Computing and automation play an increasingly important role in finance and significantly affect the ways in which financial markets operate. Economic and financial incentives play an important role in conventional distributed systems technology, such as the internet protocols.
The Finance Hub works at the intersection of finance and computation, using a range of techniques to advance understanding of computation's role in finance and vice-versa.
Techniques include algorithm design, game theory, network analysis, scientific and high-performance computing, time-series analysis and agent-based modelling. Problems the hub tackles include market micro-structure, risk management, portfolio construction, and the design of crypto-finance and distributed-ledger technology.
The Hub has established collaborations with other departments at King's, such as the Department of Mathematics and the King's Business School, as well as key financial institutions, including the Financial Conduct Authority.
Research Questions
The Finance Hub carries out fundamental and applied research in computational finance and economics. Our current key research directions are:
- solving financial problems with machine learning and AI techniques;
- incentives and mechanism design in financial markets;
- blockchain and decentralised finance;
- detecting systemic risk and clearing of financial networks.
Themes

AI in finance
Our hub is world-leading in the adoption of AI in finance. AI tools have been developed, and often successfully deployed, for many tasks in different application domains. We work on a variety of tasks in the application domain (including trading, risk management, market making, and derivative pricing) and adapt and implement novel AI machinery encompassing adversarial reinforcement learning, generative AI, deep neural networks, and advanced mathematical tools such as path signatures and the intrinsic time framework. We also explore areas within finance which encourage the use of AI due to the need to process large amounts of data, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) papers, a line of work in collaboration with King’s Business School and the Department of Mathematics.

Incentives in finance
Trustworthiness of artificial intelligence is vital to central banks and regulators. We build incentive-aware digital twins for finance - realistic simulation platforms that allow operators to experiment with financial markets "in the lab". We also aim to incorporate symbolic AI tools coming from game theory to model and account for the incentives of agents in the market, by combining agent-based modelling and empirical game-theoretic analysis. This approach aims to tackle various issues on market design. We also explore the herding effect in trading, and its consequences on flash crashes, as well as the systemic properties of complex systems, where risk in financial networks is a particularly prominent example here. Building on some of the theoretical work we have done, we also account for suboptimal decision making (caused by e.g. irrational behaviour) in the analysis.

Blockchain and decentralised finance
Within the hub, we have knowledge of the protocols currently adopted and tools for their analysis and design (a.k.a., “layer 1” blockchain). We are also studying “layer 2” questions including the extent of liquidity provision, maximum extractable value, and transaction fees that are influenced by the way a market is designed.

