CUNEF Universidad’s Almansa Campus hosts the 2026 FMA Consortium

CUNEF Universidad hosted the 2026 FMA Consortium on Asset Management, a premier international academic event that brought together leading finance scholars in Madrid. Featuring a series of workshops, the consortium offered a space for rigorous and specialised discussion of the main challenges and advances in asset management.

During her welcome speech, Ana I. Fernández, Rector of CUNEF Universidad, expressed her delight at hosting this benchmark event at the Almansa Campus. Professor Pedro Saffi, co-chair of this event that attracts renowned international scholars, also participated in the opening session.

The event featured the presentation of six cutting-edge research projects that used different approaches to address key issues in the evolving landscape of asset management, from the role of convertible bonds as a bridge between fixed income and equity markets to the democratisation of illiquid assets through Interval Funds. Other key sessions explored pension fund ethics, forced liquidation mechanisms on platforms like Robinhood, AI-driven portfolio management, and the U.S. Treasury’s implicit exposure to shadow duration.

Keynote lecture

One of the highlights of the event was the keynote address by Professor Christian Julliard, from the London School of Economics, who presented his latest findings on the term structure of risk premiums. In his lecture, Professor Julliard advocated for the return of macroeconomic fundamentals as a core pillar of asset valuation theory and practice, delivering a compelling analysis that resonated deeply with the academic audience.

The FMA Consortium was attended by scholars and researchers from leading universities and research centres, such as Notre Dame, NYU Stern, London School of Economics, BI Norwegian Business School, ITAM, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and CUNEF Universidad, among others. The day concluded with the Best Paper Prize, which awarded $1,000 to the most outstanding paper, whose authors also received an invitation to present their work at a future FMA European Conference.

The event was co-chaired by Pedro Saffi (CUNEF Universidad), Mark Hutchinson and Mark Mulcahy (University College Cork), and Oğuzhan Karakaş (Cambridge Judge Business School). The Consortium was sponsored by FMA and CUNEF Universidad, and the Best Paper Prize was funded by the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance.

CUNEF Universidad extends its gratitude to all the speakers, researchers and collaborating entities whose contributions ensured the success of this event, which further strengthens the institution’s commitment to fostering excellence in research and international academic debate in the field of finance.