main function of the finance.

Excess Insurance

Excess Insurance

Insurance excess is the amount of money you have to pay if you make a claim on your insurance policy. For example, if you have an excess of £100 and the claim you are making is for £600, then you would pay the first £100 and the insurer would pay the remaining £500. Usually, the higher your excess, the less you pay for your insurance policy. In certain circumstances, the excess is payable even if the claim is not your fault (although the cost can often be reclaimed from the at-fault driver on car insurance policies).

Excess insurance is an extra level of protection which covers your excess. If, for whatever reason, you need to make a claim on your current insurance policy, the excess insurance policy will ensure your excess is paid back to you (up to a pre-agreed limit).

By and large most customers will find that the higher you are willing to set your excess the lower the premium on your policy will be.

Excess Insurance

Excess Insurance

Insurance excess is the amount of money you have to pay if you make a claim on your insurance policy. For example, if you have an excess of £100 and the claim you are making is for £600, then you would pay the first £100 and the insurer would pay the remaining £500. Usually, the higher your excess, the less you pay for your insurance policy. In certain circumstances, the excess is payable even if the claim is not your fault (although the cost can often be reclaimed from the at-fault driver on car insurance policies).

Excess insurance is an extra level of protection which covers your excess. If, for whatever reason, you need to make a claim on your current insurance policy, the excess insurance policy will ensure your excess is paid back to you (up to a pre-agreed limit).

By and large most customers will find that the higher you are willing to set your excess the lower the premium on your policy will be.

How Excess Insurance Works

There are two main kinds of policies: one which covers the excess on a single underlying policy (e.g. a car excess insurance policy) and one which covers the excesses across a range of underlying policies all in one go. The second type is sometimes called a “lifestyle” excess policy, and will generally cover excesses on your car, home, travel, pet and medical insurance policies all in one go.

The way it works is that you buy the excess cover either at the same time as your underlying policy, or at some other point in the year. If you claim on your underlying policy, you pay your excess as normal, and then use your excess insurance policy to reclaim the excess you have paid, up to a pre-agreed limit.

 You decide on this limit when you buy the excess insurance - policies tend to offer limits from £250 for the year to £750 or more. The higher the limit, the more expensive the excess insurance policy, but the more excesses you will be able to claim during the year of the excess policy. For single policy excess insurance products, a higher limit will allow you to reclaim excesses on multiple claims during the year until you reach the limit; on lifestyle policies, a higher limit will allow you to reclaim excesses you pay on all qualifying underlying policies until your reach the limit.

How Excess Insurance Works

There are two main kinds of policies: one which covers the excess on a single underlying policy (e.g. a car excess insurance policy) and one which covers the excesses across a range of underlying policies all in one go. The second type is sometimes called a “lifestyle” excess policy, and will generally cover excesses on your car, home, travel, pet and medical insurance policies all in one go.

The way it works is that you buy the excess cover either at the same time as your underlying policy, or at some other point in the year. If you claim on your underlying policy, you pay your excess as normal, and then use your excess insurance policy to reclaim the excess you have paid, up to a pre-agreed limit.

 You decide on this limit when you buy the excess insurance - policies tend to offer limits from £250 for the year to £750 or more. The higher the limit, the more expensive the excess insurance policy, but the more excesses you will be able to claim during the year of the excess policy. For single policy excess insurance products, a higher limit will allow you to reclaim excesses on multiple claims during the year until you reach the limit; on lifestyle policies, a higher limit will allow you to reclaim excesses you pay on all qualifying underlying policies until your reach the limit.

Car Insurance

Building a kit car can be an expensive hobby, so the last thing a kit car enthusiast needs is costly motor insurance. There are specialist kit car insurance companies, however, who offer cover specifically tailored towards the kit car community.

What should your kit car insurance include?

When buying insurance for a kit car, there are a few more things to consider than when you are looking for a more conventional car insurance policy.

Some policies offer cover for parts whilst in transit and some protect against damage or theft during the construction process. An 'all parts covered' policy will ensure you are covered if parts get damaged or go missing.

If you plan to take your pride and joy out on a test track, you'll need to make sure your kit car insurance covers you for this activity.

If you are a member of a vehicle owners' or members' club, many specialist kit car insurers will offer you a discounted premium

Car Insurance

Building a kit car can be an expensive hobby, so the last thing a kit car enthusiast needs is costly motor insurance. There are specialist kit car insurance companies, however, who offer cover specifically tailored towards the kit car community.

What should your kit car insurance include?

When buying insurance for a kit car, there are a few more things to consider than when you are looking for a more conventional car insurance policy.

Some policies offer cover for parts whilst in transit and some protect against damage or theft during the construction process. An 'all parts covered' policy will ensure you are covered if parts get damaged or go missing.

If you plan to take your pride and joy out on a test track, you'll need to make sure your kit car insurance covers you for this activity.

If you are a member of a vehicle owners' or members' club, many specialist kit car insurers will offer you a discounted premium

Kit car insurance and optional policy extras

As the name suggests, optional extras can increase the price you pay for your kit car insurance, but may give you the extra peace of mind of knowing that your kit car is well-protected after all the time you have dedicated to it.

