Capco Institute

Cass Business School and the Capco Institute invite submissions for the inaugural issue of the Cass-Capco Institute Paper Series on Risk. The editors are looking for papers that communicate new research, business analysis, or policy insights to an informed readership from across the global financial services industry and leading finance faculties. The Cass-Capco Institute Paper Series on Risk will appear annually in a special issue of the Journal of Financial Transformation.

Deadline for submission is Thursday 31st of January 2008. Deadline for submission of articles for review and comments is Friday the 14th of December, 2007.

The publication of the first Cass-Capco Institute Paper Series on Risk will coincide with a full day conference at Cass Business School in April, 2008 (the exact date to be confirmed at a later stage); at which selected papers will be presented and discussed. When submitting a paper please indicate if you will be available to attend and present your paper, if you were invited to do so.

Topics covered by this call for papers include, but are not limited to:

Economic risk – The world’s economic balance is changing. The powerful economies of the East are rising and challenging their peers in the West. How will the future look? We are looking for articles that look at the economic risks facing national governments and the world at large. These include the impact of changes in economic and tax policies, national and international legislations, and international agreements on national and regional economies, the credit markets, and the global economy. In addition, we are looking for articles that assess the impact of demographic changes on these economies and future retirement schemes.

Financial risk – This area covers the developments made in financial engineering, securitization, financial and liquidity risk assessment methodologies, and risk and asset management, including alternative investments. Articles submitted under this heading can cover new innovations in product development; new methodologies for financial engineering, risk management, and risk transfer; performance of different asset management methodologies; and assessment and management of credit and liquidity risks.

Operational risk – Financial institutions face a number of operational issues, which as yet are not managed efficiently or effectively. Articles submitted under this heading can cover the methodologies used by financial institutions to mitigate liquidity, operational, technology implementation, disaster recovery, and general enterprise-wide risks; new tools to improve internal control functions; and new technologies available to help mitigate the risks involved in financial transactions, securities settlement and clearing. Given the increasing role of technology, we are also interested in articles that provide prescriptive solutions on how financial institutions can protect client data and ensure that they feel more comfortable about using disruptive technologies when dealing with their banks.

Regulatory risk – This covers topics that deal with new regulations impacting the world of financial services. In today’s environment, we are seeing an increasing number of uncoordinated and inconsistent national approaches to the regulation of financial markets that are getting more global in coverage. Papers submitted under this heading can cover what the new regulations are, how they are impacting financial institutions, their readiness for implementing these regulations, and the potential costs to the industry. In addition, we are interested in legal risks, which arise from documentation of transactions and their enforcement potential.

Reputational risk - In recent years, financial institutions have come under harsh criticism over how they control rogue traders, how they manage their relationships with their clients, and how they are perceived in the marketplace. Financial institutions seem to be least prepared to deal with public relations disasters and creating brand recognition. We are looking for articles that demonstrate how financial institutions can institute the types of mechanisms needed to avoid loss of confidence in the financial services industry either business by business, product by product, or as a whole.

Please submit to:

Shahin Shojai Ph.D.Editor - Journal of Financial Transformation editor@capco.com

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine

Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine is looking for contributors to a feature series we call "In Theory," in which we publish academic research that would be of interest to people involved in the hedge fund industry. The first In Theory feature appeared in March 2006 and was written by Roger Ibbotson and Peng Chen based on their paper, “The A, B, Cs of Hedge Funds: Alphas, Betas and Costs." Since then we've published an article by Andrew Lo and Jasmina Hasanhodzic of MIT on creating hedge fund clones; a piece by Andrew Ang, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Rui Zhao of Columbia on measuring funds of hedge funds; and a story on short-selling by Yale’s Owen Lamont. In each case, the article has appeared in Alpha prior to its publication in an academic journal and has been condensed by the authors from its original form. The biggest difference between the two versions is that the math and formulas have been largely stripped out and the citations and footnotes have been dropped (where appropriate, their content has been incorporated into the text). The articles can vary in length from 2,000 to 6,000 words. For more information on contributing an article, please contact Institutional Investor Executive Editor Michael Peltz (212-224-3152; mpeltz@iimagazine.com). A pdf of the Hasanhodzic /Lo paper is presented here as a sample.

Institutional Investor’s Alpha was created in June 2003 to cover hedge funds. At the time these loosely regulated pools of private capital were still a relatively small and extremely secretive corner of the investment world. Since Alpha’s launch, the industry has grown to nearly $1.5 trillion in assets, boasting enormous profits and an ever-growing array of complex investment strategies. Today Alpha is published ten times a year and reaches a broad range of financial services professionals, including hedge fund managers, investors, bankers and consultants, as well as government officials, regulators and academics.

To submit a call for papers, please email all relevant information to main@iafe.org.