Call For Papers
9th Annual Bank Research Conference: 2009 Governance and Compensation in the Financial Services Industry
Jointly organized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Center for Financial Research and the Journal of Financial Services Research (JFSR)

The FDIC’s Center for Financial Research and the JFSR invite submissions for the 9th Annual Fall Research Conference to be held in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday, September 17, and Friday, September 18, 2009. The on-going financial sector crisis has focused attention on compensation and governance practices. It has been alleged that compensation and governance systems reward management for risk taking and short term profits and the size and scope of corporate operations expanded at the expense of shareholders and taxpayers. In response to incentives, the management of many financial services firms pursued investment strategies that proved to be unsustainable despite extensive resources devoted to prudential oversight and financial stability monitoring. Recent events highlight the need to examine the management incentives and governance structures in place in the financial services industry, including the supervisory agencies and central banks that regulate and service the industry.

The 9th Annual FDIC-JFSR conference will provide a forum to discuss these issues related to compensation and governance structure of financial service providers and regulators. The program committee encourages the submission of papers on topics that include:

• Impact of compensation practices on systemic instability and efficient allocation of private savings
• Compensation structures, governance practices and the creation of value for stakeholders at large.
• Role of mark-to-market in introducing volatility in the firms’ earnings and management compensation
• Large complex financial institutions: Too-Big-To-Manage?
• Policies and practices to be changed to protect the interests of shareholders, consumers, taxpayers and savers
• Impact of government consumer protection on risky borrowing and lending
• Safety nets’ implications for profits in the financial services sector
• Does the framework for monitoring and regulating the industry create the proper incentives for controlling financial sector risks?
• Anglo-American versus the Franco-German corporate governance systems: which one fared better?

In conjunction with the conference, on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 the FDIC’s Center for Financial Research and the Federal Housing Finance Agency will host a one-day symposium: Improving Assessment of Default Risk of Single-Family Mortgages. There is a separate call for papers for the symposium, but conference participants are welcome to attend the symposium as well.

Papers will be selected for presentation based on reviews by associate editors of the JFSR and the organizing committee (Paul Kupiec and Haluk Unal). Selected papers may be invited for JFSR submission. Expenses for travel, food, and lodging will be reimbursed for paper presenters. Papers must be received by June, 30 2009. Authors will be notified about the status of their papers by July 31, 2009. Please submit papers as "pdf" attachments to an email sent to CFR@fdic.gov. Please name the file: "YourLastName.pdf." For additional information, contact Paul Kupiec (202) 898-6768 (pkupiec@fdic.gov) or Haluk Unal (301) 405–2256 (hunal@rhsmith.umd.edu).