News
Prof. Gavin Feng Invited to Speak at The Bloomberg Forum for Investment Management
6 Nov, 2025
Prof. Gavin Feng, Director of FBAC, was invited to speak at The Bloomberg Forum for Investment Management, held on 5 November 2025 at Bloomberg’s Hong Kong office. The forum gathered senior professionals from leading global and regional financial institutions, including securities firms, asset managers, hedge funds and investment banks, as well as scholars and policy experts. Discussions focused on how institutional investors allocate risk in equity portfolios and on recent developments in risk model frameworks. With participation from experienced industry practitioners, the forum featured highly technical discussions and professional exchange of views.
Prof. Feng joined as a panelist in the session “Risk-Budgeting for Equity Allocation: A Blueprint for Quant & Hedge Funds,” where he shared professional insights on the evolving landscape of quantitative investing and risk-based portfolio management. Drawing on both academic research and industry practices, he discussed how systematic factors and data-driven signals can enhance portfolio efficiency, and the growing role of machine learning in constructing modern investment frameworks. Prof. Feng’s participation further reflects CityU’s and FBAC’s continued engagement in global conversations on quantitative finance and investment technology.
Prof. Gavin Feng Elected as ABFER Fellow
3 Nov, 2025
Prof. Gavin Feng, Director of FBAC, has been elected as a Fellow of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER).
ABFER is an academic institute established by scholars from Asia, North America, and Europe. It promotes Asia-Pacific focused financial and economic research, connects leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, and supports the development of strong research communities across the region.
ABFER Fellowship is highly selective and internationally recognized. The institute currently has around 150 Senior Fellows and Fellows, including distinguished scholars from Harvard University, Cornell University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and other world-leading institutions. Among these members, 4 Senior Fellows and 10 Fellows are affiliated with universities in Hong Kong. Prof. Feng is the first faculty member from City University of Hong Kong to be elected as an ABFER Fellow.
Through this fellowship, Prof. Feng will continue to engage with the international academic community and contribute to advancing research in finance and economics, further connecting CityU’s research with global dialogues on Asia-Pacific financial and economic issues.
Prof. Gavin Feng Joins the Journal of Financial Econometrics as Associate Editor
10 Oct, 2025
Prof. Gavin Feng, Associate Professor of Finance and Statistics at College of Business and Director of FBAC, has joined the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Econometrics (JFEC) as an Associate Editor.
The Journal of Financial Econometrics is published by Oxford University Press and is a leading academic journal that publishes high-quality research at the intersection of econometrics, statistics, and finance. It serves as a platform for advancing methodological and empirical developments in financial econometrics, with an increasing focus on emerging areas such as financial machine learning and high-dimensional modeling.
In his new role as Associate Editor, Prof. Feng will contribute to the advancement of high-quality research and the dissemination of innovative work in the fields of financial econometrics and financial machine learning.
4th Hong Kong Conference for FinTech, AI, and Big Data in Business Successfully Held at CityU
2 June, 2025
Jointly organized by FinTech and Business Analytics Centre, Department of Decision Analytics and Operations, Department of Economics and Finance, Hong Kong Institute for Data Science, and
Laboratory of AI-Powered Financial Technologies, the 4th Hong Kong Conference for Fintech, AI, and Big Data in Business took place on May 31 and June 1, 2025, at City University of Hong Kong.
This year’s conference brought together nearly 100 participants from leading institutions around the world. We were honored to have Professor Yacine Ait-Sahalia and Professor Wei Xiong from Princeton University as keynote speakers, whose inspiring talks offered profound perspectives and set a high academic standard for the event. The program also featured 12 paper presentations selected from over 150 submissions, covering a diverse range of emerging topics such as AI-powered finance, text analytics, portfolio optimization, and behavioral modeling. In addition, a poster session was introduced this year, fostering lively discussions and broadening academic engagement among early-career researchers.
As a key co-organizer, FBAC supported the planning and execution of the conference and continues to promote interdisciplinary research that bridges FinTech, AI, and business analytics. The Centre looks forward to contributing to future editions of this impactful academic event.
FBAC Completed Our First Talent Training Program
Jun 24, 2022
On 24 June 2022, FBAC held the award ceremony for the Fintech and Analytics Talent Training Program. During the ceremony, Prof. LI Yanzhi David, director of FBAC awarded certificates to qualified students and shared opinions regarding the aim of our program. This four-month training program was open to undergraduate students in the College of Business of the City University of Hong Kong and is intended to nurture talents and build up students' expertise in fintech and analytics. We received 281 applications and finally, 32 students successfully completed the program.
Center Members Visit Ping An Oneconnect Bank (PAOB)
Mar 5, 2021
FBAC team visited Ping An Oneconnect Bank (PAOB) on Mar 5, 2021. Mr Ryan Fung, Chief Executive of PAOB, hosted the team. PAOB is one of the virtual banks in Hong Kong with its business uniquely focused on serving business clients. Mr Fung shared with the team their latest business development. Collaboration opportunities are identified as the next move, especially on alternative credit rating under the Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) initiative by Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
Center Members Visit China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK)
Feb 17, 2021
Center delegates (Prof David Li, Dr Gang Hao, Dr Alvin Leung, Dr Xin Li, Dr Junming Liu, Dr Huazhong Zhao) visited China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK) on Feb 17, 2021. Dr Max Ma, Director and Executive Vice President of CMHK, along with Mr Gordon Guo (Vice Present), Joe Lian (Vice President) and Mr Daniel Qu (Assistant General Manager), discussed with the delegates about research and business opportunities emerging from 5G, big data and mobile internet. The meeting led to a few research project initiatives.