Detecting and preventing systemic risk in finance
Will the default of one financial institution, or bank, cascade to other banks in a financial system? Can a bank’s exposure to such a contagion risk be lowered by pardoning debts or donating assets to other banks? These example questions are paramount to the study of systemic risk in finance. In this context, financial networks have emerged as the framework of reference. A central computational challenge for financial networks is the clearing problem, which amounts to computing the payments that were to be made among financial institutions if all outstanding debts in the financial system had to be cleared at once. Such payments reveal each institution’s exposure to systemic risk in the network. The hub investigates the computational challenges involved in solving the clearing problem, and attempts to find qualitative insights into the way clearing should proceed in a financial interbank system in challenging scenarios (e.g. after a financial shock in the presence of a financial crisis).
Publications
Equational Reasoning Modulo Commutativity in Languages with Binders
Caires, A. K., Fernandez, M. & Nantes-Sobrinho, D., 1 Jun 2025, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Automated Deduction CADE-30. SpringerResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Nominal Equational Rewriting and Narrowing
Ayala-Rincón, M., Fernández, M., Nantes-Sobrinho, D. & Santaguida, D., 6 Jun 2025, Proceedings of LSFA 2024. Vol. 421. p. 80-97 18 p. (Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, EPTCS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Nominal Matching Logic with Fixpoints
Sebe, M., Fernández, M. & Cheney, J., 10 Jan 2025, CPP 2025 - Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, Co-located with: POPL 2025. Stark, K., Timany, A., Blazy, S. & Tabareau, N. (eds.). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, p. 17-33 17 p. (CPP 2025 - Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, Co-located with: POPL 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
An Axiomatic Category-Based Access Control Model for Smart Homes
Bertolissi, C., Fernández, M. & Thuraisingham, B., 2024, p. 131-148. 18 p.Research output: Contribution to conference types › Paper › peer-review
Towards Automated Access Control Policy Mining via Structured Attribute-Based Access Control
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2024, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’24). Daimi, K. & Al Sadoon, A. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 431-440 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1058 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
MASSXR 2025: The 3rd Workshop on Multi-modal Affective and Social Behavior Analysis and Synthesis in Extended Reality
Quamara, M., Celiktutan, O., Viganò, L., Bera, A., Cesar, P., Durupinar, F., Normoyle, A., Raman, C. & Yumak, Z., Mar 2025, 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). 2 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
A Performance Evaluation for Software Defined Networks with P4
Fernando, O. A., Cao, H., Spring, J. & Che, X., 11 Jun 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Network. 5, 2, p. 1-28 28 p., 21.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
The Continuing Impact of a Pandemic on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: the Academics' Perspective
Xiao, H., Spring, J., Xu, X. & Wang, N., May 2025, (Accepted/In press) EDULEARN25, the 17th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
An Educational and Validation Tool for Cyber Threat Intelligence Leveraging Large Language Models
Janku, S., Xiao, H. & Caris, T., May 2025, (Accepted/In press) 3rd International Workshop on Cyber Security Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Scaffolding Student Learning through GenAI in Cybersecurity Education
Xiao, H., Shah, B., Spring, J., Kuzminykh, I. & Janku, S., May 2025, (Accepted/In press) the 3rd International Workshop on Cyber Security Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2025), Munich, Germany.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Non-Obvious Manipulability for Single-Parameter Agents and Bilateral Trade
Archbold, T., De Keijzer, B. & Ventre, C., 5 May 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Bitcoin's Edge: Embedded Sentiment in Blockchain Transactional Data
Kleitsikas, C., Korfiatis, N., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., Mar 2025, (Accepted/In press) IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2025.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
A measure of climate change in financial news and its impact on the stock market
Xiao, Y., Liu, B., Ventre, C. & Li, H., 22 Mar 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Digital Economy. 3, p. 146-157 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
User Identification Procedures with Human Mutations: Formal Analysis and Pilot Study
Quamara, M. & Viganò, L., 20 Jan 2025, (Accepted/In press) ICSA 2025 Companion proceedings. IEEE Xplore, 10 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Obviously Strategyproof Mechanisms without Money for Scheduling
Kyropoulou, M. & Ventre, C., 9 May 2025, In: SIAM JOURNAL ON DISCRETE MATHEMATICS. 39, 2, p. 1102-1122 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Embedding Trust in the Media Access Control Protocol for Wireless Networks
Alocious, C., Xiao, H., Christianson, B. & Spring, J., 9 Jan 2025, In: SENSORS. 25, 2, p. 1-30 30 p., 354.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Impact of Pinging in Financial Markets - An Agent Based Study
Rangarajan, S. B. & Ventre, C., 20 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
From Competition to Centralization: The Oligopoly in Ethereum Block Building Auctions
Wu, F., Thiery, T., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., 24 Dec 2024.Research output: Working paper/Preprint › Preprint
Agent-based Modeling and Simulation of Ambiguity in Catastrophe Insurance Markets
Bi, T., Zhao, L., Tong, J., Feng, Z. & Ventre, C., 19 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Agent-Based Analysis of Green Disclosure Policies and Their Market-Wide Impact on Firm Behavior
Zhao, L., Polukarov, M. & Ventre, C., 23 May 2025, Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2025). p. 2355-2363 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Asymptotic Extinction in Large Coordination Games
Chan, D., De Keijzer, B., Galla, T., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., 10 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 39th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-25).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Heavy Nodes in a Small Neighborhood: Exact and Peeling Algorithms With Applications
Li, L., Verbeek, H., Chen, H., Loukidis, G., Gwadera, R., Stougie, L. & Pissis, S., 1 Apr 2025, In: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON KNOWLEDGE AND DATA ENGINEERING. 37, 4, p. 1853-1870 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Scalable Order-Preserving Pattern Mining
Li, L., Zuba, W., Loukidis, G., Pissis, S. & Matsangidou, M., 6 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) 2024.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Deep Generative Calibration on Stochastic Volatility Models with Applications in FX Barrier Options
Ma, M., Ventre, C., Tiranti, R. & Chen, A., 26 Nov 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 40th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Supporting the Design of Phishing Education, Training and Awareness interventions: an LLM-based approach
Desolda, G., Greco, F. & Viganò, L., 1 May 2024, (Accepted/In press) 2nd International Workshop on CyberSecurity Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2024). CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 14 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Missing Value Replacement in Strings and Applications
