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WHARTON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS CENTER

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA EST. 1992

PROFESSORS FRANKLIN ALLEN, FRANCIS X. DIEBOLD,
RICHARD J. HERRING, AND CAROL A. LEISENRING, CO-DIRECTORS

http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic

   Deregulation, technology, and the related flurry of consolidations have dramatically changed the landscape of the financial services industry. The Financial Institutions Center (FIC) combines Wharton’s academic perspectives with industry experience to explore three themes: 1) improving productivity and performance; 2) managing financial risks; and 3) understanding the competitive structure of financial institutions and markets.
    
   Close collaboration with industry practitioners, public policy decision makers, and other researchers fosters relevant and timely research topics. Research is often cross-disciplinary and field-based in approach and is increasingly international in scope. Results are disseminated through a working paper series, publications, conferences, and industry forums. Many conferences and seminars are jointly sponsored with other research organizations, regulatory bodies, or private industry partners.

   An example of this industry-academic partnership is the FIC’s ongoing research forum on call center management. Call centers in financial institutions have evolved from low-cost channels to handle customer problems and routine transactions, to an integral part of the sales and delivery process. Mirroring this evolution, early research efforts focused on productivity and cost-minimizing strategies while, more recently, the research agenda involves assessing the technological and human resource components of delivering excellent customer service.

   The “Managing and Financing Extreme Risk” project addresses the risks associated with low probability-high loss events. Research themes have ranged from an assessment of the insurance industry’s capacity to cope with large-scale disaster to financial management techniques to diversify large-loss risk. 

   Additional FIC research topics have included: an investigation of the value of mergers in the financial services industry; issues relating to consumer transactions, credit, and bankruptcy; and the management of pension assets and the risks associated with pension planning.

   The FIC sponsors several conference series. An annual collaboration with The Brookings Institution brings together academics, public policy decision makers, and industry practitioners to explore issues of financial policy and regulation. With an industry partner, the FIC co-sponsors an annual Risk Roundtable that investigates issues in risk measurement and management.

   Internationally, the FIC co-sponsors the biennial Multinational Banking Seminar with Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt and an annual conference with the Asian Development Bank Institute on a topic of particular policy relevance to Asia.

   Looking forward, the FIC is planning a multi-year research effort on the impact on financial firms, financial markets and the payments system of the evolution of “e-finance.” Another planned initiative on the mutual funds industry includes development of a new database of industry information.