The Banking and Financial Stability Meeting receives submissions of empirical and theoretical papers spanning the fields of finance, economics, accounting and politics that touch on the broad theme of Banking and Financial Stability. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Bank risk taking incentives; bank competition; bank ownership; governance, systemic risk and financial regulation; political economy of regulation; government intervention in financial markets; coordination failures, self-fulfilling beliefs, and runs; financial institutions, networks, and contagion; credit markets; household finance; and information disclosure, market discipline; financial crises and fragility on firms’ financing and investment policies; FinTech and implications for stability; and the impact of Covid-19 on banks and financial fragility. The banking and financial stability research intensive meeting was introduced onto the FIRN program in 2015.

Keynote: Professor Sascha Steffen
DWS Senior Chair in Finance and Professor of Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Organizers: Antje Berndt and Phong Ngo

Sponsors: ANU Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics (RSFAS) and FIRN.

The keynote speaker of the 2025 ANU-FIRN Banking and Financial Stability Meeting is Professor Sascha Steffen

Sascha Steffen is the DWS Senior Chair in Finance and a Professor of Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, and the director of the Centre for European Transformation — a research-led think tank dedicated to understanding the important transformational challenges facing financial markets and the economy. Sascha is an international speaker, a media expert, and an adviser to government agencies and the private sector on banking, financial stability and corporate credit markets.

Currently, Sascha is investigating the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for banks and firms, as well as the role of fiscal and monetary policy in this context. He is also principal investigator of the project “AI & Monetary Policy,” which is driven by questions such as the role of monetary policy and banks in climate change. This project is funded with about €1 million from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). It is part of the “Financial Big Data Cluster,” a joint effort with other academic institutions, industry leaders, and start-ups to improve the depth of financial market data and increase the effectiveness of financial decision-making by using tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Sascha’s research is motivated by real world questions, and he aims to provide new and innovative perspectives on central issues facing economies and markets. The common themes in his research center on credit markets as a source for economic growth but also systemic risk, the role of banks and “shadow banks” in financial stability, and the effectiveness of financial market regulation and monetary policy for the globalization of credit markets.

He is an advocate for stronger cooperation between academia and industry as a means to find more innovative answers to global challenges, and frequently partners with government agencies and the private sector on research initiatives. As an empirical researcher, Sascha aspires to unearth interesting empirical relationships in his original research, as well as data from industry partners. His research is informed by constant dialogue and collaboration with academics, regulators and policy makers, and industry leaders. Those conversations expand the possible implications of his work, provide the opportunities to learn about new challenges, and push the boundaries on how to think about them. 

Before joining Frankfurt School, Sascha was a professor of finance at the University of Mannheim between 2016 and 2017 and the director of the financial markets group at the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW). Previously, he was a professor of finance at the European School of Management & Technology (ESMT). While serving as an associate editor at multiple academic journals, he is also a panel member at Economic Policy, a leading policy journal in Europe. His research has been published in the top finance journals such as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies.

The conference Advisory Board offers strategic guidance to ensure the conference meets its research and outreach objectives while upholding its high standards. Current board members are:

Bo Becker, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Christa Bouwman, Texas A&M University, USA

Mark Flannery, University of Florida, USA

Paolo Fulghieri, UNC Chapel-Hill, USA

Harrison Hong, Columbia University, USA

Chris James, University of Florida, USA

Robert Marquez, UC Davis, USA

George Pennacchi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Manju Puri, Duke University, USA

Andrew Winton, University of Minnesota, USA

Previous ANU-FIRN Banking and Financial Stability Meeting details

• 2024 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Allen Berger (University of South Carolina)

• 2023 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Harrison Hong (Columbia University)

• 2022 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Bo Becker (Stockholm School of Economics)

• 2021 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Paolo Fulghieri (UNC Chapel-Hill)

• 2019 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Professor Manju Puri (Duke University) and Professor Chris James (University of Florida)

• 2018 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Professor Robert Marquez (UC Davis)

• 2017 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Andrew Winton (University of Minnesota)

• 2016 program and abstracts
  Keynote by George Pennacchi (University of Illinois)

• 2015 program and abstracts
  Keynote by Professor Mark Flannery (University of Florida and Securities Exchange Commission)