Korean Securities Association (KSA) is pleased to announce its 15^th Annual Conference on Asia-Pacific Financial Markets (CAFM) to be held at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, Korea, from December 4^th to December 5^th, 2020. We welcome interested scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers to submit research papers in all areas of finance for presentation at the conference.

Please note that we are closely monitoring the situation surrounding the coronavirus outbreak around the world. In case with travel restriction, we have a contingency plan that speakers can still participate at the conference online from the countries where they reside.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

The keynote speaker for the 15^th annual CAFM will be Heitor Almeida, a professor of finance and Stanley C. and Joan J. Golder Distinguished Chair in Corporate Finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. Before joining Illinois in 2007, Prof. Almeida was an associate professor of finance in the Stern School of Business at the New York University. He also served as the faculty research fellow (2005–2010) and continued to be a research associate (2010–present) in the National Bureau of Economic Research. Professor Almeida has been an associate editor for the Review of Financial Studies, and is currently an associate editor for Journal of Banking and Finance and the Journal of Financial Intermediation. His research has been cited by the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Financial Times and by prominent policy authorities such as the president of the European Central Bank. His research has received numerous awards such as the Journal of Finance’s Brattle Prize and the Jensen Prize of the Journal of Financial Economics, and has received more than 14,000 citations by other researchers. 

PAPER SUBMISSION 

Papers written in English must be submitted via https://www.conftool.net/cafm2020, using MS Word or Adobe pdf file format from May 1^st, 2020. The deadline for paper submission is August 21^st, 2020. The submitted papers will be reviewed for selection by the review committee in a double-blind referee process. The results will be notified to the author via email by September 30^th, 2020. If you have any questions with the paper submission, please let us know via email at 2020cafm@gmail.com.

All papers must be accompanied by an abstract of a maximum of 200 words. The cover page of the paper should contain the paper’s title, the author’s name, affiliation, address, phone number, and email address. The second page should contain the paper’s title and abstract only. The programs for the previous CAFM conferences can be accessed at the website, http://www.apjfs.org.

BEST PAPER AWARDS 
If your paper is accepted for presentation at the conference, your paper is eligible to compete for a Best Paper Award of US$2,000 (or KRW 2,000,000). Eight (8) best papers will be awarded at the Gala dinner to each presenting author. The awarded papers will also be invited for fast-track review and publication in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies (AJFS), which is the first finance SSCI journal in the Asia-Pacific region.

GUEST LECTURE

Professor Lilian Ng (York University) will lead a special lecture session on “the international market integration” based on her recent survey paper at AJFS.

DOCTORAL STUDENT WORKSHOP AND BEST DISSERTATION AWARD
Doctoral students are also welcome to present their dissertations at the doctoral student workshop of the conference, which will be led by Xuan Tian (Tsinghua University and the co-editor of AJFS). The Best Dissertation Award of US$ 1,000 (or KRW 1,000,000) will be given to the best thesis. Professor Tian will also share his insights on how to publish papers in top-tier journals in the workshop. Interested young scholars are welcome to the session.

DUAL SUBMISSION OPTION WITH AJFS and KJFS

The 15^th annual CAFM will feature a dual submission option with AJFS. If you choose the option at the time of paper submission, your paper accepted for the conference will be additionally invited for submission and considered for publication by the editors of AJFS with the journal submission fee waived. For further details about the Journal, please visit http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ajfs.

Also, applicants can choose for an option for the Korean Journal of Financial Studies (KJFS), another official journal of KSA. For further details about the Journal, please visit https://www.e-kjfs.org.  

ABOUT SEOUL

Seoul is the capital and largest metropolis in South Korea, and has been the capital for more than 600 years. With a municipal population over 9.8 million, the city is one of the largest financial and cultural centers in East Asia. Situated on the Han River, Seoul is considered a leading and rising global city, filled with a fascinating blend of ancient traditions and cutting-edge digital technology, home to endless street food vendors, beautiful royal palaces, and serene Buddhist temples. As the birthplace of K-pop and Korean Wave, Seoul receives over 10 million international visitors every year, making it one of the world’s most visited cities.

CONFERENCE HOTEL

The Westin Chosun Seoul is one of the leading hotels in Korea. Selected as one of the world’s top 100 hotels by International Financial Institutional Investors in 1999 and 2003 and as the best hotel in Seoul for the fifth consecutive years by FinanceAsia, the hotel is conveniently located in the heart of the city, within walking distance to royal palaces and shopping centers. Please visit the hotel website at

 https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/selwi-the-westin-chosun-seoul.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIR

Kwangwoo Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

CONFERENCE CONTACT