The federal government has chosen a bidding group led by the University of New South Wales (NSW) to be the new home of a $41 million financial research and education centre.
The University of NSW-led consortium was the winning bidder for the centre, initially announced in the 2010-11 federal budget.
In a joint announcement, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation Bill Shorten and Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Stoner said funding for the Centre for International Finance and Regulation included $12.1 million from the government over the next four years.
A further $17.5 million would come from New York University and the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre (CMCRC) and the Securities Industry Research Centre of the Asia-Pacific. The NSW government contribute $6 million and corporate sources, $6 million.
The centre would link academia, financial regulators, government and the financial industry. It would also put Australia at the forefront of regional and global examination of finance-sector developments and regulatory responses to them.
“I am very pleased to see the centre establish collaborative links with UCLA’s Fink Centre for Finance and Investments and the Stern School of Business at New York University,” Shorten said in a statement.
“These links will strengthen Australia as a financial centre for academic and professional research and study,” Shorten said.
The centre aimed to enhance understanding of global financial markets, their interconnectedness, and their influence on national economies. It would aim to examine ways of having an innovative financial system which fosters economic growth balanced with reduced risk.
CMCRC head Alex Frino will also receive $2 million to continue his research on high-frequency trading and what it does to the quality of financial markets.
“The winning bid will allow us to extend our research, specifically, on high frequency trading, ostensibly the most important global market development which is transforming the shape of global equities markets,” Frino said.
Frino’s latest research finding was that financial markets with HFT were less volatile, the opposite of what regulators had thought would occur.
