IBI Hosts Inaugural Banking Workshop at University of Leeds

Researchers from leading central banks and universities gathered in Leeds for a two-day workshop exploring pressing questions in banking.

The workshop was opened by Professor Kevin Keasey, Director of the IBI, who welcomed delegates from institutions including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, Norges Bank, the Bank of Spain, KU Leuven, and several leading universities across the UK and continental Europe.

Kevin Keasey

The first day opened with a session chaired by Professor Danilo Mascia. Johannes Breckenfelder of the European Central Bank presented joint work with Victoria Ivashina of Harvard Business School examining the links between bank balance sheet constraints and mutual fund fragility. The session continued with Professor Barbara Casu of Bayes Business School, who presented research — co-authored with colleagues from the Bank of England and the University of Padova — on how liquidity requirements shape non-bank financing. 

 

Danilo Mascia

 

Johannes Breckenfelder

 

Barbara Casu

The second session, chaired by Dr Joshua Cave, featured two further papers. Jin Cao of Norges Bank, working with Cédric Huylebroek of KU Leuven, presented empirical evidence on how credit shocks propagate through banks, firms, and households and generate real economic effects. The first day ended with a presentation by Professor Emanuela Giacomini of the University of Macerata, who examined — with co-authors from FGV São Paulo — whether bank resolution reforms have succeeded in reducing market perceptions of "too-big-to-fail" risk.

 

Jin Cao

 

Emanuela Giacomini

Day two opened with a session, chaired by Dr Joshua Cave, focusing on mortgage markets and banking business models. Mauricio Salgado-Moreno of the Bank of England presented work — co-authored with colleagues from the Bank and Bayes Business School — on how monetary policy affects the length of mortgage fixation periods.  

Mauricio Salgado-Moreno

The following session, chaired by Professor Valeriya Dinger, addressed credit markets and lending behaviour. Professor Hans Degryse of KU Leuven presented joint research with colleagues from the National Bank of Belgium and the European Central Bank on the role of collateral in credit relationships. Professor John Wilson of the University of St Andrews then presented work, co-authored with colleagues from St Andrews, examining how time pressure affects loan officer performance. 

 

Valeriya Dinger

 

Hans Degryse

 

John Wilson

The fifth session was chaired by Dr Alessio Bongiovanni. Alejandro Casado of the Bank of Spain presented research on estimating the impact of loan supply shocks, co-authored with colleagues from Tel Aviv University, Imperial College London, and the University of Manchester. The session also featured a presentation by Alessio Reghezza of the European Central Bank, who — with co-authors from the ECB and the Université d'Orléans — spoke about geopolitical risk, bank lending and real effects on firms.

 

Alejandro Casado

 

Alessio Reghezza

The final session was chaired by Dr Usman Gilani. Professor Claudia Girardone of the University of Essex presented research on spatial bank access, cooperative banking, and firm growth, co-authored with colleagues from the Universities of Milan, Essex, and Modena and Reggio Emilia. The programme concluded with a presentation by Dr Joshua Cave of the University of Leeds, who — with co-authors from Leeds — presented new evidence on the relationship between branch quality, monetary tightening, and deposit stability. 

 

Claudia Girardone

 

Joshua Cave

The workshop was organised by Alessio Bongiovanni, Joshua Cave, Valeriya Dinger, Kevin Keasey, and Danilo Mascia.

Dr Joshua Cave, conference chair and co-organiser, said: 

It was a privilege to bring together such a strong group of researchers working on questions that are directly relevant to how banks operate and how policy should respond. The breadth of institutions represented — from central banks to universities across Europe — made for genuinely rich discussion, and I hope this is the first of many such gatherings.

Reflecting on the event, Professor Kevin Keasey said: 

This first IBI Workshop brought together an outstanding group of researchers from central banks, regulatory institutions, and universities to tackle some of the most important questions in banking today. The quality and diversity of the research on show reflects everything the IBI stands for, and we look forward to making this an annual event.

The full workshop programme is available at: https://conferences.leeds.ac.uk/ibiworkshop/