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

Testing the effect of portfolio holdings disclosure in an environment absent of mandatory disclosure

30 Jun 2014

Zhe Chen,

David R. Gallagher,

Adrian Lee

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

An effective portfolio disclosure regime must balance both its costs and benefits across the entire financial services industry. This study examines a number of disclosure regimes with respect to accuracy and susceptibility to copycat behaviour in an environment absent of mandatory disclosure. We find that periodic portfolio disclosure tends to underestimate true excess performance as...

Working paper

E‐MONEY KNOWLEDGE PRODUCT: Trust law protections for e‐money customers

30 Jun 2014

Jonathan Greenacre,

Ross Buckley

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

At the request of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s Pacific Islands Working Group (PIWG), the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme (PFIP)3 contracted Jonathan Greenacre, a consultant, to analyse the trust arrangements used by e-money issuers in the following Pacific countries: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu (collectively termed ‘Pacific focus countries’ in this document)...

Working paper

Securities lending, empty voting and corporate governance

31 May 2014

Paul Ali,

Ian Ramsay,

Benjamin B. Saunders

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

This paper examines the corporate governance implications of securities loans, in particular the impact of securities loans on shareholders’ voting rights and the control of listed Australian companies. The paper considers whether the current regulatory framework for securities loans in Australia adequately addresses the concerns associated with securities loans and whether reform is required in...

Working paper

The Legal Structure and Regulation of Securities Lending

31 May 2014

Paul Ali,

Ian Ramsay,

Benjamin B. Saunders

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

This paper examines the legal structure of securities lending in Australia, and also Europe, the United Kingdom and United States. It provides an analysis of the widely used industry documents, the Australian Master Securities Lending Agreement and the Global Master Securities Lending Agreement (GMSLA). It outlines the regulation of securities lending and short selling, including...

Working paper

Sovereign Wealth Funds: the good guy investment actors

31 May 2014

George Gilligan,

Justin O'Brien,

Megan Bowman

Centre for International Finance and Regulation

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have been portrayed in some quarters as potential bad guys in global financial markets due to their supposed political as opposed to commercial intentions and influence. However, two key international developments during and since the 2008/2009 Global Financial Crisis have prompted some abatement in the hostility and mistrust displayed towards SWFs...