CONFERENCE: Cross-Border Payments in Historical Perspective | GloCoBank Project Event
International Conference on Cross-Border Payments in Historical Perspective
Thursday 27 - Friday 28 March 2025 | St Hilda’s College | University of Oxford
Registration is now open: registration form
About the workshop/conference:
International commerce has always relied on the ability to transfer funds across space and time but the evolution of the mechanics and strategies of cross-border payments remains somewhat murky. The main route for global payments in modern times has been through inter-bank relationships through which bank customers order and settle payments across borders. This framework of correspondent banking has survived the move in technology from paper to telegraph to electronic payments systems and persists into the digital era. Since 2008 the extent of the correspondent banking network has shrunk due to a variety of factors including costs of Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering/Anti-Finance of Terrorism regulations. This changing pattern has prompted recent research on the dynamics of the global correspondent banking network at the Financial Stability Board and the Bank for International Settlements, but to date the historical research on this critical infrastructure is limited. This workshop/conference seeks to bring together research on cross-border payments systems in a range of historical contexts.
Provisional programme - click on title to see abstracts and speaker bios
Day 1, Thursday 27th March – The Pavilion
10:00 – 10:30 Arrival and Registration
10:30 – 11:15 Opening Lecture
- Catherine R. Schenk, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project
Global correspondent banking over the long 20th century
11:15 – 13:15 Panel 1: Structures and Framework
Chair/discussant: Sabine Schneider, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project
- Adrien Faudot, University Grenoble Alpes
Multilateral Clearing from Theory to Practice: The Deutsche Verrechnungskasse during World War II
- Marco Molteni, University of Turin; Jamieson Myles, University of Geneva; Manuel Bautista-Gonzalez, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project
The Reciprocity Principle in Global Correspondent Banking: Some Historical Evidence
- Arnaud Mehl; Massimo Ferrari Minesso; Olga Triay Bagur; Isabel Vansteenkiste, European Central Bank
Geopolitics and global interlinking of fast payment systems
13:15 – 14:15 Lunch
14:15 – 16:15 Panel 2: American and Asian Payments
Chair/Discussant: Giovanni Maria Pala, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project
- Mariko Hatase, Hitotsubashi University; Nora Yitong Qiu, UCL; Catherine Schenk, University of Oxford/GloCoBank Project
Japanese Correspondent Banking in the 20th Century: strategy and structure
- Lee Pui Tak, Huaqiao University
- Marianna Astore, University of Insubria
16:15 – 16:30 Tea/Coffee Break
16:30 – 18:30 Panel 3: European payments
Chair/Discussant: Akram Beniamin, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project
- Sebastian Alvarez, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez/Graduate Institute Geneva; Marco Molteni, University of Turin
The Eurobond Market and the Rise of Global Payment Infrastructure, 1963-1974
- Alexis Drach, University Paris 8
European Banks and European Payment Systems, 1978-1992
- Simon Mollan, University of York; Ayumu Sugawara, Tohoku University; Mark Billings, University of Exeter
BOLSA, the Eurocurrency markets, and the financing of Japanese industry in the 1960s
19:15 Conference Dinner (speakers by invitation)
Day 2, Friday 28th March – The Pavilion
09:15 – 11:45 Panel 4: Trade and Payments
Chair/Discussant: Marianna Astore, University of Insubria
- Dong Yan, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Managing Risk in Chinese Trade Settlements, 1950-1975
- Wen Zhang, Shandong University
Cross-border payment by overseas Chinese merchants: A Case Study of Eu Yan Sang
- Wilfried Kisling, WU University Vienna
Favouring the powerful: the heterogeneous trade effect of the classical gold standard
- Mark Hay, Erasmus University Rotterdam
11:45 – 12:00 Tea/Coffee Break
12:00 – 13:15 Keynote Lecture
- Linda S. Goldberg, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Risk Sensitivity of Global Liquidity Flows: Heterogeneity, Recent Evolution and Drivers
13:15 – 13:30 Closing Remarks: Catherine R. Schenk, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project
