Conference
Innovation in archives & Innovative responses to financial crises
11 May 2017
St. Louis, United States of America
eabh in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and eabh will host a two-day conference for archivists and financial historians to present their current work in bank archives, including central bank archives, and banking and financial history. Archivists will present innovations in archival work and undiscovered gems in their collections. Financial historians will present their research based on materials from commercial bank, government, and central bank archives. The conference will provide both archivists and historians the opportunity to learn about the unique materials held in central bank archives, the current state of archival work, and insights into how scholars use these collections. Confirmed speakers include Harold James, Princeton University, who will give the keynote address, and Gary Richardson, University of California-Irvine and Federal Reserve System Historian.
Day 1: Innovation in archives
This workshop aims to bring together archivists in central banks, commercial banks, and other financial institutions to discuss innovations in the field. The workshop will focus on two areas of innovation in archival practice.
- What new tools are archivists using to acquire and appraise materials and make their collections available?
- What new forms of materials are archivists collecting, and what are the unique challenges of those materials? In particular, did the most recent financial crisis present new challenges or opportunities?
The workshop will also feature an “archives showcase” in which archivists will present underused or undiscovered materials in their collections, particularly those highlighting the work of central banks or banking institutions during financial crises, and potential sources for new research.
Day 2: Innovative responses to financial crises. archives based research
Keynote speech by Harold James
Policymakers, bankers, and monetary authorities are often required to develop innovative or unconventional solutions when faced with new problems, particularly during financial crises. For example, the Federal Reserve responded to the financial crisis of 2007-2009 with a number of new programs to address aspects of the crisis. We seek presentations of original research that make use of bank or central bank archives in the study of crises, particularly the innovative or unconventional responses of banks and policymakers to crises but submissions on other aspects of crises or banking are also welcome.
Populism and financial markets
- past, present, prospects -
25 Apr 2017
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
eabh lunch hour
eabh in cooperation with Allianz Global Investors
This talk will initiate a series of presentations that present analysis of the different episodes of populism in recent history as well as their effect on financial markets and investment returns. Just about three months after Donald Trump took office and with elections in France looming, there could not be a more timely moment to take a long-term data-based perspective on financial markets and populism.
The authors, Moritz Schularick (University of Bonn), Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) and Manuel Funke (Freie Universität Berlin), bring a brand-new perspective that goes beyond the political dimension of how to successfully deal with rising populism and the connected risks. Following their analyses, Stefan Hofrichter (Head of Global Economics & Strategy AllianzGI) will provide an outlook on the possible implications of current political developments on growth and global capital market risks.
Discussion with the audience is planned and all participants are kindly invited to join the discussants for a networking lunch kindly sponsored by Allianz Global Investors.
Workshop
Retail banking
1960s to 2020s
25 Nov 2016
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
eabh in cooperation with GUG.
In 1967 the American economist Raymond Goldsmith forecast the imminent decline of commercial high street banks. While necessary in the early stages of modern economic growth as a means of mobilizing savings and allocating capital, they would lose their usefulness as the financial structure of maturing economies diversified and new, more specialized financial institutions assumed their core functions. Goldsmith’s argument looked convincing.
By the mid-1960s commercial banks’ assets to GDP ratio was at a postwar low in many western countries, that is to say, economies were growing faster than the banks. At the same time that diversification did happen as countries started relaxing capital market controls and new institutions seized the opportunities. However, Goldsmith was fundamentally wrong. From its mid-1960s nadir, bank assets to GDP more or less exploded, to reach new, unprecedented peaks around the turn of the millennium. Commercial banks completely reinvented themselves as retail banks.
By the mid-1990s the retail banking model again started showing signs of strain in the form of declining profitability. Following the 2008 financial crisis retail banking entered a deep identity crisis – retail operations that had turned from profit centres into core problems. Is there a way forward for retail banking? If so, where should it go?
Please contact: c.hofmann@bankinghistory.org if you are interested in attending the event.
lunch hour
The rate of return on everything
Asset returns: a long term perspective
4 Nov 2016
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
eabh in cooperation with Allianz Global Investors
This talk will be the premiere presentation of Moritz Schularick’s (Professor at University of Bonn) recent study on the development of all asset returns during the 20th century in all industrial countries. In view of the current extremely low interest rates, his view on historical episodes with extraordinary low nominal and real interest rates promises interesting insights.
The underlying research: ‘The rate of return on everything, 1870-2015’ is based on a comparative study of returns on bonds, equities and housing for 17 countries. The results offer – for the first time ever – a comparative view on returns, volatilities, risk premia, etc. over a statistically significant period of time.
Based on Moritz’s argument, Stefan Hofrichter (Head of Global Economics & Strategy Allianz Global Investors) will continue to give an outlook to long-term asset returns taking into account current evaluations and historical parallels.
