The 2015 Annual Meeting of the Asian Finance Association (Asian FA) was convened in Hunan University (HNU) during June 30-July 1, themed “Financial Innovation, Financial Stability and Economic Development”. The meeting provided a platform for several hundred of experts and scholars in finance and economics worldwide to exchange ideas and discuss issues like progress and trends of financial markets, reform and innovation of financial systems, and relations between human capital and economic development. Vice Chairman of the CPPCC Hunan Provincial Committee Lai Mingyong attended the meeting. HNU President Zhao Yueyu met with the present representatives while Vice President Zhang Qiang addressed the opening ceremony.

At the meeting, Prof. Robert C. Merton, the Nobel Prize winner in Economic Science in 1997, and distinguished professor of MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the honorary professor of Harvard University, was invited to give a keynote speech on “The Role of Financial Innovation and Science in Financial Stability and Economic Growth”. Prof. Randall Morck from the University of Alberta lectured on “Economic Implication of the Structure of Financial Risk”.

The 2015 Annual Meeting of the Asian FA aimed at promoting international academic exchanges, predicting the trend of academic research in finance, establishing international cooperative relationships and propelling talent cultivation and the development of finance. About 180 academic papers were accepted for the meeting and 7 sessions were held for paper presentation and discussion at the same time.

Translated by Zhou Xin