The regulatory framework of the banking sector has expanded and become more sophisticated in recent decades. First, there were the changes arising from the financial crisis - new prudential requirements and macroprudential criteria, advances in Banking Union. More recently, the challenges associated with the competitiveness of the European financial sector, digitalisation, and new forms of money and payment methods.
All the banking regulation decisions made along this journey have had direct consequences on the financing of the real economy as a whole and on the competitiveness of entities. With the aim of promoting academic research on this impact and contributing to a better understanding and evaluation of its effects, the banking association CECA and the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of Comillas ICADE have created the first Chair of Banking Regulation in Spain.
“The Chair is born with a clear mission which is to generate applied academic knowledge on the economic effects of banking regulation, with a view to better underpinning the decisions made in the regulatory field,” explains Teresa Herrero, Director of Studies at CECA and one of the co-directors of the chair. The direction will be shared with José María Abad, a professor in the Department of Economics at Comillas ICADE.
In this framework, the new Chair will promote academic publications, conferences, and seminars specialised in banking regulation. Furthermore, the signing of collaboration agreements with prestigious international universities is planned to develop joint research and training projects.
The organisation of an annual conference on banking regulation is also foreseen, which will bring together researchers, regulators, and professionals from the sector to foster technical dialogue and knowledge exchange.
During its first year of operation, the 2026-2027 academic year, the Chair will focus a significant part of its research activity on the analysis of regulatory simplification measures and the improvement of banking competitiveness.
Apart from its co-directors, the Chair has an Advisory Council responsible for defining research lines at the beginning of each academic year and supporting the research team in the execution of projects.