Agreed value cover: By negotiating agreed value cover on your kit car, you have a guarantee that the amount you paid for the vehicle does not depreciate in the event of a claim.

Breakdown and legal cover: Finding breakdown cover for a kit car may be more difficult than it would for a conventional car, so you might want to consider adding it your kit car insurance policy. Opting for legal cover will cover your expenses if court action follows an accident.

If you plan on driving your kit car on the Continent, green card cover provides the most basic level of cover when travelling abroad.

If you plan on using your kit car for a special occasion, like a wedding, then you might want to ask your insurer about 'formal occasion cover'.

A great thing about building a kit car is that it is built to your own specification. In terms of kit car insurance you can use this to your advantage by limiting the size of the engine you install. The larger an engine you put in your kit car, the great risk you will represent in the eyes of insurers - resulting in higher premiums.

You might also be able to negotiate cheap kit car insurance quotes by agreeing to a mileage limit with your insurer, fitting industry-approved security devices and keeping the kit car in secure location overnight.

Kit car insurance and optional policy extras

As the name suggests, optional extras can increase the price you pay for your kit car insurance, but may give you the extra peace of mind of knowing that your kit car is well-protected after all the time you have dedicated to it.

Agreed value cover: By negotiating agreed value cover on your kit car, you have a guarantee that the amount you paid for the vehicle does not depreciate in the event of a claim.

Breakdown and legal cover: Finding breakdown cover for a kit car may be more difficult than it would for a conventional car, so you might want to consider adding it your kit car insurance policy. Opting for legal cover will cover your expenses if court action follows an accident.

If you plan on driving your kit car on the Continent, green card cover provides the most basic level of cover when travelling abroad.

If you plan on using your kit car for a special occasion, like a wedding, then you might want to ask your insurer about 'formal occasion cover'.

A great thing about building a kit car is that it is built to your own specification. In terms of kit car insurance you can use this to your advantage by limiting the size of the engine you install. The larger an engine you put in your kit car, the great risk you will represent in the eyes of insurers - resulting in higher premiums.

You might also be able to negotiate cheap kit car insurance quotes by agreeing to a mileage limit with your insurer, fitting industry-approved security devices and keeping the kit car in secure location overnight.

Auto Insurance

Public sector insurer New India Assurance has been ranked top, while Anil Ambani group's Reliance General is at 10th in a customer satisfaction survey of auto insurance firms by market research firm JD Power.

Measured in a 1,000-point scale, the study that took into account 15 companies saw the top two places being occupied by nationalised firms.

"New India Assurance ranks highest in satisfying auto insurance customers in 2011, achieving a score of 804 and performing particularly well in the renewal/purchase process factor," JD Power said in a statement.

According to the 2011 India Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction Index Study, customer satisfaction with auto insurance providers has an impact on consumers' intent to renew their policies and to purchase policies from the same provider for their next vehicle.

"Following New India Assurance in the ranking is The Oriental Insurance, which achieves a score of 802 and performs well in the billing and payment process and renewal/purchase process factors," the survey said.

The third place has been occupied by the private sector entity ICICI Lombard with a score of 801, it added.    

The auto insurance customer satisfaction index chart, where four PSU firms have found berths, ranked Reliance General Insurance at the 10th with a score of 781.

The other insurance firms that have also been mentioned in the list are Tata AIG General (4th), National Insurance (5th), Royal Sundaram( 6th), United India (7th), Bajaj Allianz General (8th) and HDFC Ergo (9th).

"It becomes particularly important for insurers to ensure better customer management at branch offices, especially in terms of understanding needs and requirements, providing clear explanations of policy coverage, and courtesy and friendliness," JD Power Asia Pacific Executive Director Mohit Arora said.

As per the study, the overall satisfaction level stood at 796 in 2011, 8 points lower than that of 2010.

"The interaction factor declines most notably, decreasing by 28 points from 2010. Within this factor, satisfaction with branch office interactions has declined the most, followed by interactions with independent agents and brokers," it added.

The study was done amongst 5,284 auto insurance customers and it was based on six factors -- interaction, claims, product and policy offerings, renewal and purchase process, billing and payment process, and premium and price for coverage offered.

Auto Insurance

Public sector insurer New India Assurance has been ranked top, while Anil Ambani group's Reliance General is at 10th in a customer satisfaction survey of auto insurance firms by market research firm JD Power.

Measured in a 1,000-point scale, the study that took into account 15 companies saw the top two places being occupied by nationalised firms.

"New India Assurance ranks highest in satisfying auto insurance customers in 2011, achieving a score of 804 and performing particularly well in the renewal/purchase process factor," JD Power said in a statement.

According to the 2011 India Auto Insurance Customer Satisfaction Index Study, customer satisfaction with auto insurance providers has an impact on consumers' intent to renew their policies and to purchase policies from the same provider for their next vehicle.

"Following New India Assurance in the ranking is The Oriental Insurance, which achieves a score of 802 and performs well in the billing and payment process and renewal/purchase process factors," the survey said.

The third place has been occupied by the private sector entity ICICI Lombard with a score of 801, it added.    

The auto insurance customer satisfaction index chart, where four PSU firms have found berths, ranked Reliance General Insurance at the 10th with a score of 781.

