Masters students showcase dissertations at the Bank of England

On the 13 January, Leeds University Business School students, Jack Dunn and Robert Thomson presented their dissertations at the Bank of England.

The MSc Banking and International Finance students showcased their papers at the monthly Prudential Policy Directorate Research discussion forum.

The students were selected to take part in the Research Support Programme run by the BoE which enables students from UK universities to experience research at the UK’s central bank, as well as receive support from a BoE researcher, in addition to their academic supervisor, when preparing their dissertation. Both Jack and Robert were jointly supervised by Professor Valeriya Dinger, Chair in Accounting and Finance, and Dr Ioana Neamțu, Research Economist from the Bank of England.

Jack’s dissertation is titled ‘Default Risk Determinants: The Great Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 Crisis’ and explores the determinants of bank credit default swap (CDS) spreads using a sample of 29 listed international banks, focusing on bank-specific accounting data and its ability to explain variation in CDS spreads under fluctuating macroeconomic conditions.

Robert’s dissertation is titled ‘Comparing the repo market during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic’ and investigates how market and counterparty risk affected federal reserve repo rates in the period 2000-2020, with a specific focus on the 2007/08 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID pandemic.

 Programme Director of the MSc Banking & International Finance, Dr Danilo V. Mascia commented:

"It’s this kind of opportunity that truly sets our MSc Banking & International Finance Programme apart from the ones offered by other Business Schools."

Find out more about the Research support programme offered by the Bank of England