Sustainable Financial Innovation Centre (SFiC) Virtual Annual Conference

21-22 January 2021

Professor Victor Murinde presented a paper at the Sustainable Financial Innovation Centre (SFiC) Virtual Annual Conference held at the University of Birmingham on 21-22 January 2021. The conference was jointly convened by: Professor Douglas Cumming, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University and Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham; Professor Sofia Johan, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University; and Professor Hisham Farag, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.

Professor Murinde joined the theme on "Developments in Financial Technology" and presented his paper (co-authored with Morakinyo Adetutu and Kayode Odusanya of Loughborough University, Robert Lensink of the University of Groningen and Frank Ogbeide of the University of Benin) on "Network infrastructure, mobile financial technologies and financial inclusion: Evidence from a micro-spatial approach". The paper provides the first ever econometric assessment of the relevance of ICT infrastructure diffusion to the adoption of branchless banking technologies among the rural unbanked populations in developing countries. It also draws on a unique dataset that combines proprietary geo-referenced cell tower information with a spatially-explicit nationally representative micro-survey data; the former is made possible by cell tower equipment which facilitate wireless communication between phones and mobile networks, including radio antennas, transceivers, and amplifiers.

The launch of UN-ECA Economic Report on Africa 2020

15 December 2020

Professor Victor Murinde, AXA Professor in the School of Finance and Management and Director, Centre for Global Finance, moderated the High Level Panel Discussion at the launch of the UN-ECA flagship publication, the Economic Report on Africa 2020, on 15 December 2020. The report is on “Innovative Financing for Private Sector Development in Africa”. After the welcome and opening remarks by Dr. Vera Songwe, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of ECA, and the presentation of the report by Mr. William Lugemwa, Director of Private Sector Development and Finance Division at the ECA, Professor Murinde introduced the High Level Panel and lead the discussion. The panel members were Dr Retselisitsoe Adelai Matlanyane, Governor of the Central Bank of Lesotho; Dr Andrew Mwaba, Board of Directors, Bank of Zambia; Dr Louis Rene Peter Larose, Former Minister of Finance from Seychelles; Dr Iraj Abedian, Chief Executive of Pan-African Investment and Research Services; and Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, Advisor to the Vice Minister of Finance for Public Treasury, Egypt. The discussion acknowledged the Economic Report for Africa 2020 as a game-changing publication that identifies innovative financing instruments and mechanisms for accelerating the growth of the private sector in Africa, as a major pathway to inclusive and sustainable development in the continent.

Pan-African Scientific Research Council (PASRC): Mobilizing the African Research Community to Respond to COVID-19

The inaugural meeting of the Pan-African Scientific Research Council (PASRC) was held on Saturday 6th June 2020, via Zoom, co-ordinated from Princeton University and involving African researchers from all the continents of the world.

Professor Victor Murinde, SOAS University of London, who is a founding member of the Council, participated in the inaugural meeting and moderated the session on Global Engagement as well as the session on Fundraising.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the stark need for African institutions of higher education that can efficiently generate and transmit knowledge in times of crisis. Now more than ever, scientists and social scientists must come together to generate policy-relevant research.

To fill this vital need, African researchers have formed a Pan-African Scientific Research Council on the premise that “Research is not a luxury, but rather a survival strategy.” The Council was initiated by Leonard Wantchekon, a Professor of Politics at Princeton University and the Founder and President of African School of Economics (ASE), as part of his contribution to the ongoing global campaign to generate a robust and enduring international response to the Pandemic, including the letters to G20 country leaders on March 26 and April 7 by several economists and world leaders.

The Council will conduct original scientific and social science research focused on helping governments and societies respond to the novel coronavirus, through collaborative research initiatives involving epidemiologists, biochemists, biologists, and biostatisticians on one hand, and sociologists, economists, and other social scientists on the other.

Governing Global Digital Finance Expert Roundtable

Professor Victor Murinde was invited to join the “Governing Global Digital Finance Expert Rountable” together with a small, select group of leading experts to discuss the cross-border spill-over effects of Global Digital Finance Platforms on 18 May 2020. This event was initiated and hosted online by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The expert roundtable is the natural launchpad for the dialogue. It gathered a small, select group of leading experts to discuss the cross-border spill-over effects of Global Digital Finance Platforms and explore ways in which the governance of such platforms might take greater account of broader sustainable development concerns and be more inclusive of the voices of developing nations, often the most impacted by them. It identified the key issues and reflected on possible approaches to advance more inclusive, SDG-sensitized governance approaches to such platforms. It also set the dialogue forth on various technical pieces to explore.

Background

The disruption and reconfiguration of finance catalysed by digitalization provides a unique opportunity to better align finance with the SDGs, as strongly advocated by the UN Secretary General's Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs. The Task Force also pointed out that digitalization drives increasing returns to scale and market concentration, rapidly leading to the emergence of new giants of the global financial system with significant impact on the SDGs and on developing nations, a process exacerbated by the current COVID-19 crisis. The Task Force identified potential opportunities and risks, and decided to advance a dialogue to reflect on how the governance of such Global Digital Finance Platforms might take greater account of the SDGs and developing economy voices. The dialogue is co-Chaired by Achim Steiner and Patrick Njoroge, co-hosted by Switzerland and Kenya, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and jointly managed by UNDP and UNCDF.

Welcome new members to the Centre for Global Finance

We are delighted to welcome Athina Petropoulou and Efthymios Rizopoulos as Post-doctoral Research Fellows at the Centre for Global Finance (CGF), School of Finance and Management, SOAS University of London. Athina and Efthymios joined CGF on the 1st of May 2020.

Athina is responsible for various research tasks under the AXA Chair in Global Finance. She has joined us from the University of Bath. Her core research interests lie in the areas of banking, where she investigates credit risk, liquidity risk, efficiency and competition across alternative banking models (e.g., community banks). Her other research interests also include finance and financial econometrics and she has been involved in research projects at the University of Bath and the University of Kent. Her research work has been presented at leading international academic conferences such as IFABS and INFINITI among others.

Efthymios is working on the ESRC-DFID research project (ES/N013344/2) ‘Delivering Inclusive Financial Development and Growth’. He has joined us from the University of Manchester. His research focuses on market microstructure, market quality and fragmentation, liquidity and asset-pricing. His research interests also extend to financial technology, crypto currencies, banking, green finance, behavioural finance, algorithmic and high frequencies trading, capital and financial markets and FOREX. His work has been presented in major conferences such as the FMA 2018 European Conference, European Financial Management Association 2017 Annual Meeting, Financial Econometrics and Empirical Asset Pricing Conference, Kyle Conference: Market Mechanisms and their impact and others.