The other insurance firms that have also been mentioned in the list are Tata AIG General (4th), National Insurance (5th), Royal Sundaram( 6th), United India (7th), Bajaj Allianz General (8th) and HDFC Ergo (9th).

"It becomes particularly important for insurers to ensure better customer management at branch offices, especially in terms of understanding needs and requirements, providing clear explanations of policy coverage, and courtesy and friendliness," JD Power Asia Pacific Executive Director Mohit Arora said.

As per the study, the overall satisfaction level stood at 796 in 2011, 8 points lower than that of 2010.

"The interaction factor declines most notably, decreasing by 28 points from 2010. Within this factor, satisfaction with branch office interactions has declined the most, followed by interactions with independent agents and brokers," it added.

The study was done amongst 5,284 auto insurance customers and it was based on six factors -- interaction, claims, product and policy offerings, renewal and purchase process, billing and payment process, and premium and price for coverage offered.

Insurance

Insurance is the recover for the any future incident. It means to insure the accident will hurt you little only. And insurance gives the recover of any incident or accident. Future is not seen by anybody, so in future anything can be happened. That might be the bad things too. In term of the any bad accident it give the recover to the people who are suffered from the disaster. So the insurance is good for the betterment of the rescue. The insurance has the different types. But mainly people focus for the vehicle, business, house and own life.

Eventually the meaning of insurance is to insure the people for the risk of future incident is become less. The insurance gives warm in cool. Well if someone’s bus got in accident and the engine is totally damage and he had done insurance he could get the recovery of the vehicle in term of the condition of the incident and the situation. The insurance gives the assure in sorrow.

Insurance

Insurance is the recover for the any future incident. It means to insure the accident will hurt you little only. And insurance gives the recover of any incident or accident. Future is not seen by anybody, so in future anything can be happened. That might be the bad things too. In term of the any bad accident it give the recover to the people who are suffered from the disaster. So the insurance is good for the betterment of the rescue. The insurance has the different types. But mainly people focus for the vehicle, business, house and own life.

Eventually the meaning of insurance is to insure the people for the risk of future incident is become less. The insurance gives warm in cool. Well if someone’s bus got in accident and the engine is totally damage and he had done insurance he could get the recovery of the vehicle in term of the condition of the incident and the situation. The insurance gives the assure in sorrow.

Various Development banks

an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people.

Agricultural Development Bank

 providing institutional credit for enhancing the production and productivity of the agricultural sector in the country

Siddhartha Development bank limited

 The bank is committed to do following works to achieve its objectives, amongst others.

 -To provide loan on Sector of agriculture, Industry, Trade, SMEs, Micro Credits, Housing and Land Development and Service Business Sector by utilizing available resources and skills.

 - To operate special programme by selecting poor and backward populated socially for upgrading their life style.Excel Development Bank

 Excel Development Bank is committed to deliver its services to the customers through easy banking procedures. Since the bank is located in the rural area, it intends to serve the need of common people by providing simple yet modern banking facilities

Children's Development Bank

 The Children's Development Bank (CDB) gives children the change to safe their money in a safe way. CDB is a school for learning management, participatory, democracy, leadership, and accountability. The CDB will also gradually help the children/adolescents to start their own small enterprises. The bank is started with a technical support from Butterflies, India and financial support from Consortium for Street Children, UK.

Nirdhan Utthan Bank

 the bank for upliftment of the poor" is a microfinance bank established in November 1998. It provides microfinance services such as Loans, Deposits, Micro-insurance and Remittance services to rural poor of Nepal.

Clean Energy Development Bank

 CEDB is dedicated to Clean Energy Sector of Nepal for which our technical collaboration with "Winrock International" an INGO, is being supported by USAID/Nepal. CEDB began its operation from 07 September 2006 with wide range of banking products and services

Nilgiri Development Bank

description not available yet

Nepal Development Bank

 the first national level development bank established by the private sector in Nepal. It has commenced its operation since January 31, 1999. It has entered into the subscription and services agreement with Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd, the most leading development bank of India on 7th July 2003. Infusion of NDBL's vision plus IDBIL's 4 decades of experiences in the Development Banking will further help to enhance the performance of the bank.

Development Credit Bank

 DCB is a private sector bank having access to over 11,000 ATMs and 72 state-of-the-art branches and extension counters spread over nine states and two union territories. The Bank has recently launched several value added initiatives and intends to become one of the country’s preferred and profitable financial institutions.

Diyalo Development Bank

 Diyalo Bikas Bank's central office is in Kavrepalanchowk district's central business hub Banepa. They are determined and will use the funds in lucrative and productive business ventures like Agriculture, Industry, Service, Business. They are very much optimistic in getting help and support from general public and plan to extend bank's services in other areas too.

Various Development banks

an international development finance institution whose mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people.

Agricultural Development Bank

 providing institutional credit for enhancing the production and productivity of the agricultural sector in the country

Siddhartha Development bank limited

 The bank is committed to do following works to achieve its objectives, amongst others.

 -To provide loan on Sector of agriculture, Industry, Trade, SMEs, Micro Credits, Housing and Land Development and Service Business Sector by utilizing available resources and skills.

