The "Financial Crisis" conference was organized with support from CREI, CEPR and Journal of Financial Intermediation. The members of the organizing committee Fernando Broner (CREI, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and CEPR), Hans Degryse (Tilburg University), Mathias Dewatripont (ULB and CEPR), Xavier Freixas (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and CEPR), Philipp Hartmann (European Central Bank and CEPR), Moshe Kim (University of Haifa and Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Elu von Thadden (Universität Mannheim and CEPR) and Paul Wachtel (New York University) were able to select an interesting high quality program that addressed some of the most important issues of the recent financial crisis. Keynote addresses were delivered by Zvi Eckstein (Deputy Governor, Bank of Israel) and Viral Acharya (New York University).

More specifically, the conference addressed the issue of ratings and their impact on the allocation of credit, as well as the issue of the way investors were informed at the beginning of the XXth century, before the introduction of credit rating agencies. It also considered the topic of banks’ liquidity and its impact on allocation from several points of view. It considered the impact of monetary policy on liquidity, the issue of liquidity creation during a financial crisis and the impact of liquidity crises on open economies. Finally, the issue of the dynamics of capital market was also addressed.