Department of Finance

Lecture podcast: The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do About It| 

Recent years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim, however, that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending and economic growth. Professor Anat Admati (Stanford Graduate School of Business) examines this claim and challenges the narratives used by bankers, politicians, and regulators to rationalize the lack of reform.
Listen to podcast.|

Panel discussion podcast: Doing Well by Doing Good? Private Equity Investing in Emerging Markets|

As Western economies battle to re-launch growth, South-South investment flows have been steadily growing over the last decade. Exciting opportunities are opening up in these growth markets, but is it really true that best in class returns and socially transformational investments can go hand in hand?

Speakers include Arif Naqvi (Abraaj Group), Tsega Gebreyses (Satya Capital) and Diana Noble (CDC). Listen to podcast.|

LSE launches new research centre to study risks to financial system|

The £5 million Systemic Risk Centre will undertake economic analysis of the fundamental risks to the financial system, based on an interdisciplinary approach. It will bring together experts from finance, economics, computer science, political science, law and the natural and mathematical sciences. Read more|.

Towards a more procyclical financial system|

voxeu.org, 6 March 2013

Jon Danielsson argues that heterogeneity is in fact a good thing, leading to countercyclicality and reducing instances of procyclical price movements - despite both the Basel Committee and the European Banking Authority indicating that heterogeneity is a problem. Read more|.

Europe just as entrepreneurial as the US|

Investment Europe, 14 February 2013

There is a widely held - and now outdated - view among institutional investors and policymakers that Europe is lagging behind the US in the financing of entrepreneurship, according to a new study from Ulf Axelson and Milan Martinovic of the LSE. Read more|.

Banks feel double-edged sword of shareholder power|

The Wall Street Journal, 21 December 2012

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, there has been a lot of talk about how the incentives of corporate boards need to be better aligned with the interests of shareholders. Daniel Ferreira, with LSE colleagues, has constructed a management insulation index to measure the level of shareholder influence over company boards, and how this affects risk taking. Read more.|

A new paradox found in markets theory|

The Financial Times, 10 December 2012

Dimitri Vayanos notes that since asset owners (principals) delegate the investment task to agents such as fund managers, banks and brokers, there is information asymmetry. The agents have better information and different objectives from the principals. And the principals find it hard to know whether the agents are competent and diligent. Read more.|

MSc Finance Part-time Programme|

The Department of Finance offers LSE's only masters programme taught in the evening. The MSc Finance (Part-time) evening programme provides a unique opportunity to comine a full-time career with a world-class masters in finance programme that is grounded in academic depth and rigour. See our Prospective Students| pages for more details.