CREDIT Conference

GRETA Associati (Venice, Italy), Banca Intesa (Milan, Italy), CRIF Decision Solutions (Bologna, Italy) and Finanziaria Internazionale (Conegliano, Italy) are co-sponsors of a Conference to be held in Venice on September 25 -26, 2006. The objective of the Conference is to bring together academics, practitioners and PhD students working in the area of risks in small business lending. The Conference will provide an opportunity for participants engaged at the forefront of this area to discuss open problems and challenges and may, in turn, suggest fruitful directions for future research. The Conference, organised under the auspices of the Department of Economics of the University of Venice and ABI - Italian Banking Association, is the fifth of a series dedicated to various aspects of credit risk.

The organizers encourage submissions of papers on any topic within the overall theme of the conference and in the following areas in particular:

Regulation and risk taking in small business lending;

Risks in trade credit;

Structured loan derivatives;

Modelling credit risk for individual loans and loan portfolios;

Risks in transactional versus relationship lending;

Geographical risks in small business lending;

Analysis and usefulness of subjective and/or qualitative information.

The final program will include both submitted and invited papers. Acceptances received so far from invited speakers include Viral Acharya (London Business School & CEPR), Joost Driessen (University of Amsterdam & CEPR), Jan-Pieter Krahnen (Goethe-University Frankfurt, CFS & CEPR), Hashem Pesaran (University of Cambridge) and Gregory F. Udell (Indiana University). Each of the papers will have a discussant, chosen from the public or private sectors. The Conference will end with a panel discussion on "Developments in the small business credit process".

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:	LOCAL ORGANISERS:
Hans Degryse, CentER - Tilburg University, TILEC, CES-Ifo & AFM Chair, (Programme Co-Chair) Bas J.M. Werker, CentER - Tilburg University, (Programme Co-Chair) Viral Acharya, London Business School & CEPR Jan-Pieter Krahnen, Goethe-University Frankfurt, CFS & CEPR Steven Ongena, CentER - Tilburg University, TILEC & CEPR Gregory F. Udell Indiana University	Domenico Sartore, GRETA Monica Billio, GRETA Davide Capuzzo, CRIF Decision Solutions Paolo Gabriele, Finanziaria Internazionale Andrea Giacomelli, GRETA Loriana Pelizzon, GRETA Agnese Sironi, Banca Intesa