The 39th International Conference of the French Finance Association at KEDGE on the 5, 6 et 7 of june 2023. A solid success!

KEDGE hosts the 39th annual conference of the French Finance Association (AFFI)

An event with high academic visibility, in part thanks to two academic stars keynote speakers:

• Viral Acharya of NYU Stern
• Thorsten Beck of the Florence School of Banking

These internationally renowned researchers are regularly invited to participate on international panels designed to reform banking regulations with a focus on stabilizing financial systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Our 260 participants relate that they enjoyed the academic quality, the quality of our school’s hosting and the culinary events during the three conference days.

Newsworthy exchanges during the round tables 

During the June 6 round table sponsored by CM-Arkéa, panel participants discussed how global performance can be related to the resilience of banks to current and future crises.

• Alain Petit-Jean of the Groupe Alpha "We must not forget that global performance in addition to social end environmental criteria includes customer service and experience. Some French banks may be less profitable than their American counterparts, but that is because they are focused on maintaining client proximity and this choice is more costly".
• Ms Flochlay of CM Arkéa spoke about the methodology that was developed in-house at CM Arkéa and she emphasized the need for banks to communicate more on financial products targeting impact investments. She also pointed out that because CM Arkéa is not subject to short-term equity market pressures it is more able to plan for the long-term and adopt resilient approaches.
•  Laurent Weill of l'IEP Strasbourg reminded the audience that the superior profitability of American banks should normalized by the level of risk taken, which would give a fairer picture.
•  M. Visnovsky of ACPR emphasized that contrary to what is often portrayed in the media the lending volume of French banks has been expanding in recent months.

During the June 7 round table that was sponsored by Candriam. Our panel participants discussed the construction and relevancy of ESG criteria for investment decisions.

• Grégoire Cousté of FIR, spoke about the difference between the American and European approaches, in which Europe emphasizes that double materiality matters more.
• JF Boulier of A2fi spoke about the various experiences of a group of French companies surveyed about their social and environmental investments.
•  Viral Acharya of NUY Stern shared the importance of integrating data from climate scientists in ESG approaches. He also proposed that regulations regarding extra-financial reporting include stress tests, the same way it is happening nowadays for banks to anticipate worst case scenarios.

The conference’s numbers

A big thank you to our partners and sponsors

• Candriam
• CM Arkéa
• Groupe Alpha
• In Extenso
• Eurofidai

And a special thanks to Fondation KEDGE for their support.

Photos

Several Prizes were awarded during the Gala Diner:

 Best Conference Paper Award:

• Christian Steiner and Philip Valta for: "Does insider trading around Loan Amendments predict stock returns"

President: Carole Bernard of Grenoble Ecole de Management.

Committee: Franck Moraux (IGR-IAE Rennes); Selma Boussetta (Bordeaux School of Economics); Joël Petey (Sciences Po. Strasbourg).

Best Article in Sustainable Finance

• Dajana Jata, Nicolas Rautureau & Benoit Sevi for "How useful are ESG ratings to mitigate climate change?"

President: Prof. Christophe Revelli, KEDGE BS, head Candriam/Kedge Chair.

Committee: Michèle Van Weeren (LSE); Luis Ortiz-Reyes (KEDGE BS); Thomas Lagoarde-Ségot (KEDGE BS); Christophe Faugère (KEDGE BS).

Best PhD Workshop article:

• Aleksandr Ermakov for “Believe it or not: The role of investor beliefs for private equity valuation”

President: Prof. Jessica Fouilloux-Thomasset, IAE Bordeaux.

Committee: Jean-Etienne Palard (IAE Bordeaux); Vincent Maymo (IAE Bordeaux); Jessica Fouilloux Thomasset (IAE Bordeaux) ; Joanne Hamet (IAE Bordeaux) ; Pascal Barneto (IAE Bordeaux) ; Maxime Debon (Université d’Evry), Jean-Marc Figuet  (BSE); Selma Boussetta (BSE)

Best AFFI PhD Thesis award Corporate Finance

• Quentin Moreau for “Trois Essais en Finance Durable”

President: Prof. Hubert Tchakouté, Kedge Business School.

Committee: Jean-François Gajewski (IAE Lyon); Karima Bouaiss (Université de Lille); Sabri Boubaker (EM Normandie).

Best AFFI Best AFFI PhD Thesis award Financial Markets

• Keyvan Kiani for « Jeux Généralisés et Applications en Economie et Finance : Jeux avec Contrainte Partagée, Stress Tests et Régulation Bancaire »

President : Prof. Philippe Bertrand (IAE Aix Graduate School of Management - Aix Marseille Université).

Committee : Christophe Faugère (KEDGE BS), Joël Petey (Sc. Po. Strasbourg) et Jean-Luc Prigent (Université Cergy).

Best paper published in AFFI journal Finance in 2022

• Hamid Boustanifar for “Bankruptcy reform, credit availability and financial distress”

Best paper GGH award honoring the memory of historian Georges Gallais-Hamonno

• Marco Molteni for “Financial development, overbanking, and bank failures during the Great Depression: new evidence from Italy”

President: Dr. Amir Rezaee, Secretary General of the GGH Prize