About

E. Philip Davis is Professor of Banking and Finance at Brunel University, West London, a Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and Advisor and Consultant with the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund. He is also an accredited minister of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, having studied Theology at the London School of Theology and graduating in 2007.

Davis left Oxford University in 1980, and was employed by the Bank of England up to 2000 except for two spells on secondment, to the Bank for International Settlements in 1985-7, and in 1993-97 to the European Monetary Institute and its successor, the European Central Bank.

His main research topics are financial stability and pensions, but he has also published widely in the fields of institutional investment, euromarkets, banking, corporate finance, and financial regulation. Most recently he has also forcused on Christian Economics as highlighted in his sixth book “The Crisis and the Kingdom” published in 2012 by Wipf and Stock, which contrasts views of the 2008 crisis from an economics perspective with a view from biblical theology.

Regarding financial stability, Davis’s first book, “Debt, Financial Fragility and Systemic Risk” was published by Oxford University Press in 1992 and was issued in paperback in 1995. At the Bank of England he held a number of positions related to financial stability, including Senior International Financial Advisor, Europe and the US, during which period he was also a member of the ECB Working Group on Macroprudential Assessment. Recent work has focused inter alia on the relation of macroprudential measures to house prices and credit, Financial Conditions Indices for major OECD countries, the impact of competition on risk in banking, factors underlying SME lending, optimal regulation of bank capital and the prediction of banking crises in OECD countries, as well as on ethical issues underlying the subprime crisis.

Regarding pensions, Davis was a contributor to the World Bank’s work entitled “Averting the Old Age Crisis” and was invited to critique the World Bank’s approach to pension reform for an internal evaluation by that institution. His second book, “Pension Funds, Retirement-Income Security and Capital Markets, an International Perspective” was developed from his work with the World Bank. It was also published by OUP, and emerged in 1995. His third book, edited jointly with Zvi Bodie of Boston University, is entitled “Foundations of Pension Finance” and is a set of key articles in pension economics. It emerged in July 2000, published by Edward Elgar. His fourth, written together with Benn Steil of the Council on Foreign Relations, is “Institutional Investors” and was published by MIT Press in early 2001. Recent work linked to pension issues includes looking at legal, policy and economic issues associated with pension provision, care and dignity in old age, assessment of the shift of pension regulation towards a risk based approach, an evaluation of Canadian versus US and UK regulatory approaches in respect of asset portfolios and its impact on returns, the impact of pension funds on savings and growth, the impact of pension funds on financial structure, and an evaluation of the impact of corporate financial structure on the performance of Dutch pension funds.

He has worked closely with the IMF since 2000 as a visitor, consultant, advisor and researcher on financial stability matters while also offering technical assistance to regulators, most recently on financial health and stability indicators for pension fund sectors. He has also worked with the OECD, European Commission and various central banks and regulators.