After her undergraduate and Masters degrees at University of Toronto in Economics, International Relations and Chinese Studies, Professor Catherine Schenk FRHistS, FAcSS, FRSA  went to the London School of Economics to complete her PhD in Economic History.  Since then she has held academic positions at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Royal Holloway, University of London and University of Glasgow.  Professor Schenk has also been visiting professor at Nankai University, China, and Hong Kong University.  Outside academia she has spent time as a visiting researcher at the International Monetary Fund and at the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research. In 2018/19 she was Senior Lamfalussy Fellow at the Bank for International Settlements, delivering the Per Jacobsson Lecture in 2020. She is President of the Economic History Society and Associate Fellow in international economics at Chatham House.

Professor Schenk teaches students in the MSc/MPhil Economic and Social History.

My research focuses on the development of the international economy since 1945 with particular emphasis on the evolution of international banking and finance and the international monetary system.  My current ERC funded-project is GloCoBank, which is charting the development of global correspondent banking from 1870-2000. Follow the project on Twitter @GloCoBank.

My other research focuses on the transitions between international currencies, proposals for reform of the international monetary system in the 1970s and 1980s and the development of international banking and financial regulation.  Finally, I have a special interest in the history of China’s international economic relations through Hong Kong.

Books:

C.R. Schenk, International Economic Relations since 1945, Routledge, 2021.

W. Plumpe, A. Neutzenadel, C.R. Schenk, Deutsche Bank: the Global Hausbank 1870-2020, Bloomsbury, 2020.

C.R. Schenk, Y. Cassis and R. Grossman, eds., Oxford Handbook of Banking and Financial History, Oxford, 2016.

C.R. Schenk, International Economic Relations since 1945, Routledge, 2011.

C.R. Schenk, The Decline of Sterling; managing the retreat of an international currency 1945-1992, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

C.R. Schenk, ed., Hong Kong SAR’s Monetary and Exchange Rate Challenges; historical perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

C.R. Schenk, Hong Kong as an International Financial Centre: emergence and development 1945-65, London: Routledge, 2001.    

C.R. Schenk, Britain and the Sterling Area: From Devaluation to Convertibility, London: Routledge, 1994.

Recent Journal Articles:

C.R. Schenk, 'The global financial crisis and banking regulation: Another turn of the wheel?', Journal of Modern European History, 19(1), 2021.

C.R. Schenk, 'Regulatory foundations of financialisation: May Day, Big Bang and international banking, 1975-1990', Financial History Review, 27(3), 2020.

C.R. Schenk, 'The origins of the Asia dollar market 1968-1986: Regulatory competition and complementarity in Singapore and Hong Kong', Financial History Review, 27(1), 2020.

C.R. Schenk, 'The City and Financial Services: Historical Perspectives on the Brexit Debate', Political Quarterly, 90(52), 2019.

C.R. Schenk, ‘Rogue trading at Lloyds Bank International, 1974: operational risk in volatile markets’, Business History Review, 2017, 91(1), pp. 105-128.

C.R. Schenk, ‘Negotiating Positive Non-Interventionism: Regulating Hong Kong’s Finance Companies 1976-86’, China Quarterly, 230, 2017, pp. 348-370