 - To operate special programme by selecting poor and backward populated socially for upgrading their life style.Excel Development Bank

 Excel Development Bank is committed to deliver its services to the customers through easy banking procedures. Since the bank is located in the rural area, it intends to serve the need of common people by providing simple yet modern banking facilities

Children's Development Bank

 The Children's Development Bank (CDB) gives children the change to safe their money in a safe way. CDB is a school for learning management, participatory, democracy, leadership, and accountability. The CDB will also gradually help the children/adolescents to start their own small enterprises. The bank is started with a technical support from Butterflies, India and financial support from Consortium for Street Children, UK.

Nirdhan Utthan Bank

 the bank for upliftment of the poor" is a microfinance bank established in November 1998. It provides microfinance services such as Loans, Deposits, Micro-insurance and Remittance services to rural poor of Nepal.

Clean Energy Development Bank

 CEDB is dedicated to Clean Energy Sector of Nepal for which our technical collaboration with "Winrock International" an INGO, is being supported by USAID/Nepal. CEDB began its operation from 07 September 2006 with wide range of banking products and services

Nilgiri Development Bank

description not available yet

Nepal Development Bank

 the first national level development bank established by the private sector in Nepal. It has commenced its operation since January 31, 1999. It has entered into the subscription and services agreement with Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd, the most leading development bank of India on 7th July 2003. Infusion of NDBL's vision plus IDBIL's 4 decades of experiences in the Development Banking will further help to enhance the performance of the bank.

Development Credit Bank

 DCB is a private sector bank having access to over 11,000 ATMs and 72 state-of-the-art branches and extension counters spread over nine states and two union territories. The Bank has recently launched several value added initiatives and intends to become one of the country’s preferred and profitable financial institutions.

Diyalo Development Bank

 Diyalo Bikas Bank's central office is in Kavrepalanchowk district's central business hub Banepa. They are determined and will use the funds in lucrative and productive business ventures like Agriculture, Industry, Service, Business. They are very much optimistic in getting help and support from general public and plan to extend bank's services in other areas too.

The banker bank

When I was product manager for Heidelberg Japan’s imagesetter and RIP systems, the most common complaint from customers, co-workers and HQ management was the cost of Adobe’s PostScript and font licensing royalties. Behind the scenes Adobe was very adept at twisting arms to get the best licensing deals forcing Japanese OEMs to bundle very expensive high resolution Japanese PS fonts at 2,500 USD a font, whether the customer wanted them or not.

After watching Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite/CS 5.5 rollout pricing and talking with 3rd party tool developers, the same thing that happened with PostScript licensing is happening again: Adobe is twisting arms and threatening developers to shut out the competition and create a monopoly. In corporate suites and conference rooms Adobe is shaking down companies like WoodWing telling them they have no right to create digital publishing export products for CS InDesign. Only Adobe has the right to export content from InDesign to digital publishing on iOS and Android platforms.

This model is similar to the old Shaken Japanese typesetting business that disappeared in the 90’s. In order to use Shaken fonts, publishers bought a Shaken typesetter, paid a monthly royalty and a fee based on publishing volume. Adobe wants to bring it back. Elliot Jay Stocks has a good take on Adobe’s Digital Publishing pricing.Many Japanese publishers are dabbling with the second choice but really waiting to see what EPUB 3 brings. EPUB3 has support for vertical layout and about 50%, at best, of high end Japanese typography as outlined by the X4301 Japanese Industrial Standard specification. Iwata Font lead font programmer Tomahisa Uchida said, “EPUB 3 is better than what we have now but I’m worried that quality will decline.” Uchida san is right that despite all the power and potential that computers offer, they have yet to achieve the quality of traditional Japanese print methods for the mass market.

If Apple announces EPUB 3 and vertical layout support in Safari and iBook along with some Japanese publisher content deals at the expected WWDC iOS 5 announcement on June 6, Apple will get a big leg up on Google in the Japanese market. Such an announcement could kick start the Japanese digital publishing market into high gear.

The banker bank

When I was product manager for Heidelberg Japan’s imagesetter and RIP systems, the most common complaint from customers, co-workers and HQ management was the cost of Adobe’s PostScript and font licensing royalties. Behind the scenes Adobe was very adept at twisting arms to get the best licensing deals forcing Japanese OEMs to bundle very expensive high resolution Japanese PS fonts at 2,500 USD a font, whether the customer wanted them or not.

After watching Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite/CS 5.5 rollout pricing and talking with 3rd party tool developers, the same thing that happened with PostScript licensing is happening again: Adobe is twisting arms and threatening developers to shut out the competition and create a monopoly. In corporate suites and conference rooms Adobe is shaking down companies like WoodWing telling them they have no right to create digital publishing export products for CS InDesign. Only Adobe has the right to export content from InDesign to digital publishing on iOS and Android platforms.

This model is similar to the old Shaken Japanese typesetting business that disappeared in the 90’s. In order to use Shaken fonts, publishers bought a Shaken typesetter, paid a monthly royalty and a fee based on publishing volume. Adobe wants to bring it back. Elliot Jay Stocks has a good take on Adobe’s Digital Publishing pricing.Many Japanese publishers are dabbling with the second choice but really waiting to see what EPUB 3 brings. EPUB3 has support for vertical layout and about 50%, at best, of high end Japanese typography as outlined by the X4301 Japanese Industrial Standard specification. Iwata Font lead font programmer Tomahisa Uchida said, “EPUB 3 is better than what we have now but I’m worried that quality will decline.” Uchida san is right that despite all the power and potential that computers offer, they have yet to achieve the quality of traditional Japanese print methods for the mass market.

