Organisation

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

Owning Institution:

University of New South Wales

Macquarie University

University of Technology Sydney

Government of Australia

Government of New South Wales

University of Sydney

University of Melbourne

Australian National University

The Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR) was a Centre of Excellence operating from 2011 to 2016 to address fundamental issues affecting the Australian financial industry. CIFR’s mission was to promote financial sector vibrancy, resilience and integrity, supporting Australia as a regional financial centre through leading research and education on systemic risk, market and regulatory performance and financial market developments. CIFR funded 71 research projects, involving well over 100 researchers from domestic and international universities.

For Australia’s financial industry, CIFR provided a strategic link between academia, policy-makers, regulators and other industry participants. Now closed, the Centre's output of 148 papers are all available at this publisher page.

Working paper

The Nature of Competition in Australian Retail Banking

30 Nov 2015

Rob Nicholls,

Carolyn Evans

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

Emerging rather less scarred than many from the most recent global financial crisis in 2008, Australia has a banking and finance industry evidencing long-term stability, but moderate to high concentration as a result of long prevailing policy. In 2015, whether that level of concentration signifies less than desirable levels of competition is very much a...

Working paper

Competition in Australian retail banking: how much is enough and options to facilitate more

30 Nov 2015

Deborah Healey,

Rob Nicholls,

Charlotte Penel

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

In a retail banking sector characterised by both high concentration and low consumer switching, questions arise for Australian policy makers and regulators as to the effectiveness of competition as one important means by which economic outcomes are engendered, including innovation beneficial to consumers and consumer welfare generally. Such questions include the appropriate response to ‘digital...

Working paper

Balancing competition and stability in Australian retail banking

30 Nov 2015

Deborah Healey,

Rob Nicholls

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

The Australian Government initiated two major reviews in 2014: the Financial System Inquiry and the Competition Policy Review. These have highlighted policy trade-off between competition and financial stability. Since the global financial crisis, policymakers and economic researchers internationally have highlighted the need for prudential regulation while sidelining the importance of competition. The working paper argues...

Working paper

The determinants and outcomes of bank risk governance after the crisis: An international study

31 Oct 2015

Shane Magee,

Sue Wright,

Meeline Li

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

This paper extends Ellul and Yerramilli’s (2013) risk governance index for U.S. banks to international banks across 33 countries, using that index to examine relations between national codes of governance, individual bank risk governance and both risk and performance outcome measures in periods before, during and after the financial crisis. We focus on the post-crisis...

Working paper

The Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law: Lessons for Australian banks and Chinese regulators

1 Oct 2015

Deborah Healey,

Zhang Chenying

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

This research project compares the application of the competition laws of China and Australia to bank mergers, against financial regulatory frameworks and the dual objectives of competition and economic stability. As the title indicates, it seeks to identify lessons for Australian banks and Chinese regulators. A number of features dictate that the two jurisdictions will...