Finance

City view of London, the Gherkin and the Shard.

Finance

As part of a world-leading science, technology, engineering, medicine and business university, Finance combines scientific rigour with real-world relevance.

About us

Our research has informed climate disclosure rules in the UK and the US, shaped the debate on digital currencies and given policymakers new tools for understanding wealth inequality. Our work spans financing innovation, asset pricing, corporate finance and risk management. Our faculty regularly publish in the top financial economics journals and participate in world-renowned academic, industry and policy conferences. Having completed our programmes our students go on to gain in top finance jobs in the private sector, international organisations and academia. Our Department is ranked 15th globally in the QS Top Universities ranking for Finance and Accounting, and 23rd in the UT Dallas Top 100 Business School Rankings for publication in the top four Finance journals. We are also ranked 30th in the Olin Business School CFAR Ranking of Financial Research (2023-2026, Finance). Our pre-experience Masters in Finance is ranked 17th in the world in the 2026 Financial Times ranking.

Research impact areas

Venture capital and innovation cycles

Our analysis of 2.68 million patents shows that venture capital amplifies economic downturns by pulling funding away from the most ambitious early-stage companies first, concentrating the damage in the three hubs that produce the most influential inventions.

Venture capital pulls back from big ideas in a downturn

Bank climate commitments and real emissions

We studied 2,216 companies across syndicated loans showing that voluntary bank climate commitments shrink credit and investment but do not reduce emissions, demonstrating that lending pressure alone must be paired with direct policy incentives to drive real decarbonisation.

When banks go green, do companies follow?

Private markets and wealth inequality

High-net-worth individuals' investments in young private companies grew from $0.4 billion to $15 billion over 18 years, explaining 26% of the growth in the top 0.5% wealth share in the US.

The private market club nobody told you about

Sterling's place in digital finance

Over 99% of stablecoins by market value are pegged to the US dollar, and the Bank of England's proposed reserve requirements would make GBP stablecoin issuance commercially unviable.

The UK's missing digital pound

Research centres

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Centre for Climate Finance and Investment

Developing research, analytics and market solutions that convert climate and nature-related risk into decision-useful financial insight, supporting resilient and sustainable growth.

Centre for Financial Technology

Modelling, testing and translating the economics of financial technology, connecting findings to the regulators, businesses and governments who can act on them.

�ԹϺ�� Centre of Excellence in Quantitative Finance

Bringing together researchers from business, mathematics and computing to study how financial markets really work, connecting models and methods to the banks, funds and regulators shaping the financial system.