Dans le dédale des indicateurs de pauvreté, l'approche par la définition d'un panier de biens et services minimums, ainsi que l'estimation du coût de son acquisition, semblent ouvrir des perspectives intéressantes... vers une définition absolue du phénomène ?

The research aimed to find out what level of income people think is needed to afford socially acceptable standard of living in Britain today, and to participate in society.

Actes de la conférence (EN) session 1: the banking world in the middle of a crisis - perspectives and impact for financial inclusion p11 session 2: achieving financial inclusion through savings and retails banking activities p13 session 3: technological innovation, the magic wand for sustainable progress of financial inclusion ? p17 session 4: contribution to social and financial incllusion though CSR, philantropy and foundations initiatives p19

This doctrinaire endeavor is based on the results of the studies carried out by the author in the period 2002 - 2007, whose object have been the regulations in the domain of the consumer law in Romania, in special relation to the regulations referring to the consumer law.

The traders are assigned ex lege a number of acknowledged professional obligations, like the obligation of registering in the Trade Register. Besides these traditional obligations, new and complex obligations have been regulated for traders, obligations that are specific to the tradersconsumers relation. These regulations are subordinated to the Consumer Law domain, which in Romania represents a contemporary creation, a result of the process of transposing the communautaire acquis. Consumer protection is regulated by general and specific rules, the latter ones referring to the following sub domains: advertising; informing about the prices of the products offered to the consumers for sale; unfair clauses from the contracts concluded between the traders and the consumers; the contracts negotiated away from business premises; concluding and executing distant contracts related to financial services; consumer credit; packages of tourism services; protection of the contracts related to the right to use some immovable foods for a limited period-timeshare; selling of the products and warranties associated; general safety of the products; esponsibility of the producers for the damages generated by the defective products; unfair commercial practices and ways to cease the unlawful practices in respect of the protection of consumers' collective interests. New obligations for the traders are established through the content of both general and specific regulations, obligations that are effected in imperatives and especially in interdictions.The legal regime of the obligations that resulted this way transcend the regime of the traders' traditional obligations, making up the new paradigm of the traders' activity and it represents the theme of this paper. Our research focused on determining the obligations set-up for the traders through both categories of rules and through their legal regime. As a result of the research carried on this theme, we conclude that setting-up this new category of obligations for the traders represents an actual means of achieving the aim of ensuring the consumer protection, adding-up to other legal means set-up in this regard.

What are the features of the consumer credit evolution? In Romania, consumer credit has evolved very fast after the year 2000. Its evolution was dichotomous in comparison with the other types of crediting. The National Bank of Romania (NBR) started taking steps to slow down credit augmentation, in response to the banks' expansive credit policies. Illo tempore, the banks`behaviour proved disloyal to the consumers in a number of ways - credit offerers used misleading publicity, increased interests, multiplied and raised their commissions, by using non-transparent methods or including some abusive clauses in the credit contracts. The legal and institutional remedies offered are far from the level of consumers` expectations, especially in times of crisis.

Les échecs du modèle socialiste, mis en évidence par le fort taux de chômage, ont mené la France à se réorienter vers davantage de création d'entreprise. Ces aventures entrepreneuriales nécessitent un financement. Pourtant, les banquiers ne veulent pas supporter le fort risque représenté par les entreprises nouvellement créées. En outre, les petits entrepreneurs qui réussiraient tout de même à recevoir un financement se trouvent au final encore rationnés à la marge si le taux de crédit est plafonné par la législation. En parallèle, la croissance de la microfinance dans le monde a montré que les techniques innovatrices peuvent augmenter la disponibilité de crédit, sans augmenter indûment le risque. Néanmoins, cette croissance de l'accès au crédit peut ne pas se concrétiser si les taux de crédit restent plafonnés par des lois régissant l'usure, comme c'était le cas en France. Cet article retrace les changements législatifs qui sont survenus en France dans les cinq dernières années, en se concentrant principalement sur les lois d'usure et certaines autres barrières au crédit. Il place ces évolutions législatives dans la perspective du modèle socialiste de l'Europe occidentale en comparaison de celles dans un certain nombre de pays développés. Il examine également si ces réformes ont été accompagnées de l'impact désiré. Finalement, il explore de lege feranda les évolutions législatives qui pourraient achever ce processus de modernisation du droit français du crédit.