The 2025 Frontiers in Finance Conference of USTC (USTCFFC2025) was held at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) from July 2 to 4, co-hosted by the School of Management, Faculty of Business for Science & Technology, International Institute of Finance (IIF), and USTC Alumni Association.
Over 200 participants attended the conference, including alumni and professionals from the financial sector hailing from 24 universities and research institutions worldwide (of which more than 15 were overseas universities and over 10 ranked among the top 50 in the QS World University Rankings) as well as 60 enterprises. They engaged in extensive exchanges focusing on cutting-edge topics in finance, particularly asset pricing, the financial applications of Large Language Model (LLM) technology, and addressing extreme risks. Their collective efforts contributed wisdom to advancing financial academic research, industrial development, and the university’s Double First-Class Initiative.
At the opening ceremony, Professor Shu Gequn, Secretary of the CPC USTC Committee, extended a warm welcome to global alumni, professionals, faculty, students, and staff in attendance. He emphasized the need to thoroughly grasp General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on financial work and high-quality financial development, and to seize the challenges and opportunities presented by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation for financial theoretical innovation, risk management practices, and financial regulatory systems. He underscored the importance of guiding the development of the finance discipline through cutting-edge innovation. Professor Shu expressed his expectation that through in-depth exchanges and intellectual collisions at this conference, USTC would work together with all participating experts to inspire innovative thinking, promote integrated breakthroughs in financial theory and practice, elevate China’s financial research and practice to new heights, and make fresh and greater contributions to forging a path of financial development with Chinese characteristics, accelerating the building of a financial powerhouse, and boosting the construction of a modern powerful nation through high-quality financial development.
Professor Ye Qiang, Executive Dean of the School of Management and the Faculty of Business for Science & Technology, and Dean of the International Institute of Finance (IIF), delivered a subsequent speech. He noted that since its establishment, the USTC School of Management has continuously recruited and nurtured a high-caliber faculty, strengthened industry-university-research collaborative innovation, and developed a comprehensive disciplinary system. Four of its undergraduate programs—Finance, Management Science, Statistics, and Business Administration—have been selected as national-level first-class undergraduate program development sites. In recent years, the school has achieved a robust upward trajectory in research capabilities, obtained multiple international accreditations including AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), and ranked among the top business schools in mainland China in research evaluations, laying a solid foundation for the remarkable achievements in the university’s finance discipline developmentAACSB. He stated that this conference, focusing on fintech and disciplinary frontiers, has brought together top global scholars and industry leaders to jointly explore new paradigms, challenges, and opportunities for the finance discipline amid the scientific and technological revolution. He wished the conference would serve as a significant milestone in leading USTC’s finance discipline to new heights and empowering global fintech innovation practices.
Professor Hou Kewei, the Conference Chair and Chair Professor at The Ohio State University, expressed in his speech that as an alumnus, he felt inspired and proud of his alma mater’s accomplishments. He firmly believed that with the university’s strategic layout and the joint efforts of faculty, students, and alumni, the vision of building a world-class, USTC-characterized technology-oriented business school would surely be realized. Hefei, a city brimming with innovation vitality, has provided USTC with broad room for development, while USTC, as a pearl on this innovative land, has injected new momentum into Hefei’s innovative development. As an academic feast featuring the integration of ideas and collision of wisdom, this conference will enhance Hefei’s academic appeal and inject new vitality into the development of USTC’s finance discipline.
In the invited lecture session, Professor Wang Shouyang from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Yan Hong from the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Professor Yu Jianfeng from the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University, three world-class leading financial scholars, and distinguished alumni delivered thematic speeches on topics such as investor beliefs, digital currencies and financial security, and artificial intelligence for understanding financial texts. These insightful, focused, and high-impact lectures provided participants with valuable perspectives on understanding financial frontiers.
The conference also featured academic parallel sessions and integration parallel sessions, inviting scholars from universities at home and abroad as well as industry guests to engage in in-depth discussions on themes including asset pricing, macro-finance, fintech, bond markets, artificial intelligence empowering the real economy, and the valuation and risk prevention of scientific and technological achievements in the context of artificial intelligence.
With academic exchange as the link, this conference has built a bridge for in-depth industry-university-research dialogue in the global financial sector. It has not only infused international cutting-edge concepts and innovative thinking into USTC’s finance discipline but also accurately identified new directions for disciplinary development through the collision of ideas and sharing of experience. In the future, the USTC School of Management, Faculty of Business for Science & Technology, and International Institute of Finance (IIF) will continue to take advantage of such high-level academic events to gather global wisdom, deepen interdisciplinary integration and innovation in the finance discipline, provide solid support for cultivating financial talents with both academic depth and practical capabilities, drive the high-quality development of the financial industry, and steadily advance toward the goal of building a world-class business school.