If Apple announces EPUB 3 and vertical layout support in Safari and iBook along with some Japanese publisher content deals at the expected WWDC iOS 5 announcement on June 6, Apple will get a big leg up on Google in the Japanese market. Such an announcement could kick start the Japanese digital publishing market into high gear.

Wave Of Bank

Note: this is part 1 in a planned series covering digital publishing in the Japanese market. For background read about the 2nd Wave. To see screen shots click on the blog title and read the individual post.

MacOS X 10.5 Leopard introduced a new text framework called CoreText to replace the ATSUI and MLTE Carbon text API. Core Text is the third MacOS Text API makeover for which the few loyal MacOS developers who invested first in QuickDraw GX advanced text and layout technology and then ATSUI, have had to program for.

One Japanese software developer Ergosoft dutifully adopted each and every Apple text technology, perhaps the only developer in the world to to do so. I spoke with Ergosoft Marketing Director Isamu Iwata back in 2002, when Ergo used ATSUI for the Japanese advanced layout features in its EGWord Version 12 word processor package, and in 2007 when Ergo released free Leopard updates to EG Word Universal 2, one of the first third-party programs to use Core Text.

EGWord was the first commercial word processor software package to deliver AAT (Apple Advanced Typography) features such as extended Japanese glyph access, glyph variations and Japanese kerning and did so in a clean easy to understand UI. At that time Iwata said speed was the primary benefit of the new API, “Core Text is much faster than ATSUI was. Other developers didn’t use many ATSUI features and I don’t think many developers will invest much in Core Text as it’s an Apple-only solution.”had a point, as Apple does not even bother to use Core Text to implement a basic Japanese text feature such as vertical layout in its own Cocoa-based word processor, Pages 09. Apple even dropped previously marketed Apple Advanced Typography glyph variant features from Hiragino Pro N without any explanation. Major developers such as Adobe, Microsoft and Quark already had their won text engines and did not use Apple’s text frameworks.

Hiragino Pro N fonts dropped Glyph Variations. They still exist in the older Hiragino Pro

The big change came when Core Text was rolled into iOS with the iPad only iOS 3.3 release and in iPhone with iOS 4. For advanced layout, it’s the only framework available. From a Japanese developer point of view CoreText on iOS is somewhat useless because it doesn’t support the vertical text layout features of the desktop version. Core Text also has a reputation of being somewhat buggy and the Core Text documentation on the Apple developer site is weak.

Though Ergo shut down in early 2008, lead programmers Hirose Norihito and Arano Kenta established their own company Monokakido just in time to develop for iOS 2. They have produced some of the biggest selling iOS App titles on the Japan App store: Daijirin and Wisdom English Japanese Dictionary. In early 2010 Hirose san told me "Compared to ATSUI, Core Text feels incomplete." The ugly reality is that without full vertical text layout support in Core Text on iOS Japanese developers have to ‘roll their own’ text layout engine for vertical layout.

Rolling your own text layout engine is fine if you are a developer but Japanese publishers have some difficult choices on iOS and Android:

Wave Of Bank

Note: this is part 1 in a planned series covering digital publishing in the Japanese market. For background read about the 2nd Wave. To see screen shots click on the blog title and read the individual post.

MacOS X 10.5 Leopard introduced a new text framework called CoreText to replace the ATSUI and MLTE Carbon text API. Core Text is the third MacOS Text API makeover for which the few loyal MacOS developers who invested first in QuickDraw GX advanced text and layout technology and then ATSUI, have had to program for.

One Japanese software developer Ergosoft dutifully adopted each and every Apple text technology, perhaps the only developer in the world to to do so. I spoke with Ergosoft Marketing Director Isamu Iwata back in 2002, when Ergo used ATSUI for the Japanese advanced layout features in its EGWord Version 12 word processor package, and in 2007 when Ergo released free Leopard updates to EG Word Universal 2, one of the first third-party programs to use Core Text.

EGWord was the first commercial word processor software package to deliver AAT (Apple Advanced Typography) features such as extended Japanese glyph access, glyph variations and Japanese kerning and did so in a clean easy to understand UI. At that time Iwata said speed was the primary benefit of the new API, “Core Text is much faster than ATSUI was. Other developers didn’t use many ATSUI features and I don’t think many developers will invest much in Core Text as it’s an Apple-only solution.”had a point, as Apple does not even bother to use Core Text to implement a basic Japanese text feature such as vertical layout in its own Cocoa-based word processor, Pages 09. Apple even dropped previously marketed Apple Advanced Typography glyph variant features from Hiragino Pro N without any explanation. Major developers such as Adobe, Microsoft and Quark already had their won text engines and did not use Apple’s text frameworks.

