About KAFA

Our mission

The Korea-America Finance Association is a non-profit professional organization established in 1991 to promote research, education, and related activities among finance professors of Korean descent in North America — and to advance Korean and global financial education.

From conferences and seminars to awards and the KAFA-Net communities, KAFA is where finance scholars connect, publish, and support the next generation. KAFA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; its officers serve without pay.

What we do

• Conferences. The Annual Conference on Asia-Pacific Financial Markets (CAFM), the annual joint conference with the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF) and the Korea-America Economic Association (KAEA), the Joint Conference with the Allied Korea Finance Associations, and KAFA special sessions at the FMA Annual Meeting.
• Seminars. The virtual Brown Bag Seminar Series — two papers per session with discussants — and the KAFA FIN Seminar Series.
• Research collaboration. A joint research collaboration with the Bank of Korea, with calls for proposals announced on the Call for Papers page.
• Careers. Faculty job openings shared with the community and the KAFA PhD Student Job Market Workshop.
• KAFA-Net. The Female Initiative Network (FIN) and the Ph.D. Students network.

Awards

KAFA is fortunate to receive generous financial support from the Financial News (FN), the Shinhan Financial Hope Foundation, and the Bong-Soo Lee Scholarship Fund. These contributions allow us to continue recognizing outstanding scholarly achievements through various awards, including:

• the FN-KAFA Eminent Scholar Award
• the SHB-KAFA Young Scholar Award
• the FN-KAFA Top-Journal Paper Award
• the SHB-KAFA Best Paper Award
• the Dr. Bong-Soo Lee Memorial Scholarship
• the FN-KAFA Doctoral Student Dissertation Award
• the SHB-KAFA Scholarships for Ph.D. Students

Our history

KAFA was established in 1991. Professor Yong H. Kim (University of Cincinnati) served as the association's first President (1991–1995), with Professor Sung C. Bae (Bowling Green State University) as Secretary-General. Three decades of officers have carried the association forward since — the full list is on the Previous Officers page.

The sponsors and partners who make KAFA's work possible include the Bank of Korea (한국은행), Financial News (파이낸셜뉴스), the Korea Institute of Finance (한국금융연구원), and Shinhan Bank (신한은행).