Featuring: Hao Zhou, PhD,

The Chinese Finance Association Hosts 14 th Annual Conference in New YorkThe Chinese Finance Association (TCFA) hosted its 14 th annual conference on November 1, 2008 in New York City. This conference attracted more than 450 attendees, the majority of them working for Wall Street firms in New York, others from Boston, Washington DC and various regions in the U.S.

This year’s conference featured many representatives from respected financial firms in the U.S. and China, as well as highly regarded academic institutions. The lecturers and panelists discussed current issues in the financial industry, including market volatilities, housing market credit crunch, the U.S. Bailout Plan, Chinese private equity and stock market investment strategies.

The conference’s morning keynote speech was presented by Professor Robert Engle, 2003 Nobel Laureate of Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University. Among the featured lecturers from the U.S. were Citigroup’s Chief Economist, Lewis Alexander; JPMorgan Chase’s Head of HighGrade Trading, Robert Milam; Credit Suisse’s Global Head of Asset Finance Capital Markets, Tricia Hazelwood and law firm Sullivan & Worcester’s partner, Harvey Bines.

The conference also welcomed the attendance of Mr. Bin Qi, Director of the Research Center at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), who gave an inspiring speech on the outlook of Chinese financial markets from the perspective of a regulatory organization. During his lecture Mr. Qi spoke aboutthe progress of the Chinese capital markets and about his hopes to develop a more open and fair market onbehalf of the CSRC. He also summoned the talented Wall Street professionals to “return to the homelandand participate in the great game,” as well as invited them to join the CSRC to help contribute to the development of the Chinese financial system.

The organization invited many senior executives from the top asset management firms in China, including Bosera Asset Management, China Asset Management, China Merchants Fund, China Southern FundManagement, Harvest Fund Management and E Fund Management. This conference has also received thesupport from Fore Research & Management, China International Capital Corporation, Bank of Communication/Schroder Asset Management, The Hagan-Ricci Group and Westwood Partners Executive Search.

After two successful years of hosting the “TCFA Best Papers in China Capital Market”, this year TCFA presented the awards to scholars from Harvard Business School, University of British Columbia, PurdueUniversity and Penn State University. The winners were invited to present their research at the conference.

The conference was well attended with almost no empty seats. CCTV (中央电视台) and Phoenix TV (凤凰卫视) broadcasted the event in prime time. They had conducted extensive interviews with the conference speakers, produced TV specials on the current financial crisis.

The following Chinese media entities: China News Service (中国新闻社), Caijing Magazine (《财经》杂志), China Business News (《第一财经日报》), 21 st Century Business Herald (《21 世纪经济报道》), Foshan Media Group (佛山传媒集团), Sing Tao Daily (《星岛日报》) and Ming Pao Daily (《明报》) all sent their reporters to cover the conference. Their articles focused on the US financial tsunami and the Chinese financial firms’ talent raid in the US.