Responding to the changing demands of the finance sector with high-quality research

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International Banking Institute

International Banking Institute (IBI)

Since the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007 the focus of the International Banking Institute (IBI)* has been to respond to the changing demands of the banking sector. Prominent areas of research for our members include risk, systemic risk, governance, capital adequacy and bank failure. We also look to emerging trends and developments within the sector with interdisciplinary research and programmes within financial technologies (fintech) with the Schools of Computing and Mathematics.

IBI members comprise a mixture of experience and youth and this is helping to propel the research we do. We marry reports for regulators and industry with high quality academic papers to inform the academic community, industry and the public.

Leeds University Business School has also been named a Centre of Excellence by the Chartered Banker Institute (CBI) a member-led organisation, representing qualified bankers and those working towards their professional qualifications. Our MSc Banking and International Finance programme is accredited by the CBI.

Our research themes

Banking research is diverse. The following research themes are current areas of focus at IBI. We continually seek to broaden the scope of IBI’s interest with the appointment of new staff, the engagement of new Postgraduate Researchers and with an ongoing dialogue with industry.

Financial stability
How can we ensure the safety and sustainability of our financial system through (capital) regulation, accounting standards, and supervision?
Real effects of banking
(How) Do banks allocate credit to the right recipients in order to boost the local economy?
Bank governance
Are bank managers excessive risk-takers? Is there a way to limit adverse effects from misbehaviour?
Banking and accounting
What is the value and risk relevance of financial accounting information of banks? How important is accounting discretion for a bank’s earnings and capital management.
FinTech
AI Algorithms, Machine Ethics, CyberCrime, Robot Advice, etc.

Strategic Plan 2018 to 2023

Ensure that its research environment delivers high quality outputs to academia and the financial sectors. We strive for research excellence.

Promote and encourage a lively and successful doctoral community. While the number of staff focusing on banking research at Leeds is already large by UK standards, the outputs of IBI will be leveraged via close working partnerships with its doctoral students.

To address key issues facing the global banking industry. Many members of IBI are linked into banking regulators across Europe and a small number of industry players. Close links with the Chartered Bankers Institute keeps the research agenda of IBI up to date.

Develop and support existing academic staff to achieve their potential and appoint high achievers. IBI has a clear strategy of combining experienced and early career academics, creating a stream of research papers and reports from complementary and overlapping interests and expertise.

Success will be achieved by a series of ‘milestone outputs’ from the individual and collective efforts of the team: discussion papers introducing novel research ideas and findings, journal publications with ABS 4* and 4 ratings, industry-relevant reports, and the progression of graduate students and staff members.

*IBI was formerly the International Institute for Banking and Financial Services (IIBFS) and the Centre for Financial Services (CFS). IBI has a long history dating back to the formation of CFS in 1995 that transformed into IIBFS in 1997 when it obtained substantial sponsorship from the financial industry to develop a research unit focusing on issues confronting the sector. In the late 90s, the banking industry was facing rapid technological change from the start of the online revolution, players in the sector were reconfiguring via mergers and regulation was struggling to keep pace with the waves of change washing across the sector. Therefore for the first 12 years of its life the primary foci of IBI were strategy, technology and regulation.