ICMA Centre

ICMA Centre The ICMA Centre at Henley Business School offers a range of undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education for financial markets.

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Before banks, nuns lent money: how convents helped power medieval Vienna's economy"Convent administrators tracked paymen...
19/06/2026

Before banks, nuns lent money: how convents helped power medieval Vienna's economy

"Convent administrators tracked payments, negotiated contracts and cultivated reputations for reliability. In a world where trust underpinned financial exchange, nuns became known as dependable creditors." - Dr Anna Molnár

Most people assume modern finance invented itself. It didn't.
Anna's research, published in The Conversation UK, traces how medieval convents became serious financial institutions in 15th century Vienna - long before formal banking existed.

When Vienna's Jewish community was expelled in 1420, a major source of credit vanished overnight. Convents stepped in. They had quietly accumulated capital through dowries and donations, lending systematically to households, artisans and institutions alike.

Women had always participated in these credit markets. But participation shifted from individual to institutional - collective structures amplifying what individuals couldn't do alone.

The lesson still holds. Healthy financial systems need trust, adaptability and diverse participants.

Read Anna's full article, here: https://hly.ac/4uEElyB

Space Data For National Resilience - a London Climate Action Week WorkshopHow do we actually use satellite data to prote...
04/06/2026

Space Data For National Resilience - a London Climate Action Week Workshop

How do we actually use satellite data to protect the UK from the effects of climate change? That's the question this workshop is trying to answer.

This outcomes-focused workshop brings together experts from space agencies, academia, industry, policy and government - not to talk in theory, but to match real-world challenges with real satellite Earth Observation solutions.

📅 Thursday 25th June
🕰️ 12:30 - 4:30 PM
🏢 ICMA Centre, Whiteknights campus, Reading
💷 Free
🎟️ https://hly.ac/3Ql5tog

Professor Simone Varotto puts it well: "This event is a valuable opportunity to bring together academia, industry, policy and end users around one of the most pressing challenges we face: responding to climate change... participants will explore how satellite data and Earth observation can deliver practical solutions for environmental security and national resilience."

If you have a stake in UK resilience - or you're curious about where space technology meets climate action - this is worth your afternoon. Students, staff and external organisations are all welcome.

Women in Finance and Accounting Scholarship - Still time to enterWomen are still underrepresented in finance and accoun...
22/05/2026

Women in Finance and Accounting Scholarship - Still time to enter

Women are still underrepresented in finance and accounting, especially at the top and more senior positions. Scholarships like this one exist for a reason - and if you've secured a place on any MSc in Finance or Accounting at Henley, this one's worth knowing about.

Seven scholarships of £5,000 each are available for the 2026/27 intake. No lengthy application process - if you hold an offer by 31 May, you'll automatically be considered. We will contact you to apply for a scholarship. One thing to note: if you don't receive a scholarship initially, unclaimed funds get reallocated and eligible students are reconsidered automatically.

31 May deadline is non-negotiable, so factor that into your timeline.

Click the link for full details and eligibility criteria: https://hly.ac/4fvjvOk

Accounting and Business Society named PQ Magazine Student Body of the Year 2026What sets this win apart is the story beh...
21/05/2026

Accounting and Business Society named PQ Magazine Student Body of the Year 2026

What sets this win apart is the story behind it. Following the loss of student Piratheesh Karunakaran (PK) in 2022, the society created an annual charity football match in his memory - raising over £7,400 for Papyrus, a young person's su***de prevention charity - while also running placement talks, networking socials, sports tournaments and a PwC LLP UK Partner & Director Q&A at Henley. Shortlisted last year, this time they took home the award.

Deepti Vohra, Early Careers Leader at PwC UK, said: "We're proud to see our partner university recognised as Student Body of the Year - a well-deserved reflection of the talent, commitment and community of its students."

Four students - Nathan Dean, Connor Mills, Katie Richards and Jack Bartle - attended the ceremony at the Bloomsbury Ballroom in London on 27 April to collect the award on behalf of the society.

The PQ Awards are now in their 23rd year and widely regarded as the "Oscars" of accountancy education.

Read the full announcement, here: https://hly.ac/4ukFXhB

19/05/2026

What happens to a company’s share price when a flood hits, a heatwave disrupts operations or insurance costs suddenly rise?
Climate change isn't just an environmental crisis - it's reshaping financial markets, stock prices and investment decisions right now. Transparency may be one of the most powerful tools companies have to navigate it.

"Physical climate risk disclosure reduces uncertainty about the risks of the company - and this is reflected positively on stock prices, particularly when there are extreme weather events." - Professor Simone Varotto

That's one of the key findings from our World of Work Institute's Leading Impact research series, in our spotlight on facing climate risk: finance, disclosure and resilience.

Drawing on four major studies, Professor Simone Varotto and Associate Professor Dr Alfonso Dufour examine how climate change is already reshaping financial markets - from mortgages and bonds to company valuations and stock prices - and where financial systems are most vulnerable.

