FORE organizes International Finance Conference on Changing Landscape in Banking and Finance: Disruptions, Innovations, and Regulations

International Finance Conference organized by FORE School of Management

The conference was also live-cast in the form of a webinar. Day-1 focused mainly on inaugural, plenary, and technical sessions covering introduction to the theme and presentation of the accepted research papers. Whereas, Day-2 of the conference also involved an editorial talk with distinguished speakers from several global esteemed journals, followed by a valedictory session.

The inaugural session was addressed by Prof. Vikas Pandey, Conference Convenor, FIFC 2022 and Dr. Jitendra Das, Conference Chair, FIFC 2022 and Director, FORE School of Management;& Director General FORE, the keynote address by Prof. Shyam V. Sunder Lou Myers, Chair & Professor of Accounting, Eller College of Management at University of Arizona; and special address by Mr. Neeraj Kulshreshtha, Chief Regulatory Officer, BSE Ltd. Mumbai; Dr. Vinayshil Gautam, Vice-chairman, FORE School of Management, ex-Emeritus Chair Professor, IIT Delhi, and Founder Director, IIM Kozhikode; Ms. Sanchita Mukherjee, Co-founder & Partner, Blue Edge Multi-family Office; Dr. Vijay Singh Chauhan, Commissioner of Customs (conference chief guest).

Prof. Vikas Pandey, Conference Convenor, FIFC 2022, shared his insights on how this disruption has led to better financial stability and investment planning habits amongst consumers post-pandemic. He said, "It is not technology that is destructive or constructive but how we use it. And, it is up to the regulators how it is taken forward."

Mr. Neeraj Kulshreshtha, Chief Regulatory Officer, BSE Ltd. Mumbai, shared some interesting use cases on how the theme of disruption and innovation is also being used to make way for better regulatory methods.

Dr. Jitendra Das, Director, FORE School of Management, accentuated the fact that all government policies and notable innovations are based on research and complex intellectual interactions. "Our objective is to help students and attendees comprehend nuances of high-quality publishing, improve their ability to write, and understand what to focus on when publishing papers."

With the plenary session, the conference thus shifted focus to research. The special guest for this session, Prof. Raghavendra Rau, Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance, Cambridge Judge Business School, spoke about his research interest in the context of investor expectations and firm value. He shared that the focus in corporate finance has largely changed to shareholder-wealth-maximization.

In terms of research methods, Prof. Raghavendra's views denoted, "Shareholders - firms, intermediaries, and investors - suffer from behavioral biases, and their behavior changes when the government rules change. So, taking government as an exogenous force that affects all these players can help look into various perspectives and give broader insight into research."

The technical part of the session was then planned to allow students, practitioners, and researchers around the world to present their papers for a methodological review. However, out of 100 papers received, only 60 were accepted and registered for the conference.

The valedictory session was addressed by Mr. Pankaj Madan, Vice-President, Finance Qualitest Group; and special address by Dr. Jitendra Mahakud, Professor of Economics and Finance, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. Sudhir Rana, Associate Professor, College of Healthcare Management & Economics, and Editor-in-Chief, FIIB Business Review; and Prof. Vandana Gupta, Co-convenor, FIFC, and Area-Chair (Accounting & Finance), FORE School of Management.

Mr. Pankaj Madan, Vice-President, Finance Qualitest Group, shared his practitioner's views on finance, research, and leadership. He said, "It is important to stay rooted and understand your basics. Give first few years of your career to understanding that. This will give you an edge and you will be able to proactively seek solutions to problems and not just answers to questions."

Prof. Sudhir Rana, Editor-in-Chief, FIIB Business Review, agreed with Mr. Pankaj Madan that management scholars can bring in their perspective to solve problems related to any field as they have a lot of autonomy. He, however, added, "You can be an impactful scholar only if your research is able to guide somebody and provide them a structure."

Prof. Vandana Gupta, Co-convenor, FIFC, and Area-Chair (Accounting & Finance), FORE School of Management, announced that the editors also conducted a blind review, based on which, the paper titled "Does Corporate Diversification affect Corporate Cash holdings? Evidence from India by Vedika Saxena and Seshadev Sahoo" won the Best Research Paper Award and a cash prize of INR 5000/-. She also took some time to summarize the main take-home points from the various sessions and concluded the conference with a vote of thanks to all the panelists, guests, students, and faculty.