CEPR/ESI 12th Annual Conference

The 12th CEPR/European Summer Institute Annual Conference will take place on 25/26 September 2008 in Basel and will be hosted by the Bank for International Settlements. The CEPR/ESI Annual Conferences were previously sponsored by the South African Reserve Bank, Banco de Portugal, Bank of Finland, the National Bank of Poland, the Nederlandsche Bank, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and the European Central Bank. Former conferences were held on ‘Fiscal Policy Imbalances, the Monetary Transmission Mechanism and Prudential Supervision' in Lisbon (1999), ‘Vivent les Différences?: Heterogeneous Europe' in Amsterdam (2000), ‘Old Age, New Economy and Central Banking' in Helsinki (2001), 'Regulatory Changes for European Financial Markets' in Vienna (2002), 'The Euro Area as an Economic Entity' in Eltville (2003), 'EMU Enlargement to the East and the West' in Budapest (2004) ‘Structural Reforms and Economic Growth in Europe' in Frankfurt-am-Main (2005) ‘Globalisation and Monetary Policy' in Warsaw (2006) and on ‘Global Imbalances, Competitiveness and Emerging Markets' in Pretoria (2007).

The topic of the 12th CEPR/ESI Annual Conference will be ‘The Evolving Financial System and the Transmission Mechanism of Monetary Policy'. The structure of the financial system has changed considerably in recent years in at least three ways. First, financial markets and institutions have become more globalised, thus strengthening the international transmission of shocks. Second, business models of financial institutions have shifted from originate-and-hold to originate-and-distribute strategies. While the recent turmoil in financial markets may have slowed the growth in the securitisation of financial claims, at this stage it is too early to say whether the trend has been reversed. Third, regulatory and accounting frameworks have changed substantially. Banking regulation has been shifting from a framework of simple rules to a more model-based approach based on risk management principles. Similarly, historical cost accounting has been giving way to fair value accounting (mark-to-market or mark-to-model).

Centre for Economic Policy Research: official conference webpage