For the third consecutive year, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) served as a co-host of the China International Conference in Finance (CICF) held in Hong Kong on June 26-29, 2026.
This year, CKGSB ran the event alongside CICF’s founding host, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and leading business schools in Hong Kong and mainland China including the business schools of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, and The University of Hong Kong.
Widely regarded as Asia’s largest and most academically rigorous international finance conference, CICF is also recognized as one of the world’s four leading international finance conferences, alongside the annual meetings of the American Finance Association (AFA), the European Finance Association (EFA), and the Western Finance Association (WFA).
This year’s conference received a historic 2,107 submissions from researchers across five continents, with 257 papers accepted. The program featured a record 65 academic sessions and 402 presenters and discussants.
The 2026 conference was the first CICF to be held in Hong Kong since the conference was founded in 2002. Nearly 900 scholars from leading universities and research institutions across Asia, North America, and Europe attended in person, highlighting CICF’s growing influence as a global platform for academic exchange in finance.
A major milestone at this year’s conference was the official establishment of the CICF Association. The new organization represents an important evolution of CICF from an annual international conference into a more enduring and globally connected academic community.
Professor Neng Wang, CKGSB’s Distinguished Dean’s Chair Professor of Finance and Senior Associate Dean, was appointed President of the CICF Association, reflecting the international finance community’s recognition of his academic achievements and impact, while also highlighting CKGSB’s growing role in the global finance research field.
The association’s inaugural Executive Committee brings together internationally renowned scholars of Chinese heritage in finance. Professor Wei Xiong of Princeton University serves as President-Elect, Professor Hui Chen of MIT Sloan as Vice President, and Professor Zhiguo He of Stanford Graduate School of Business and Professor Kewei Hou of The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business as Vice Presidents-Elect.
The CICF Association will oversee the long-term development of CICF while supporting the global finance scholar network, maintaining academic standards, supporting early-career researchers, mobilizing resources, and expanding international collaboration.
CKGSB faculty played an active role in both the academic program and the organization of this year’s CICF.
Professor Neng Wang served as Program Chair, marking the fourth consecutive year in which he has served as CICF Program Chair or Co-Chair. He emphasized CICF’s longstanding mission to provide a global platform for finance scholars to engage with research rooted in China and connected to the international academic community.
With the establishment of the CICF Association, CICF is now positioned to evolve beyond an annual conference into a more permanent and institutionalized academic community—one that connects China, Asia, and the world and brings together leading scholars to advance global finance research.
This year also saw the launch of the CICF/JFQA Dual Submission initiative. The program received 753 submissions, with 71 papers invited to enter the review process of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA). Professor Wang also served as an editor of the CICF/JFQA special issue.
Other CKGSB faculty members contributed as session chairs, presenters, discussants, and paper authors.
CKGSB Professor of Finance Chunyan Huang (Jennifer) chaired the session “Information, Liquidity, and Asset Management” and served as discussant for “Factor Timing: Evidence from Mutual Fund Skill.”
CKGSB Professor of Finance Xuenan Li (Erica) chaired the “Corporate Finance” session and co-authored “Efficient Concentration,” a paper presented by her co-author CKGSB Assistant Professor of Finance Dan Su, which examines the efficiency of resource allocation in macro-finance and aggregate dynamics.
CKGSB Associate Professor of Finance Xingtan Zhang presented his paper “Environmental Disclosures in Global Supply Chains,” examining the increasingly interconnected issues of environmental disclosure, ESG, supply-chain governance, and corporate sustainability.
Professor Su also presented “Negative Bubbles in the Market for Innovation,” co-authored with CKGSB professors Huining Cao, Hui Ouyang, and Dongyan Ye. The research examines asset pricing in markets for innovation.
In addition to his organizational responsibilities, Professor Wang presented “Option Exercise Games and the q Theory of Investment” and contributed to research behind the accepted papers “What Drives Corporate Savings” and “Climate Disasters and Intergenerational Equity: A Fiscal Rule for Sustainable Development.”
The conference brought together finance and economics scholars from leading institutions worldwide to discuss frontier topics including asset pricing, corporate finance, financial intermediation, risk management, ESG and climate finance, Chinese financial markets, AI, geopolitics, and global supply chains.
Campbell Harvey, former President of the American Finance Association and a leading financial scholar, delivered a keynote speech at the conference.
The 65-session program—the largest in CICF’s history—covered both established questions in finance and emerging forces reshaping companies and capital markets. A dedicated track on “AI and Financial Markets” examined topics including large language models, AI applications, and financial market fragility. Other sessions explored the effects of technological and geopolitical change, including cross-border patents, global AI talent flows, trade policy risks, and sanctions on global supply chains.
These discussions reflect the changing environment in which businesses operate. Capital markets are increasingly shaped not only by financial data, but also by technological change, global risks, regulation, supply-chain restructuring, and sustainability considerations.
CICF’s importance extends beyond academic exchange. The conference serves as a bridge between global finance research and China—bringing international research questions into the Chinese context while bringing the complex realities of Chinese markets and businesses into the global academic conversation.
For business leaders, these issues have direct practical relevance. How AI is reshaping financial market information, how global risks affect capital flows, how climate and ESG factors influence corporate valuation, and how Chinese markets contribute to global finance research are all questions that increasingly shape decisions about risk, capital, and long-term growth.
Since its founding, CKGSB has attracted internationally renowned scholars and built a globally competitive ecosystem for academic research. Alongside producing world-class research, the school has actively contributed to the global academic community and promoted two-way exchange between East and West.
Looking ahead, CKGSB will continue to connect academic research with business practice through a global perspective, promote high-level international academic exchange, and help bring Chinese finance research into the global conversation. It will also continue to provide business leaders with deeper perspectives for understanding global financial change and navigating long-term trends.