Hiragino Pro N fonts dropped Glyph Variations. They still exist in the older Hiragino Pro

The big change came when Core Text was rolled into iOS with the iPad only iOS 3.3 release and in iPhone with iOS 4. For advanced layout, it’s the only framework available. From a Japanese developer point of view CoreText on iOS is somewhat useless because it doesn’t support the vertical text layout features of the desktop version. Core Text also has a reputation of being somewhat buggy and the Core Text documentation on the Apple developer site is weak.

Though Ergo shut down in early 2008, lead programmers Hirose Norihito and Arano Kenta established their own company Monokakido just in time to develop for iOS 2. They have produced some of the biggest selling iOS App titles on the Japan App store: Daijirin and Wisdom English Japanese Dictionary. In early 2010 Hirose san told me "Compared to ATSUI, Core Text feels incomplete." The ugly reality is that without full vertical text layout support in Core Text on iOS Japanese developers have to ‘roll their own’ text layout engine for vertical layout.

Rolling your own text layout engine is fine if you are a developer but Japanese publishers have some difficult choices on iOS and Android:

Font Master Card

There is probably nobody on this planet who knows more about Japanese font programming and typography than Tomihisa Uchida. He has been involved with Japanese digital font production from the start, working at its very heart: Shaken KK.

Shaken was the first company to create a phototypesetter for the Japanese market in the 1920’s and gave birth to the typesetter market while creating the finest Japanese font library. Unfortunately Shaken failed to embrace PostScript and Desktop Publishing and the business started to fade in the late 1980’s. Today the company and it’s library are almost extinct.

Uchida: I was with Shaken for 23 years. I entered right out of college, where I was a chemistry major. My first job there was working with analog plates and mechanical processes. That involved high-resolution plates, similar to what is used for IC chip manufacture, to produce high-quality typography. I did that for 10 years; then digital fonts came along in the early ’70s. Shaken was the first Japanese vendor to have computerized layout. It also did the Japanese version of Ikarus. There wasn’t any real competition and it had the market to itself.

Japan Type Bank (JB): So Shaken made the transfer to digitalized fonts and computer-based layout successfully?

Uchida: Yes, it purchased the Japanese rights to Autologic technology to produce a hybrid product where the software was a customized Autologic engine running on Shaken hardware. That didn’t last too long, as Shaken had been developing in-house technology and soon released its own original product.

We simply implemented Japanese typography and composition rules on the computer with outline fonts that output on an imagesetter using proprietary technology. At that time, Shaken systems were extensively used in newspaper production. However, Shaken lost that market because it didn’t have strong network capability, which newspaper production demands.

One of the ways Shaken was able to build up a strong type library in a fairly short time was by sponsoring a type- face competition. It would pay the winner and purchase his typeface. It raised lots of young designers that way [like Suzuki-, who would later create the Hiragino font used in Apple’s MacOS X] and really expanded the market with new typefaces for comic books and such.

Later on, my job was creating different weights. The designer would create the basic design, then we’d use the Ikarus system to make the weights. That was the late ’70s. The systems we designed ran on hardware from the likes of DEC and Wang. I had a group of people who were basically a font production line. When Japanese PostScript first arrived (1989), it wasn’t immediately apparent that things would change as they did. It took forever to print. Shaken systems always had excellent performance.

---

Font Tools

Of the many issues that Uchida has involved himself with throughout his career, none has occupied himPrint Workflow

more than trying to solve the Japanese character- creation bottleneck. To this end, he joined Font- works International, one of the first Japanese PostScript font vendors. It invested heavily in the QuickDraw GX type-creation solutions that hit the market just about the time Apple decided to drop GX. (Fontworks International stroke fonts are explained in the 2nd Wave of Japanese DTP)

JB: It’s too bad you didn’t start with Fontworks earlier; you really seemed on the verge of a breakthrough.

Uchida: Yes, we were pretty close. If we had just had some more time.... I was only with them for five years, from just about the time when Apple started having second thoughts about QuickDraw GX. Fontworks asked me if I was interested in working on its stroke-font base- character production tool, ‘2 x 2’, so I joined the effort and worked on the hinting and performance quality. I was always interested in font-production tools. Fontog- rapher really isn’t very good for Japanese font produc- tion. It’s an issue I hope to continue working on in the future.

JB: And now you are with Iwata Corporation.

Uchida: Correct. I work with newspaper fonts and layout. Newspaper font designs are different because the text is always vertical. Fonts need good layout to look their best, so I’m working on them together. OpenType, for example, has fractions, third-width and quarter- width glyphs, but most applications are not OpenType layout-aware, so it’s a real waste. The result is pretty ugly.

Right now, the only OpenType layout engine out there is  much, but it seems the next version of Quark XPress J doesn’t have much OpenType support. If that’s true, it means you’ll have to use InDesign to access OpenType advanced typography. I’m not sure if users are really ready to make the change or not. There are still lots of old fonts out there, too. But still, no matter what kind of fancy fonts you have,  s far as newspaper production is concerned, I understand that American systems are much more open than Japanese systems, and American papers seem more adept at leveraging their content for different media. Japanese newspapers are still living in the age of proprietary systems—Hitachi, IBM, etc.—but that era is over. I think you’ll see things starting to change.

