The Salomon Center at the NYU Stern School of Business was founded in 1972 as a vehicle for focusing high quality research attention on the global financial services industry and its principal institutions. Among its activities, the Center develops new research sources for financial analysis; puts on high profile conferences for academics, practitioners and regulators; and sends out newsletters to the relevant community highlighting important research developments in specific areas covered by the Center.

The Center has an excellent reputation outside the NYU community. Its partnership with a number of important financial institutions, denoted Corporate Associates , has led to the formation of a Database Center. This database center allows academics to address questions using a variety of proprietary data sources. In addition, the Center processes particular data of interest to practitioners. For example, the Center maintains a monthly time-series of indices on defaulted bond and bank loan prices since the 1980s. With the recent development of a database facility, this type of offering is an expanding part of the Salomon Center. The Center boasts an outstanding external academic board, including Myron Scholes (1997 Nobel Laureate in Economics and past AFA president), Sanford Grossman (1987 John Bates Clark Medal in Economics and past AFA president, and Robert Litzenberger (past AFA president).

Currently, the center, under the direction of Matthew Richardson , is involved in seven research initiatives, each run by a Stern School of Business professor:

• Asset Management directed by Martin J. Gruber (Chairman of CREF Board and past AFA President)--focuses on examining and explaining the existence, management and performance of pools of capital, concentrating on institutions such as pension funds, mutual funds, and hedge funds.
  
• Financial Econometrics directed by Robert F. Engle (2003 Nobel Laureate in Economics) - focuses on the application of econometrics to the field of finance with special attention to the development of techniques for risk management, derivatives pricing, and market performance.
  
• Macro Finance directed by Thomas Sargent (Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution) - focuses on the interaction between the macroeconomy and financial markets.
  
• Credit and Debt Markets directed by Edward I. Altman (past FMA President) - focuses on the efficient functioning and dynamic nature of the world's credit and debt markets.
  
• Derivatives Research Project directed by Stephen Figlewski (Founding editor, Journal of Derivatives ) - focuses on theoretical and applied research on derivative instruments and markets, risk management and financial engineering.
  
• Corporate Governance directed by David Yermack - focuses on interactions between managers, shareholders, debtholders, and other groups such as auditors, bankers, and government regulators.
  
• Financial Institutions directed by Alexander Ljungqvist - focuses not only on 'traditional' banking questions, such as the regulation of commercial banks and the monetary transmission channels between the banking sector and the real economy, but also on the role and efficiency of investment banks and private equity funds in helping companies raise capital.

If you would like more information, please contact us at the Salomon Center, NYU Stern School of Business, Suite 9-160, 44 West 4 th Street, NY, NY 10012 ; telephone number (212) 998 - 0700 ; fax: (212) 995-4220 ; or email address salomon@stern.nyu.edu