Faculty of Finance History

History and Overview

The Faculty of Finance was formed in 2001 by the merger of five departments. Before this time, departments were responsible both for groups of academic staff and for the courses on which they taught. Since 2001 Programme Directors have been responsible for the major product areas, such as undergraduate degrees, MScs, the MBA and the PhD programme, while Faculty Heads manage the academic staff in cooperation with those running programmes. Academic staff members are all located in one of the three Faculties (the other two are Management; and Actuarial Science and Insurance) but each may teach on several programmes and also, possibly be associated with one or more research centres or groupings.

The original departments that joined to form the Finance Faculty were: the Department of Accounting and Finance; the Department of Banking and International Finance; the Department of Investment, Risk Management and Insurance; the Department of Property Valuation and Management; and the Department of Shipping, Trade and Finance. Recognisable traces of the latter two departments can be found in current research groupings in the form of the Real Estate Finance and Investment Group and in the Costas Grammenos International Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance. Other research clusters run across the old departmental boundaries. The majority of current staff have joined since 2001, so research groupings reflect current intellectual overlap rather than old departmental structures.

Research in the Faculty falls into three broad subject areas: financial markets; money, banking and financial institutions; and corporate finance and accounting. In addition, there are four groups that have critical mass in other specialist areas.

Financial markets research covers all the traditional areas of equities, fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives, as well as having a strong presence in alternative investment markets. Much of the research in these areas is motivated by an optimal investment management perspective, but there has also been an interest in understanding new products such as credit derivatives and on the theoretical analysis of incomplete markets.

Cass has long been associated with work in monetary policy and monetary history and this link continues today with several Faculty members who have had direct policy experience in central banks, finance ministries or financial regulators. Cass has also recently increased its strength in banking and a new research centre is proposed in this area. Pensions are also an area of research expertise, both through the Pensions Institute and in collaboration with the Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance.

Corporate finance and accounting research occupies a significant cluster of Faculty research activity. The Cass Private Equity Centre has recently been formed to study private equity. In addition, there are significant areas of activity in: accounting valuation, disclosure and market efficiency; corporate governance and restructuring; and raising capital.

In addition to these three broad themes there are important specialist groups working on econometric methods applied to finance and in specific industry sectors. Econometric is largely associated with the Centre for Econometric Analysis which holds regular conferences and has a network of international collaborators. The Emerging Markets Group also holds regular conferences and seminars and coordinates work on developing country financial issues. The real estate sector is studied by The Real Estate Finance and Investment Group, and The Costas Grammenos International Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance houses activity relating not only to shipping and trade but also to energy and logistics.