A&M International Faculty to Seminar on International Banking in Romania

Three Texas A&M International University faculty members will travel to Europe this week to lead a seminar designed to update bank executives in Romania about the latest trends in banking.

Dr. Antonio Rodriguez, associate professor of finance, and Dr. John Adams, adjunct faculty member in the Department of Economics and Finance, will deliver an International Banking Risk Management Seminar, scheduled for March 15-19 in Bucharest, Romania. Dr. George Kostopoulos, professor of information systems and seminar coordinator, will also attend the seminar.

The seminar is sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and organized by the Romanian Bank Institute, the Agricultural Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Bank Association.

Dr. Kostopoulos said that the seminar's goal is to provide East European banking executives with insight on the latest trends in banking. Among topics to be discussed are banking in the 21st Century, risk management, foreign exchange risk management, credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk and coordinated risk management.

"The OECD is an international organization financed by a number of countries, and one of its projects is the training of East European professionals in Western business practices," Kostopoulos said.

Faculty members of the A&M International College of Business Administration have presented 10 banking seminars over the past five years in Greece as part of a cooperative agreement with the Agricultural Bank of Greece.

"We are honored and fortunate to be collaborating with Dr. Maria Saridaki, the bank's training center's deputy director, who has also visited our campus," Kostopoulos said.

The College of Business Administration and the Agricultural Bank of Greece plan to hold their next seminar later this year in Athens, Greece, Kostopoulos said.

In past seminars, participating banking executives included those from Balkan countries such as Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and the Ukraine.

"We feel that there is a void in that region (the Balkans and East Europe) as to what constitutes today's international banking. There has been a deregulation of financial services worldwide and now, any bank can go to any country and open up a branch. The objective of this seminar is to make participants aware of the dangers and opportunities of globalization," Kostopoulos said. "We view our participation in these seminars as an international community service that is an extension of the university's international mission."

Rodriguez, who joined A&M International in 1993, has a Ph.D. in economics and finance from The University of Alabama. He earned his master's degree in finance also from The University of Alabama. In addition to A&M International, he has held faculty positions at the Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (Graduate Business School) in Costa Rica and the University of Michigan, Flint.

Adams, also a vice president at Bank One, earned his doctoral, master and baccalaureate degrees from Texas A&M University. A graduate of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University, he has also served as Norwest Bank's first vice president and manager of the international division.

For further information, please contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at 326-2180. University office hours are 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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