Bernardini, G., Liu, C., Loukidis, G., Marchetti-Spaccamela, A., Pissis, S. P., Stougie, L. & Sweering, M., 28 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: DATA MINING AND KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
APOLLO: A GPT-based tool to detect phishing emails and generate explanations that warn users
Desolda, G., Greco, F. & Viganò, L., 3 Oct 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 32 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Hierarchical Higher-Order Port-Graphs: A Rewriting-Based Modelling Language
Fernandez, M. & MacKie, I., 9 Sept 2024, Proceedings of the 26th International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming, PPDP 2024, Co-located with the 26th International Symposium on Formal Methods. Association for Computing Machinery, 6. (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
On Breaking Truss-based and Core-based Communities
Chen, H., Conte, A., Grossi, R., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P. & Sweering, M., 12 Apr 2024, In: ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data. 18, 6, 135.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Approximate Suffix-Prefix Dictionary Queries
Zuba, W., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P. & Thankachan, S. V., 23 Aug 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) 49th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, MFCS 2024. Kralovic, R. & Kucera, A. (eds.). Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing, 85. (Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs; vol. 306).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Space-Efficient Indexes for Uncertain Strings
Gabory, E., Liu, C., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P. & Zuba, W., 8 Mar 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings - 2024 IEEE 40th International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2024. IEEE Computer Society, p. 4828-4842 15 p. (Proceedings - International Conference on Data Engineering).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Connecting de Bruijn Graphs
Bernardini, G., Chen, H., Gørtz, I. L., Krogh, C., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P., Stougie, L. & Sweering, M., 12 Apr 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs.Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference paper › peer-review
Minimizing the Minimizers via Alphabet Reordering
Verbeek, H., Ayad, L. A. K., Loukides, G. & Pissis, S. P., 12 Apr 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs.Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference paper › peer-review
The Propensity for Density in Feed-forward Models
Schoots, N., Jackson, A., Kholmovaia, A., McBurney, P. & Shanahan, M., 18 Oct 2024, 27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. IOS Press, Vol. 392. p. 2830-2837 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Certified First-Order AC-Unification and Applications
Ayala-Rincón, M., Fernandez, M., Silva, G. F., Kutsia, T. & Nantes-Sobrinho, D., 1 Oct 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: JOURNAL OF AUTOMATED REASONING.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Detecting Collective Liquidity Taking Distributions
Balcau, A., Sanchez-Betancourt, L., Sarkadi, S. & Ventre, C., 14 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 504 - 512 9 p. (ICAIF 2024 - 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
To Compete or Collude: Bidding Incentives in Ethereum Block Building Auctions
Wu, F., Thiery, T., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 813 - 821Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
A Financial Time Series Denoiser Based on Diffusion Models
Wang, Z. & Ventre, C., 14 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 72 - 80 9 p. (ICAIF 2024 - 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
ARL-Based Multi-Action Market Making with Hawkes Processes and Variable Volatility
Wang, Z., Ventre, C. & Polukarov, M., 14 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 437 - 444 8 p. (ICAIF 2024 - 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Towards Automated Policy Predictions via Structured Attribute-Based Access Control
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2024, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’24). Daimi, K. & Al Sadoon, A. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 13-22 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1058 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Towards Automated Policy Predictions via Structured Attribute-Based Access Control
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2024, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’24). Daimi, K. & Al Sadoon, A. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 13-22 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1058 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Category-Based Administrative Access Control Policies
Bertolissi, C., Fernandez, M. & Thuraisingham, B., 1 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
MEV Sharing with Dynamic Extraction Rates
Braga, P., Chionas, G., Krysta, P., Leonardos, S., Piliouras, G. & Ventre, C., 19 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the ACM CCS Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security (DeFi'24): CCS 2024. p. 1 - 10 10 p. (DeFi 2024 - Proceedings of the Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security, Co-Located with: CCS 2024).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
An Algorithmic Theory of Simplicity in Mechanism Design
Ferraioli, D. & Ventre, C., 16 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 20th Conference on Web and Internet Economics (WINE 2024).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Equilibria of Carbon Allowance Auctions: Emissions and Productivity
Zhao, L., Polukarov, M. & Ventre, C., 2025, Proceedings of the 25th International Conference. on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2024): Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems - 25th International Conference, Proceedings. Arisaka, R., Ito, T., Sanchez-Anguix, V., Stein, S., Aydoğan, R. & van der Torre, L. (eds.). p. 136–152 17 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 15395 LNAI).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
A Logic for Policy Based Resource Exchanges in Multiagent Systems
Ceragioli, L., Degano, P., Galletta, L. & Viganò, L., 4 Jul 2024, (Accepted/In press) 27TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Hierarchical Higher-Order Port Graphs: A Rewriting-Based Modelling Language
Fernandez, M. & Mackie, I., 1 Sept 2024, Proceedings of PPDP 2024.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
The Ackermann Award 2023
Fernández, M., Goubault-Larrecq, J. & Kesner, D., Feb 2024, 32nd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic, CSL 2024. Murano, A. & Silva, A. (eds.). Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing, 1. (Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs; vol. 288).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Other chapter contribution › peer-review
From Static to Dynamic Access Control Policies via Attribute-Based Category Mining
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2023, Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation - 33rd International Symposium, LOPSTR 2023, Proceedings. Glück, R. & Kafle, B. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 188-197 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 14330 LNCS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
A Formal Approach For Modelling And Analysing Surgical Procedures
Sandu, I., Borgo, R., Dasgupta, P., Thurairaja, R. & Viganò, L., 2 Aug 2024, (Accepted/In press) 20th International Workshop on Security and Trust Management (STM 2024). Springer, 11 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
News
New tool analyses huge amounts of data at record speeds
New tool analyses huge amounts of data at record speeds The algorithm can spot trends in hundreds of millions of data points in less than 20 minutes.