Discussion with the audience is planned and all participants are kindly invited to join the discussants for a networking lunch kindly sponsored by AllianzGI.
Summer School
Transparency and information management in financial institutions
From the inside out
14 Sep 2016
Madrid, Spain
eabh in cooperation with Banco de España.
Transparency is becoming an increasingly important theme, and mode of operation, in today’s financial institutions and global financial markets. This year’s eabh summer school will provide training on the latest developments in financial transparency and how financial archivists can serve their institutions’ need for evidence, information and corporate memory. In short: how can the archivist be managements’ best friend through understanding and using transparency?
We will focus on initiatives within financial institutions to improve internal transparency for better control and compliance, among financial institutions to achieve costs saving and to drive financial innovation, and then moving to discuss new regulatory demands for transparency and how they affect financial institutions in the European and the global context.
Conference
Financial Interconnections in History
Did financial globalisation increase or decrease stability?
29 Apr 2016
Vienna, Austria
Globalisation is perceived as an inevitable and irreversible phenomenon, the process of globalisation of financial markets however has not followed a deterministic path of inexorable progress.
Examining globalisation in the long term allows a more textured view of advances and reversals, acceleration and deceleration. This conference aims to explore the waves caused by financial innovation, technological and methodological changes as well as responses of markets and regulators to periodic bubbles and crises in the long run.
After 30 years of globalisation, there is an opportunity to reflect on the dramatic changes that took place in global financial markets on the eve of the globalisation of the 1990s and examine how the structures and patterns of global financial markets were established.
In the 1980s and 1990s a new wave of technologies and mathematical modelling transformed the nature and performance of international capital markets, prompting new entrants, new structures and new markets. In turn, these innovations generated fresh challenges for prudential supervision, risk assessment and regulation that persisted through the ensuing 30 years.
eabh in cooperation with OeNB (Oesterreichische Nationalbank).
Please note that modifications of the programme are still viable at this point and we apologise for any inconvenience that might incur.
Archival Workshop
Archives Online
It's all about choices
28 Apr 2016
Vienna, Austria
The workshop aims to present, deepen and expand the knowledge and skills related to financial institutions’ online archives. This content gives strategic advice for planning and implementing online archive projects to archivists and records managers.
The workshop will examine three aspects:
1) How to choose which information to provide online,
2) how to meet users’ expectations,
3) how to publish and disseminate data online.
A practical LAB session will close the workshop.
The training is free for eabh members and carries a minimal charge for non-members.
Please note that this program is subject to change. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Conference
Origins of Banking Globalization
The Experience of Spain and Latin America
17 Feb 2016
Santander, Spain
The process of globalization in banking and finance raises many questions about the origins, trajectories and patterns of internationalization in banking. The birth and development of banks in Latin America and Spain was relatively slow in the 19th century in comparison with other economies. During the first age of globalization (1870-1914) this slowly began to change as banks multiplied in number and size.Today, there are many examples of foreign banks operating in Latin America and Spain. This meeting will focus on the historical origins of the globalization of banks in Latin America and Spain.
eabh cooperation with Banco Santander, UCEIF & University of Cantabria.
Programme & Poster (English)
Programme & Poster (Spanish)
Conversation
Eurovision?
The Initial Period of Europe’s Monetary Union
29 Jan 2016
Florence, Italy
eabh Conversation on the record
The European Monetary Union and the introduction of the Euro in 1999 were unexpected achievements without precedent. At the initial period of the European Monetary Union the Community had high hopes and expectations. What happened to the hopes and objectives of the Treaty of Maastricht? Have some of them come true? Which crucial turning points or decisions in the history of the Union should and could be revised in order to avoid the mistakes of the past?
Let’s talk about it!
Workshop
Financial History of Europe
eabh oral history project
28 Jan 2016
Florence, Italy
Leading European experts (British Library, Historical Archives of the European Union, Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l´Europe) will share their knowledge about oral history projects.
Oral History offers us the unique opportunity to collect and preserve the memories, views and attitudes from a variety of people working in different positions in financial sector. Oral history recordings bring an additional dimension to modern financial archives.
The workshop will focus on the methodology of oral history:
- Identification of Material and Funding: How to set up a long term oral history project
- Planning and Managing: How to co-ordinate, transcribe, select and edit the collected testimonies
- Skill set: How to set up an interview?
- Laws and Ethics: How do e.g. confidentiality clauses in the financial sector affect projects?
- Equipment: Which are the technical requirements and possibilities and how can they be used to their fullest extent? Which documentation is needed alongside the recordings?
- Storage: short term and long term preservation of audio and video material
- Promotion and Access: How to present the project and its findings to a wider audience?
- Models: Presentations of exemplary oral history projects (in finance)