July 5, 2016 [TORONTO] The Fields Institute is proud to introduce the Centre for Financial Industries, designed to focus and enhance collaborations and exchanges of expertise between the mathematical community and leading financial firms of all types – including banks, insurance companies, exchanges, investment firms and consultants.

The Centre will act as a central place for financial research in North America, with individual members who come from a community of academics and practitioners who regularly participate in activities at the Fields Institute. These members can include, but are not limited to, faculty members and postdoctoral fellows from Fields’ Principal Sponsoring Universities, practitioners from the local financial industry, regulators and public officials, as well as Canadian and international scientists with close ties with the Institute. This creates a broad spectrum of interests that are included in the new Centre to increase Fields impact in the finance industry. 

Darrell Duffie, the Dean Witter Distinguished Professor of Finance and Shanahan Family Faculty Fellow Graduate School of Business at Stanford University says, “The Fields Centre for Financial Industries is the  ‘glue’ that pulls these human resources together, providing continuity and synergy at one of the world's top mathematics institutes.” This community that the Centre is meant to create will allow for Toronto, and the Fields Institute specifically, to act as a haven for industrial mathematics and economics in Canada. 

The breadth of academics, practitioners, and prominent scholars who regularly participate in Fields activities come from over twelve Canadian Universities, and over sixty international universities, institutions, and corporate sponsors. This exemplifies Fields diversity and focus on the application of mathematics to global financial analysis. One of the initiatives of the Centre is to expand Fields further, and increase the number of universities and corporate affiliates so the Centre for Financial Industries can grow along with the Fields Institute.

With this goal in mind, we are proud to announce the TMX Group (the parent company of the Toronto Stock Exchange), Scotiabank, and Sun Life Financial, as the initial group of Corporate Members of the Centre. 

“TMX Group is pleased to be a founding member of the Centre for Financial Industries at the Fields Institute,” says Jean Desgagné, President and CEO, Global Enterprise Services, TMX Group. “We see great value in connecting and collaborating with leaders from the academic community and Canada’s financial services sector. The mobilization of our collective resources can play an important role in advancing our industry and strengthening Canada’s economy. ”

Mark Engel, Senior Vice President, Risk and Capital Analytics, Scotiabank says "Scotiabank is proud to participate as a founding corporate member in the Centre for Financial Industry at the Fields Institute.  The Centre's activities - bringing together world class researchers and leading industry practitioners to advance quantitative finance and find innovative industry applications of analytics – will provide excellent opportunities for collaboration in support of Scotiabank's focus on innovating for our customers."

Claude Accum, Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer, Sun Life Financial stated that “being a member of the Centre and having the opportunity to work with leaders across North America in the academic, public and private sectors is a great benefit to everyone involved.” The Centre’s influence will be felt by many factions of industry, but Accum stated further that as an organization Sun Life Financial “is centred on helping clients achieve lifetime financial security, which can’t be accomplished without continuous research, innovation and understanding evolving financial trends.” These trends will be one of the research mandates of the Centre as a whole. 

The activities that will take place at the Centre for Financial Industries derive from previous experience and the goal is to solicit, promote, and organize seminar series, workshops, conferences, summer schools, short and long thematic programs, mini-courses, training activities, graduate courses, public lectures, and outreach events taking place either at the Fields Institute or at any of its partner Universities or other institutions in Canada or abroad. 

Chris Rogers, the Chair of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cambridge sees the Centre at the Fields Institute as a place to help to develop the influence of North America for the subject. “Personally, I feel that a profound understanding of the financial markets is essential for global economic security, and global economic security is essential for creating a planet at peace,” says Rogers.

"Since its inception, the Fields Institute has played a major leadership role in quantitative finance, bringing together researchers and industry practitioners at the intersection of finance, economics, mathematics and technology ” says Matheus Grasselli, former Deputy Director of the Institute and a member of the Centre's Steering Committee. “Quantitative Finance has been a core part of the Institute's Commercial and Industrial Mathematics Program, including a world-renowned monthly seminar series, running now for over two decades, a highly successful six-month thematic program in 2010, numerous workshops, conferences, short courses, career fairs, and industrial-academic events. In addition, it has served as the incubation platform of several successful financial services and FinTech start-ups.”

At the public announcement of the Centre, which took place during the Institute's 2016 Annual General Meeting, Dan Rosen, the first Director for the Centre, stated that “The new Centre for Financial Industries advances the Institute's world-leadership role in Quantitative Finance and Analytics, serving as a focal point for future activities in this area. We believe that the future is all about collaboration, and thus the Centre provides the space for bringing top academic researchers, students, and industry closer together. The Centre will allow our many academic members get to showcase their current research and expertise to industry. The centre's corporate partners connect with the world's best mathematicians and computer scientists, to propose important problems and define the direction of practical research and educational activities, and get also access to recruit the brightest young talent. " 

About the Fields Institute

Founded in 1992, the Fields Institute is a leading international research centre located on the campus of the University of Toronto.

The mission of the Institute is to enhance mathematical activity in Canada by bringing together mathematicians from Canada and abroad, and by promoting contact and collaboration between professional mathematicians and the increasing numbers of users of mathematics. Thus the Institute supports research in pure and applied mathematics, statistics and computer science, as well as collaboration between mathematicians and those applying mathematics in areas such as engineering, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, economics and finance, telecommunications and information systems. 

Every year, its programs attract more than 4000 participants from around the world. The Institute is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Science Foundation (US), and a growing list of partner universities and corporations in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

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