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Since the financial crisis, regulation of financial activities is at the center of economic and political events. The crisis has indeed led regulators but also the academic world to ask new questions about the effectiveness of regulation policies. To answer these questions, the French laboratory of excellence on financial regulation (Labex ReFi) was established at the initiative of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM [1] ), the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA) and Pantheon-Sorbonne University and ESCP Europe (project leader [2] ) in the framework of the “Grand Emprunt”. Financed over 10 years, Labex ReFi will be evaluated by the National Research Agency (ANR). [3]
Governance LABEX ReFi is organized around a Scientific Council under the leadership of Prof. Christian de Boissieu, a Strategic Orientation Committee, chaired by Mr. Augustin de Romanet de Beaune, composed of regulators and professionals, as well as academic personalities and an Executive Committee, led by Dr. Raphael Douady and Mr. François-Gilles Le Theule, with representation from each partner institution.
Labex ReFi is a research center dedicated to the evaluation of regulatory policies. It aims both to advance knowledge of the functioning of financial systems and their regulation, and secondly, to "advise" and "guide" the independent action of public authorities in the implementation of policies regulation by providing academic expertise. [4]
Labex ReFi is a multidisciplinary laboratory where specialists in economics, accounting, finance and management, financial mathematics and law, from several institutions, collaborate. All these disciplines are concerned with financial regulation but from different angles, with tools, language, incentives and evaluation systems of their own. One objective of the Labex ReFi is to bring together researchers from various backgrounds to produce this set of "useful" research for the implementation of regulatory policies. This is an important issue because regulation has often been characterized by "silo" logic. Each discipline works separately and develops its own doctrine, without fully understanding questions raised by the interaction with other disciplines, which sometimes leads to erroneous visions and consequently unwelcome decisions or with consequences opposite to the effect sought after. [5]
Labex ReFi activities articulate around three areas: research, valorization and education.
The research is organized into working groups driven by academic professors or researchers from partner institutions. Labex researchers are interested in major issues of financial regulation, such as asset allocation and evaluation, market (in)efficiency, history of financial crises, interaction with the economy real, financial information, credit rating agencies, banking and insurance regulation, regulating financial activities and capital markets, systemic risk, the valuation of long-term assets, etc. Calls for projects are launched every year since 2012. Doctoral fellowships and postdoctoral contracts are also awarded each year. Partner institutions (University of Paris I, ESCP Europe, CNAM, ENA, ENASS [6] ) also animate research seminars dedicated to the regulation. [7]
Valorization primarily happens through "policy papers", [8] dealing with current regulatory topics and express academic views on these matters. Different types of events are organized, including breakfasts every two months putting together professionals, regulators and academics to discuss various topics. Since November 2011, breakfasts addressed questions related to assessing sovereign debts, the role of rating agencies and the separation of banking activities, market efficiency, the asset quality review, the content of risk reports, etc. Several conferences for large audiences were organized on main regulation themes including a major conference in June 2013 in collaboration with FEBS on "Financial Regulation and Systemic Risk", which brought together over 350 participants, as well as other events, e.g. "Rethinking the finance standards" (October 2011), "Shareholder activism" (January 2012), "4th edition of the European Days of control" (February 2012), "The new prudential standards: what effects banking sector, what effects on financial stability?" (March 2012), etc. Senior researchers from Labex ReFi author a monthly column in Revue Banque on topical subjects. [9] A collective work "How Financial Regulation Can get Europe out of the Crisis" was published in 2014. [10]
Labex ReFi is also aimed at developing programs dedicated to financial regulation. A seminar entitled "5 lessons on regulation" organized in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH [11] ) bring together students from partner institutions in the context of lectures delivered by international lecturers. Other courses are provided involving professionals with extensive practical market or accounting information experience, collectively addressing students from all partner institutions and even from executive education. Ultimately, the aim is to create a "school of regulation" with European scope. [12]
The École nationale d'administration was a French grande école, created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Debré, to democratise access to the senior civil service. It was abolished on 31 December 2021 and replaced by the Institut national du service public (INSP).
The Conservatoire national des arts et métiers is an AMBA-accredited French grande école and grand établissement. It is a member of the Conférence des Grandes écoles, which is an equivalent to the Ivy League schools in the United States, Oxbridge in the United Kingdom, the C9 League in China, or the Imperial Universities in Japan. CNAM is one of the founding Schools of the Grande école system, with École polytechnique and Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1794, in the wake of the French Revolution.
ESCP Business School is a French business school and grande école founded in Paris and based across Europe with campuses in Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid, Turin, and Warsaw. It is known as one of the trois Parisiennes, together with HEC Paris and ESSEC. Established in 1819, it is considered the world's oldest business school. ESCP Business School runs BSc, MBA, Executive MBA, master's degree programs in finance and management, executive education programs, and PhD programs.
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European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is referred to as ECB Banking Supervision. EU member states outside of the euro area can also participate on a voluntary basis, as was the case of Bulgaria as of late 2023. European Banking Supervision was established by Regulation 1024/2013 of the Council, also known as the SSM Regulation, which also created its central decision-making body, the ECB Supervisory Board.
Werner F.M. De Bondt is one of the founders in the field of behavioral finance. He is also the founding director of Richard H. Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance at DePaul University in Chicago. Previously, he was the Frank Graner Professor of Investment Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Thomas F. Gleed Chair of Business Administration at Albers School of Business and Economics at the Seattle University.
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Raphael Douady is a French mathematician and economist. He holds the Robert Frey Endowed Chair for Quantitative Finance at Stony Brook, New York. He is a fellow of the Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and academic director of the Laboratory of Excellence on Financial Regulation.
Ghislain Deslandes is a philosopher born in Angers (France) on the 16th of August 1970.
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