Regulating the Financial System and the Real Economy Symposia
Organised and hosted by the Centre for Responsible Banking & Finance, and Department of Finance at the University of St Andrews Business School, the Regulating the Financial System and the Real Economy symposia seek to advance scholarly and policy-relevant understanding of how economic and financial regulation shapes the financial system and the real economy.
The symposia encourage sustained dialogue between academic researchers, policymakers and practitioners in order to improve mutual understanding and generate insights that inform the design of robust regulatory policies that promote a safe and sound financial system and dynamic, innovative and resilient real economy.
Previous symposia
Topics in Financial Regulation Symposium – 29 April 2025
The CRBF hosted the Topics in Financial Regulation Symposium as part of the symposia series, in Spring 2025. This event brought together prominent academics, policymakers and industry practitioners to discuss contemporary challenges in financial regulation. Professor John Wilson opened the event, emphasising the critical role of rigorous, evidence-based regulation in ensuring financial stability and maintaining public trust, while highlighting the symposium as an important platform for knowledge exchange and policy influence.
Presentations covered diverse subjects, including:
- emergency lending and moral hazard – Dr John Kandrac, Federal Reserve Board
- liquidity regulation and bank lending under unconventional monetary policies – Professor Barbara Casu, Bayes Business School
- the distributional impacts of banking regulation in Europe – Dr Melina Ludolph, Halle Institute for Economic Research
- implicit guarantees and bank stability – Dr Anna Lucia Sobiech, University of Cologne
- a critical evaluation of the FCA’s 2019 overdraft policy – David Farmer, Financial Conduct Authority.
Each presentation was enriched by expert commentary from discussants from the Universities of St Andrews and Glasgow. The event, organised by Professor John Wilson, Dr Christian Engels, Sumit Bains, and Kirsty Forbes, reinforced CRBF’s commitment to impactful, policy-oriented financial regulation research.
See more about the April 2025 symposium.
Topics in Economic Regulation Symposium – 2 October 2024
In October 2024, the CRBF hosted the Topics in Economic Regulation Symposium: Digital Markets and Consumer Choice & Behaviour at the University of St Andrews Business School. Bringing together academics, regulators and industry practitioners, the workshop explored how artificial intelligence and other digital technologies are reshaping market dynamics and consumer decision-making. Dr Sapnoti Eswar offered the welcome, and Professor Mark Brewer, Dean of the Business School, delivered the plenary introduction, stressing the need for evidence-based regulation to foster fair, competitive and innovative digital markets.
Across four themed sessions, speakers examined current regulatory challenges. Highlights included:
- the CMA’s initial review of AI foundation model – Abbi Crisswell
- a trading-app experiment on digital engagement practices – Cameron Gilchrist, FCA
- social-media influences on online news – Tom Farrell, Ofcom
- consumer attitudes to digital assets – Colin Higgins, FCA
- Wowcher’s online choice architecture – Helen Ferguson and Abhi Ranasinghe Arachchige, CMA.
Further papers analysed:
- retail-market definition using card-spending data – Samir Doshi, CMA
- price-level data for different household groups – Hannah Randolph, University of Strathclyde
- early gender income gaps among children – Christian Engels, University of St Andrews
- consumer choices on the path to net-zero – Camilla Barnett, Consumer Scotland
- behavioural-economics approaches to online safety – Amy Hume, Ofcom.
The lively exchanges underscored CRBF’s commitment to connecting cutting-edge research with regulatory practice in the digital economy.