The Past Speaks

I would like to promote an important upcoming event that has been organized by the European Business History Association (EABH).  The event, which is taking place at the Austrian central bank, will be of interest to all those who do research in bank archives. The event on bank archives will be followed the next day by a very interesting  conference on Financial Interconnections in History: Did financial globalisation increase or decrease stability?

28 April 2016
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Hauptanstalt
Otto-Wagner-Platz 3
1090 Vienna
Austria
The workshop aims to present, deepen and expand the knowledge and skills related to financial institutions’ online archives. It aims to support archivists and records managers in strategically planning and implementing the online presentation of their institutions’ archives.
The workshop will examine three aspects:
1) How to choose which information to provide online,
2) how to meet users’ expectations,
3) how to publish and disseminate data online.
A practical LAB session will close the workshop.
The training is free for EABH members and carries a minimal charge for non-members.

 

Financial Interconnections in History: Did financial globalisation increase or decrease stability?

29 Apr 2016
Vienna, Austria

Globalisation is perceived as an inevitable and irreversible phenomenon, the process of globalisation of financial markets however has not followed a deterministic path of inexorable progress.
Examining globalisation in the long term allows a more textured view of advances and reversals, acceleration and deceleration. These waves are caused by financial innovation, technological and methodological changes as well as responses of markets and regulators to periodic bubbles and crises. While aspects of the ‘Great Reversal’ of the 1930s has been well documented, the advances and retreats toward globalisation from the 1960s onward have been less well understood. After 30 years of globalisation, there is an opportunity to reflect on the dramatic changes that took place in global financial markets on the eve of the globalisation of the 1990s and examine how the structures and patterns of global financial markets were established.

In the 1980s and 1990s a new wave of technologies and mathematical modelling transformed the nature and performance of international capital markets, prompting new entrants, new structures and new markets. In turn, these innovations generated fresh challenges for prudential supervision, risk assessment and regulation that persisted through the ensuing 30 years.

This conference will explore these themes from a longer term perspective as well as drawing on the experience and testimony of participants in the transformation of markets in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Please note that modifications of the programme are still viable at this point and we apologise for any inconvenience that might incur.

08.00 – 08.15 Welcome Coffee
08.15 – 08.30 Welcome Address

Ewald Nowotny, Governor Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Carmen Hofmann, Secretary General eabh
08.30 – 08.45 Introduction

Hugo Bänziger, Partner at Lombard Odier and Chairman of eabh

08.45 – 09.15 Keynote

Marc Flandreau, Graduate Institute Geneva

‘Anthropology and finance: financial history of Victorian science’

09.15 – 10.15 Panel One: Austria and the World

1.) Clemens Jobst, Oesterreichische Nationalbank

‘Opportunities and risks of regional globalisation of the Austrian banking sector in the interwar period – similarities and differences to today’

2.) Aurel Schubert, European Central Bank

‘Opportunities and risks of regional globalisation of the Austrian banking sector in the interwar period – similarities and differences to today’

3.) Stefan Schmitz, Oesterreichische Nationalbank

‘OeNB’s reaction to the collapse of the Bretton Woods System in 1971’

Moderator: Walter Antonowicz, Oesterreichische Nationalbank
10.15 – 11.00 Panel Two: Insurance and Bubbles in History

1.) Robin Pearson, University of Hull: ‘What was the role of Empire in the internationalization of British insurance?’

2.) Stefan Hofrichter, Allianz Global Investors
‘Asset Bubbles in History’

Moderator: tba
11.00 – 11.15 Coffee break
11.15 – 12.45 Panel Three: Waves of Globalisaton: The big Technological change of the 1990s (oral history)

1.) Andreas Gottschling, Erste Bank

2.) Kay Haigh, Morgan Stanley

3.) Mick Wood, former Deutsche Bank

Moderator: Hugo Bänziger, Lombard Odier
12.45 – 13.45 lunch
13.45 – 14.45 Panel Four: Globalisation and Financial Crises in Emerging Economies (19th-20th century)

1.) Juan Flores, University of Geneva

‘Revolutionaries, caudillos and financial markets: Winners and losers from Latin America’s first debt crisis

2.) Sebastian Alvarez, University of Geneva
‘Playing with fire? The internationalization and condition of Mexican banks prior to the 1982 debt crisis’

3.) Ali Coskun Tuncer, Universtiy College of London
‘Sovereign default, foreign control and political resistance in the European periphery before 1914’

Moderator: Piet Clement, Bank for International Settlements
14.45 – 15.45 Panel Five: Selected Research

1.) Markus Lampe, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien

‘Bilateral flows of postal money orders’

2.) Andrea Papadia, London School of Economics

‘Sovereign default during the Great Depression: New evidence for the case that fiscal resilience matters more than debt levels’

Nuno Palma, University of Groningen

‘Danger to the old lady of Threadneedle Street?The Bank of England, financial intermediation, and the regime shift to paper money (1797-1821)’

Moderator: Catherine Schenk, University of Glasgow
15.45 – 16.00 Coffee break
16.00 – 16.30 Concluding Remarks

Catherine Schenk, University of Glasgow
16.30 – 17.00 Closing reception
17.00 End of annual meeting