Three King's scientists win prestigious New Investigator Awards
Three King’s academics have been awarded funding from EPSRC to establish research groups.

New software detects money laundering faster than ever before
The tool can isolate suspicious and potential criminal behaviour three times more effectively than conventional methods.

KBS-Mathematics-Informatics Research Discussion on Climate Finance
Virtual meeting held to discuss research collaboration in the field of climate finance.

Events

AI and Finance - Collaborative Frontiers
Join this workshop exploring the transformative potential of AI in financial systems.
Please note: this event has passed.
PhD research
We welcome postgraduate research students from around the world to join our world-leading community of researchers. PhD students play a vital role in advancing innovation and cutting-edge discovery across our areas of research.

PhD research
We offer an exciting research environment where PhD students can pursue their own projects in a variety of fields including cyber security. The Department of Informatics invites applications for postgraduate research students for funded and self-funded projects starting in October each year.
Themes

AI in finance
Our hub is world-leading in the adoption of AI in finance. AI tools have been developed, and often successfully deployed, for many tasks in different application domains. We work on a variety of tasks in the application domain (including trading, risk management, market making, and derivative pricing) and adapt and implement novel AI machinery encompassing adversarial reinforcement learning, generative AI, deep neural networks, and advanced mathematical tools such as path signatures and the intrinsic time framework. We also explore areas within finance which encourage the use of AI due to the need to process large amounts of data, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) papers, a line of work in collaboration with King’s Business School and the Department of Mathematics.

Incentives in finance
Trustworthiness of artificial intelligence is vital to central banks and regulators. We build incentive-aware digital twins for finance - realistic simulation platforms that allow operators to experiment with financial markets "in the lab". We also aim to incorporate symbolic AI tools coming from game theory to model and account for the incentives of agents in the market, by combining agent-based modelling and empirical game-theoretic analysis. This approach aims to tackle various issues on market design. We also explore the herding effect in trading, and its consequences on flash crashes, as well as the systemic properties of complex systems, where risk in financial networks is a particularly prominent example here. Building on some of the theoretical work we have done, we also account for suboptimal decision making (caused by e.g. irrational behaviour) in the analysis.

Blockchain and decentralised finance
Within the hub, we have knowledge of the protocols currently adopted and tools for their analysis and design (a.k.a., “layer 1” blockchain). We are also studying “layer 2” questions including the extent of liquidity provision, maximum extractable value, and transaction fees that are influenced by the way a market is designed.