Font Master Card

There is probably nobody on this planet who knows more about Japanese font programming and typography than Tomihisa Uchida. He has been involved with Japanese digital font production from the start, working at its very heart: Shaken KK.

Shaken was the first company to create a phototypesetter for the Japanese market in the 1920’s and gave birth to the typesetter market while creating the finest Japanese font library. Unfortunately Shaken failed to embrace PostScript and Desktop Publishing and the business started to fade in the late 1980’s. Today the company and it’s library are almost extinct.

Uchida: I was with Shaken for 23 years. I entered right out of college, where I was a chemistry major. My first job there was working with analog plates and mechanical processes. That involved high-resolution plates, similar to what is used for IC chip manufacture, to produce high-quality typography. I did that for 10 years; then digital fonts came along in the early ’70s. Shaken was the first Japanese vendor to have computerized layout. It also did the Japanese version of Ikarus. There wasn’t any real competition and it had the market to itself.

Japan Type Bank (JB): So Shaken made the transfer to digitalized fonts and computer-based layout successfully?

Uchida: Yes, it purchased the Japanese rights to Autologic technology to produce a hybrid product where the software was a customized Autologic engine running on Shaken hardware. That didn’t last too long, as Shaken had been developing in-house technology and soon released its own original product.

We simply implemented Japanese typography and composition rules on the computer with outline fonts that output on an imagesetter using proprietary technology. At that time, Shaken systems were extensively used in newspaper production. However, Shaken lost that market because it didn’t have strong network capability, which newspaper production demands.

One of the ways Shaken was able to build up a strong type library in a fairly short time was by sponsoring a type- face competition. It would pay the winner and purchase his typeface. It raised lots of young designers that way [like Suzuki-, who would later create the Hiragino font used in Apple’s MacOS X] and really expanded the market with new typefaces for comic books and such.

Later on, my job was creating different weights. The designer would create the basic design, then we’d use the Ikarus system to make the weights. That was the late ’70s. The systems we designed ran on hardware from the likes of DEC and Wang. I had a group of people who were basically a font production line. When Japanese PostScript first arrived (1989), it wasn’t immediately apparent that things would change as they did. It took forever to print. Shaken systems always had excellent performance.

---

Font Tools

Of the many issues that Uchida has involved himself with throughout his career, none has occupied himPrint Workflow

more than trying to solve the Japanese character- creation bottleneck. To this end, he joined Font- works International, one of the first Japanese PostScript font vendors. It invested heavily in the QuickDraw GX type-creation solutions that hit the market just about the time Apple decided to drop GX. (Fontworks International stroke fonts are explained in the 2nd Wave of Japanese DTP)

JB: It’s too bad you didn’t start with Fontworks earlier; you really seemed on the verge of a breakthrough.

Uchida: Yes, we were pretty close. If we had just had some more time.... I was only with them for five years, from just about the time when Apple started having second thoughts about QuickDraw GX. Fontworks asked me if I was interested in working on its stroke-font base- character production tool, ‘2 x 2’, so I joined the effort and worked on the hinting and performance quality. I was always interested in font-production tools. Fontog- rapher really isn’t very good for Japanese font produc- tion. It’s an issue I hope to continue working on in the future.

JB: And now you are with Iwata Corporation.

Uchida: Correct. I work with newspaper fonts and layout. Newspaper font designs are different because the text is always vertical. Fonts need good layout to look their best, so I’m working on them together. OpenType, for example, has fractions, third-width and quarter- width glyphs, but most applications are not OpenType layout-aware, so it’s a real waste. The result is pretty ugly.

Right now, the only OpenType layout engine out there is  much, but it seems the next version of Quark XPress J doesn’t have much OpenType support. If that’s true, it means you’ll have to use InDesign to access OpenType advanced typography. I’m not sure if users are really ready to make the change or not. There are still lots of old fonts out there, too. But still, no matter what kind of fancy fonts you have,  s far as newspaper production is concerned, I understand that American systems are much more open than Japanese systems, and American papers seem more adept at leveraging their content for different media. Japanese newspapers are still living in the age of proprietary systems—Hitachi, IBM, etc.—but that era is over. I think you’ll see things starting to change.

Banks On World

This position is responsible for launching and growing the iBook business in Japan and building an extensive offering for customers. This will involve working with the iBooks and iTunes teams in Cupertino, Japan, and other countries, and with content partners to secure content from U.S., international and local providers, and to market that con- tent on the iBooks store and through other marketing programs.

---

Its strange the job listing is only in English on a Japanese site for Japanese job seekers, and the job is about getting local Japanese content, right Apple? Who knows, maybe Apple thinks a native English speaker will fill the bill for lining up Japanese publishers.

Lots of luck to whoever gets that gig. Only 3 months left until iOS 5 appears with the supposed Japan store kickoff, so get those resumes in ASAP. Oh, and good luck changing this iBook store: Since the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) came to power

over a year ago, Japanese users making online comments on Yahoo Japan, NicoNico Doga and elsewhere have noticed their comments are ‘filtered’ and removed when they make negative comments about DPJ politicians and especially DPJ sponsors: the pachinko industry aka the Yakuza.

