CfP Deadline:
July 5, 2024
Conference Event:
November 21-22, 2024
Event Location:
Cleveland, United States (Hybrid Event)
Organizer(s):
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
Office of Financial Research
Description:
The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Office of Financial Research will host their twelfth annual financial stability conference on November 21–22, 2024. This year’s conference, Financial Stability: Emerging Risks in a Time of Interconnectedness and Innovation, will be held in Cleveland, Ohio. Virtual attendance is available.
Markets and institutions, increasingly interconnected, are being challenged by the dizzying pace of change in the financial system, accelerating the buildup of risk and threats to solvency. Regulatory adaptations add another layer of complexity to the issue. Increasingly sophisticated algorithms and the rise of generative artificial intelligence may create new vulnerabilities across the system as banks, nonbank financial institutions, and financial markets exploit nascent opportunities. The conference will explore how firms and markets can become resilient or even antifragile and how regulators can encourage and shepherd, or at least not derail, needed changes.
The conference will bring together policymakers, market participants, and researchers in two types of sessions:
- Policy Discussions : These sessions include keynote addresses and panel discussions in which participants from industry, regulatory agencies, and academia share their insights.
- Research Forums: These forums follow the format of an academic workshop and comprise sessions to discuss submitted papers.
Topics:
We welcome submissions of research on topics related to potential financial stability risks faced by financial markets and institutions, sources of financial system resilience, and related public policy. Conference topics include but are not limited to the following:
Emerging Risks
As the financial system continues to evolve, new risks emerge along with new businesses, new strategies, and new technologies. Old problems take on new dimensions as fiscal and monetary policies adapt to new economic and political realities, thereby adding new stresses to regulatory frameworks that themselves struggle to adapt. As information technology moves risk out of closely regulated sectors, it also creates new vulnerabilities from cyber-attacks. A rapidly changing physical environment and the prospect of nonhuman intelligences add even more uncertainty.
- Financial stability concerns related to faster payments and equity transactions such as the implementation of t+1 settlement
- The financial stability implications of generative AI and deep learning
- Cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and blockchain
- Cyber-attacks
- Climate risk
- Interaction of monetary policy with macroprudential supervision
- Sources of resilience in the financial sector
Financial Institutions
A riskier macroeconomic environment poses challenges for financial institutions and their supervisors. Risk management tools and strategies will be tested by fluctuations in inflation and output and by new regulations designed to mitigate vulnerabilities. Network effects, including interactions with a rapidly evolving fintech and crypto sector, may lead to further risks at a systemic level. How are institutions adapting to these risks and associated regulatory changes? How prepared are regulators and policymakers? Are existing microprudential and macroprudential toolkits sufficient?
- Bank lending to nonbank financial institutions (NBFI)
- Insurance markets
- Banking as a service (BaaS)
- Regional banks
- Interest rate risk
- Risks of rapid growth
- Unrealized losses on balance sheets and mark-to-market accounting
- Impact of reforms to lenders of last resort, deposit Insurance, capital rules, and the FHLB system
Financial Markets
Inflation and the associated responses of central banks around the world have contributed to stress to financial markets that has not been seen in the recent past. Financial stability threats may arise from resulting reallocations through volatility spikes, fire sales, and financial contagion. The continued development of algorithms, decentralized finance (DeFi), and complex artificial intelligence has the potential to add novel risks to financial markets. To what extent do investors recognize these risks, and how does recognition affect investors’ allocations? How does opacity resulting from deficiencies in reporting, risk management, and operation standards for these risks affect investor behavior?
- Risks associated with high levels and issuance of public debt (for example, recent volatility around Treasury funding announcements, concerns about primary dealers and principal trading firms, the SEC’s recent rule about what defines a dealer and what that might mean for Treasury markets)
- Short-term funding
- Implications of deficits, central bank balance sheet policies, and financial stability
- The impact of technological innovation on financial markets
Real Estate Markets
Real estate is often one of the sectors most affected by and can be a cause of financial instability. Construction and housing play a major role in the transmission of monetary policy, and real estate-based lending remains a major activity of banks, insurance companies, and mortgage companies. A complex and active securities market ties together financial institutions and markets in both residential and commercial real estate.
- Commercial real estate (CRE)
- Nonbank originators and servicers
- International contagion
- Implications of remote work and the impact of COVID-19
- Effects of monetary policy on real estate markets
Submission:
The deadline for submissions is Friday, July 5, 2024. Please submit completed papers through Conference Maker. Notification of acceptance will be provided by Friday, September 6, 2024. Final conference papers are due on Friday, November 1, 2024. In-person paper presentations are preferred. Questions should be directed to financial.stability.conference@clev.frb.org.
Link(s):
2024 Financial Stability Conference: Emerging Risks in a Time of Interconnectedness and Innovation