Detecting and preventing systemic risk in finance
Will the default of one financial institution, or bank, cascade to other banks in a financial system? Can a bank’s exposure to such a contagion risk be lowered by pardoning debts or donating assets to other banks? These example questions are paramount to the study of systemic risk in finance. In this context, financial networks have emerged as the framework of reference. A central computational challenge for financial networks is the clearing problem, which amounts to computing the payments that were to be made among financial institutions if all outstanding debts in the financial system had to be cleared at once. Such payments reveal each institution’s exposure to systemic risk in the network. The hub investigates the computational challenges involved in solving the clearing problem, and attempts to find qualitative insights into the way clearing should proceed in a financial interbank system in challenging scenarios (e.g. after a financial shock in the presence of a financial crisis).
Publications
Equational Reasoning Modulo Commutativity in Languages with Binders
Caires, A. K., Fernandez, M. & Nantes-Sobrinho, D., 1 Jun 2025, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Automated Deduction CADE-30. SpringerResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Nominal Equational Rewriting and Narrowing
Ayala-Rincón, M., Fernández, M., Nantes-Sobrinho, D. & Santaguida, D., 6 Jun 2025, Proceedings of LSFA 2024. Vol. 421. p. 80-97 18 p. (Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, EPTCS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Nominal Matching Logic with Fixpoints
Sebe, M., Fernández, M. & Cheney, J., 10 Jan 2025, CPP 2025 - Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, Co-located with: POPL 2025. Stark, K., Timany, A., Blazy, S. & Tabareau, N. (eds.). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, p. 17-33 17 p. (CPP 2025 - Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs, Co-located with: POPL 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
An Axiomatic Category-Based Access Control Model for Smart Homes
Bertolissi, C., Fernández, M. & Thuraisingham, B., 2024, p. 131-148. 18 p.Research output: Contribution to conference types › Paper › peer-review
Towards Automated Access Control Policy Mining via Structured Attribute-Based Access Control
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2024, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’24). Daimi, K. & Al Sadoon, A. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 431-440 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1058 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
MASSXR 2025: The 3rd Workshop on Multi-modal Affective and Social Behavior Analysis and Synthesis in Extended Reality
Quamara, M., Celiktutan, O., Viganò, L., Bera, A., Cesar, P., Durupinar, F., Normoyle, A., Raman, C. & Yumak, Z., Mar 2025, 2025 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW). 2 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
A Performance Evaluation for Software Defined Networks with P4
Fernando, O. A., Cao, H., Spring, J. & Che, X., 11 Jun 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Network. 5, 2, p. 1-28 28 p., 21.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
The Continuing Impact of a Pandemic on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: the Academics' Perspective
Xiao, H., Spring, J., Xu, X. & Wang, N., May 2025, (Accepted/In press) EDULEARN25, the 17th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
An Educational and Validation Tool for Cyber Threat Intelligence Leveraging Large Language Models
Janku, S., Xiao, H. & Caris, T., May 2025, (Accepted/In press) 3rd International Workshop on Cyber Security Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Scaffolding Student Learning through GenAI in Cybersecurity Education
Xiao, H., Shah, B., Spring, J., Kuzminykh, I. & Janku, S., May 2025, (Accepted/In press) the 3rd International Workshop on Cyber Security Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2025), Munich, Germany.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Non-Obvious Manipulability for Single-Parameter Agents and Bilateral Trade
Archbold, T., De Keijzer, B. & Ventre, C., 5 May 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Bitcoin's Edge: Embedded Sentiment in Blockchain Transactional Data
Kleitsikas, C., Korfiatis, N., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., Mar 2025, (Accepted/In press) IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2025.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
A measure of climate change in financial news and its impact on the stock market
Xiao, Y., Liu, B., Ventre, C. & Li, H., 22 Mar 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Digital Economy. 3, p. 146-157 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
User Identification Procedures with Human Mutations: Formal Analysis and Pilot Study
Quamara, M. & Viganò, L., 20 Jan 2025, (Accepted/In press) ICSA 2025 Companion proceedings. IEEE Xplore, 10 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Obviously Strategyproof Mechanisms without Money for Scheduling
Kyropoulou, M. & Ventre, C., 9 May 2025, In: SIAM JOURNAL ON DISCRETE MATHEMATICS. 39, 2, p. 1102-1122 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Embedding Trust in the Media Access Control Protocol for Wireless Networks