The findings point to clearer reporting and better-informed policy as the keys to strengthening that resilience.

To read the full article, visit: https://hly.ac/3RkgNRK

How AI investment models could execute errors a million times fasterMost of us think about risk in terms of geopolitical...
13/05/2026

How AI investment models could execute errors a million times faster

Most of us think about risk in terms of geopolitical uncertainty or market volatility. But what about the risks sitting quietly inside the models themselves?

Professor Radu Tunaru has a warning that should make anyone in financial services stop and think. He told the Financial Times' Simoney Kyriakou on the latest FTAdviser episode of Margin Notes that AI and quantum computing mean we can execute things at extraordinary speed - but that cuts both ways.

"The regulators will not have the time to see it, digest it, and to react to it. So, this problem can become a huge issue in the next decade, depending on how AI is implemented."

He also challenges the sacred principle of diversification, saying it “often fails during times of crisis.”

Click the link to read the full article and find the podcast episode. https://hly.ac/4dm04oo

Congratulations to our PhD student, Mo Zhang, who received the European Accounting Association (EAA) Award at the Britis...
07/05/2026

Congratulations to our PhD student, Mo Zhang, who received the European Accounting Association (EAA) Award at the British Accounting & Finance Association (BAFA) Annual Conference with Doctoral Masterclasses 2026, recently.

Mo received her award from BAFA President Professor Joan Ballantine and Doctoral Masterclass Chair Professor Kevin McMeeking. She presented her paper on digital reporting and disclosure complexity, co-authored with her supervisor, Dr Jessica Hong Yang, and was selected by an independent panel - one of only two recipients in 2026. The award comes with two years of EAA membership, funding towards the EAA Annual Congress in 2027, and access to the ARC Peer Mentoring Initiative.

A brilliant achievement, Mo - thoroughly well deserved.

Some of the most valuable conversations in research happen away from the headlines. On 11th May, we’re hosting a Corpora...
05/05/2026

Some of the most valuable conversations in research happen away from the headlines.

On 11th May, we’re hosting a Corporate Finance and Banking Workshop - bringing together leading academic researchers to present and debate frontier work across corporate finance, banking, and financial intermediation.

This year's topics cut right to the heart of where the field is heading - AI in corporate governance, venture debt, and biodiversity transition risk. With speakers joining from the Bank of England, London School of Economics, and the University of Durham, it promises to be a genuinely rich day of scholarly exchange.

Open to Henley staff, students, PhD researchers, and affiliates.

Room G-09, ICMA Centre.

To register, email: [email protected]

Cyber security, AI and SMEs were the themes explored when Professor Simone Varotto recently spoke at the Business Leader...
29/04/2026

Cyber security, AI and SMEs were the themes explored when Professor Simone Varotto recently spoke at the Business Leaders Forum on Cyber Security, hosted by Marsh Risk and Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The discussion reinforced why business leaders need to think about cyber risk in terms of resilience as well as prevention. As AI widens the attack surface, awareness, preparedness and recovery become even more important.

During his presentation, Simone highlighted several key points:

👉 AI may increase cyber vulnerability by helping attackers identify entry points faster and target supply chains
👉 Cybersecurity is now one of the top risks on UK financial institutions’ radar, according to the Bank of England’s latest systemic risk survey
👉 SMEs may carry significant hidden cyber risk, often with fewer resources and less visibility into internal vulnerabilities
👉 Cyber insurance can support resilience, but major tail events raise difficult insurability questions, with the Geneva Association, OECD, Lloyd’s and Swiss Re all highlighting capacity, exclusion and systemic-risk challenges

As Simone put it: “Cyber risk is a business resilience issue, not just an IT issue. Many SMEs may be more vulnerable because they have fewer resources and less visibility into hidden cyber weaknesses.”

For businesses of every size, the message is clear: cyber resilience is no longer optional.

Geopolitics and markets: could tensions trigger another Black Monday?"Whether we experience another crash on the scale o...
08/04/2026

Geopolitics and markets: could tensions trigger another Black Monday?

"Whether we experience another crash on the scale of Black Monday 1987 remains to be seen. Major crises tend to require two key ingredients: significant risk exposure and a clear trigger event." - Professor Radu Tunaru

Black Monday, 1987. US markets fell nearly 22% in a single day - not because of faulty trading systems, but because of US-Iran military conflict in the days before.

Sound familiar?

With Iran once again at the centre of geopolitical tension, Professor Radu Tunaru's latest piece in Professional Wealth Management draws a direct line between today's climate - falling South Korean equities, AI stock concerns, rising gold and oil - and the conditions that preceded that crash.

The takeaway? When panic sets in and herding behaviour takes over, diversification may offer less protection than we think.

Click the link to read the full article: https://hly.ac/4txvcrA

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RG66BA

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Wednesday 9am - 5pm
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