Twitter user Bozu Propaganda @mk00350 reports some of his content being taken from NicoNico Doga for making negative comments about the pachinko industry which has a lot of pull with the largest ad agencies such as Dentsu and through them, the Japanese media.

Banks On World

This position is responsible for launching and growing the iBook business in Japan and building an extensive offering for customers. This will involve working with the iBooks and iTunes teams in Cupertino, Japan, and other countries, and with content partners to secure content from U.S., international and local providers, and to market that con- tent on the iBooks store and through other marketing programs.

---

Its strange the job listing is only in English on a Japanese site for Japanese job seekers, and the job is about getting local Japanese content, right Apple? Who knows, maybe Apple thinks a native English speaker will fill the bill for lining up Japanese publishers.

Lots of luck to whoever gets that gig. Only 3 months left until iOS 5 appears with the supposed Japan store kickoff, so get those resumes in ASAP. Oh, and good luck changing this iBook store: Since the DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) came to power

over a year ago, Japanese users making online comments on Yahoo Japan, NicoNico Doga and elsewhere have noticed their comments are ‘filtered’ and removed when they make negative comments about DPJ politicians and especially DPJ sponsors: the pachinko industry aka the Yakuza.

Twitter user Bozu Propaganda @mk00350 reports some of his content being taken from NicoNico Doga for making negative comments about the pachinko industry which has a lot of pull with the largest ad agencies such as Dentsu and through them, the Japanese media.

How Much Does Type of Bank Ownership Matter?

Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) account for close to 60 percent of global manufacturing employment. So it is no surprise that financing for SMEs has been a subject of great interest to both policymakers and researchers. More important, a number of studies using firm-level survey data have shown that SMEs perceive access to finance and the cost of credit to be greater obstacles than large firms do—and that these factors really do constrain the growth of SMEs.

In recent years a debate has emerged about the nature of bank financing for SMEs: Are small domestic private banks more likely to finance SMEs because they are better suited to engage in “relationship lending,” which requires continual, personalized, direct contact with SMEs in the local community in which they operate? Or can large foreign banks with centralized organizational structures be as effective in lending to SMEs through arm’s-length approaches (such as asset-based lending, factoring, leasing, fixed-asset lending, and credit scoring)? And how well do state-owned banks—for which expanding access to finance is often among their top objectives—serve SMEs?

In a recent paper (working paper version here) Thorsten Beck, Sole Martinez, and I try to inform this debate using newly gathered data for 91 large banks from 45 countries. First, we examine whether banks of different ownership types use different lending technologies and organizational structures in lending to SMEs. In particular, we examine whether foreign banks are more likely than domestic private banks to use arm’s-length lending technologies based on “hard information” and centralized organizational structures. Second, we investigate whether arm’s-length lending technologies and centralized organizational structures are just as suitable as relationship lending for SME finance. Third, we test whether foreign banks tend to specialize less heavily in SME finance or make SME loans on less favorable terms than domestic private banks do. Finally, we analyze whether the institutional and legal environment of the country affects the extent, type, and pricing of SME lending.

We find that banks of different ownership types apply different lending technologies and organizational structures in lending to SMEs. In particular, foreign banks grant a larger share of collateralized loans, are less likely to rate “soft information” as important in evaluating loans, and are less likely to decentralize loan approval and risk management decisions. Government-owned banks appear to be more likely to decentralize decisions involving SME finance. But they do not appear to rely on relationship lending, since they seem more likely than private banks to use collateral and hard information in lending to SMEs.

However, we find few significant correlations between lending technologies and organizational structures on the one hand and the extent, type, and pricing of SME lending on the other. Most notably, we find no evidence that foreign banks tend to lend less to SMEs than other banks do. In fact, if we focus only on developing countries, we find that foreign banks are more likely to approve loans to small firms than domestic private banks are—and do so at fees and rates that do not differ significantly from those charged by domestic private banks. Compared with government-owned banks, domestic private banks seem to charge higher interest rates to both small and medium-size enterprises, while foreign banks seem to charge higher fees to small enterprises.

We find more significant differences between banks in developed countries and those in developing countries, even after controlling for bank types. In particular, banks in developing countries provide a smaller share of investment loans and charge higher fees to SMEs than those in developed countries. They also tend to charge higher interest rates on loans to small firms.

These differences appear to be driven by differences in the institutional and legal environment. For example, the smaller share of SME loans for investment observed in developing countries seems to be explained by the higher cost of registering property in those countries; once we control for this variable, the dummy variable for developing countries is no longer significant in the regressions for either small or medium-size firm financing. Similarly, the higher fees for SMEs observed in developing countries seem to be related to the higher cost of property registration and worse credit information environment in those countries. In addition, the weaker protection of property rights in developing countries seems to matter in explaining differences in lending fees for medium-size firms. Finally, the higher interest rates for small firms observed in developing countries seem to be associated with the higher costs of enforcing contracts and weaker protection of property rights prevalent in those countries.

Our results confirm the importance of strengthening the institutional environment to improve access to finance for SMEs. Differences across banks and their lending technologies and organizational structures seem to be of secondary importance. Still, our study has looked at a sample of large banks, which tend to be relatively similar regardless of differences in ownership type. Whether these results hold in larger samples that include small as well as large banks remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more. Even more is that the topic is so short.