Research and Professional Activities

Kern Alexander has led academic research projects funded bythe UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the European Commission and the European Parliament. He was a Co-Principal Investigator on the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) World Economy and Finance Programme's research project 'The Legal and Economic Aspects of Sovereign Debt Finance' (2006-2010). This project produced a peer-reviewed article and a report published by the European Parliament, 'Market Impact of an Orderly Sovereign Debt Restructuring'. He also led the project at the Centre for Risk Studies on 'Regulating Risk Culture', which has produced several publications including a book. See interview at the Annual Summit on Risk, the Centre for Risk Studies, University of Cambridge on 22 June 2016.

Recently, he is Co-Principal Investigator on a research project, 'Disclosure and Sustainability Risk' (2020-2021). 

In 2016, the Group of 20 (G20) leading countries appointed Professor Alexander to lead a reasearch project on green banking policy that compares G20 country approaches to regulating green banking practices.

In 2016, Professor Alexander was appointed to a three-year term to the European Court of Auditors' Expert Panels on Banking Regulation and Bank Resolution. In this capacity, he advised the Court on EU Member State compliance with EU banking law and the compliance of the European Central Bank and the European bank resolution bodies with European banking union legislation.

Professor Alexander has served as an adviser to the British Governement and the European's Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. He was a memeber of the European's Parliament Expert Panel on Financial Services (2009-2014). In 2011-2012, he was Specialist Adviser to the UK Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on the Financial Services Act 2012.

In 2008 and 2009, he was invited to give oral and written evidence on several occasions to the House of Common Treasury Committee and the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs on UK and European financial legislation and regulation. In July 2006 he was invited to give oral and written evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs on the "Impact of Economic Sanctions"; and in November 2006 was invited to give oral and written evidence to the European' s Parliament's Special Committee on 'the Crisis at the Equitable Life Assurance Society'. Since the 1990s, he has advised central banks and national banking and securities regulators in both developed and developing countries on issues related to prudential regulation of banking and securities markets.

Professor Alexander was a Senior Research Fellow in  Financial Regulation at Judge Business School (2001-2006), a Lecturer in International Economics and Law at the Cambridge Centre of International Studies (2004-2006) and a Tutor and Supervisor in Economics and Law in Queen's College, Cambridge (2001-2006). He was a Isaac Newton Research Fellow in International Financial Regulation at the Cambridge Centre for Business Research (1997-2001). He was Swiss  National Foundation Senior Research Fellow in Global Financial Governance at the Rechtswissenschaftliches Institut, University of Zurich (2006-2007). He was Professor of Law and Finance at Queen Mary University of London (2008-2009). He was a Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Warwick (2006-2008).

International and European financial regulation (Basel III and CRD); interaction between macro- and micro-prudential regulation; the historical development of International Financial Institutions (BIS and IMF); banking law and finance, bank corporate governance, and the development of globalised financial markets and its impact on the regulatory compliance strategies of global financial institutions.

He has been a Principal Investigator or a Co-Principal Investigator on twelve research reports of the European Paliament.