Alocious, C., Xiao, H., Christianson, B. & Spring, J., 9 Jan 2025, In: SENSORS. 25, 2, p. 1-30 30 p., 354.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Impact of Pinging in Financial Markets - An Agent Based Study
Rangarajan, S. B. & Ventre, C., 20 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
From Competition to Centralization: The Oligopoly in Ethereum Block Building Auctions
Wu, F., Thiery, T., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., 24 Dec 2024.Research output: Working paper/Preprint › Preprint
Agent-based Modeling and Simulation of Ambiguity in Catastrophe Insurance Markets
Bi, T., Zhao, L., Tong, J., Feng, Z. & Ventre, C., 19 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Agent-Based Analysis of Green Disclosure Policies and Their Market-Wide Impact on Firm Behavior
Zhao, L., Polukarov, M. & Ventre, C., 23 May 2025, Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2025). p. 2355-2363 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Asymptotic Extinction in Large Coordination Games
Chan, D., De Keijzer, B., Galla, T., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., 10 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 39th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-25).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Heavy Nodes in a Small Neighborhood: Exact and Peeling Algorithms With Applications
Li, L., Verbeek, H., Chen, H., Loukidis, G., Gwadera, R., Stougie, L. & Pissis, S., 1 Apr 2025, In: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON KNOWLEDGE AND DATA ENGINEERING. 37, 4, p. 1853-1870 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Scalable Order-Preserving Pattern Mining
Li, L., Zuba, W., Loukidis, G., Pissis, S. & Matsangidou, M., 6 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) 2024.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Deep Generative Calibration on Stochastic Volatility Models with Applications in FX Barrier Options
Ma, M., Ventre, C., Tiranti, R. & Chen, A., 26 Nov 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 40th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2025).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Supporting the Design of Phishing Education, Training and Awareness interventions: an LLM-based approach
Desolda, G., Greco, F. & Viganò, L., 1 May 2024, (Accepted/In press) 2nd International Workshop on CyberSecurity Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2024). CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 14 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Missing Value Replacement in Strings and Applications
Bernardini, G., Liu, C., Loukidis, G., Marchetti-Spaccamela, A., Pissis, S. P., Stougie, L. & Sweering, M., 28 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: DATA MINING AND KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
APOLLO: A GPT-based tool to detect phishing emails and generate explanations that warn users
Desolda, G., Greco, F. & Viganò, L., 3 Oct 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 32 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Hierarchical Higher-Order Port-Graphs: A Rewriting-Based Modelling Language
Fernandez, M. & MacKie, I., 9 Sept 2024, Proceedings of the 26th International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming, PPDP 2024, Co-located with the 26th International Symposium on Formal Methods. Association for Computing Machinery, 6. (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
On Breaking Truss-based and Core-based Communities
Chen, H., Conte, A., Grossi, R., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P. & Sweering, M., 12 Apr 2024, In: ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data. 18, 6, 135.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Approximate Suffix-Prefix Dictionary Queries
Zuba, W., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P. & Thankachan, S. V., 23 Aug 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) 49th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, MFCS 2024. Kralovic, R. & Kucera, A. (eds.). Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing, 85. (Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs; vol. 306).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Space-Efficient Indexes for Uncertain Strings
Gabory, E., Liu, C., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P. & Zuba, W., 8 Mar 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings - 2024 IEEE 40th International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2024. IEEE Computer Society, p. 4828-4842 15 p. (Proceedings - International Conference on Data Engineering).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Connecting de Bruijn Graphs
Bernardini, G., Chen, H., Gørtz, I. L., Krogh, C., Loukides, G., Pissis, S. P., Stougie, L. & Sweering, M., 12 Apr 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs.Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference paper › peer-review
Minimizing the Minimizers via Alphabet Reordering
Verbeek, H., Ayad, L. A. K., Loukides, G. & Pissis, S. P., 12 Apr 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs.Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference paper › peer-review
The Propensity for Density in Feed-forward Models
Schoots, N., Jackson, A., Kholmovaia, A., McBurney, P. & Shanahan, M., 18 Oct 2024, 27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. IOS Press, Vol. 392. p. 2830-2837 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Certified First-Order AC-Unification and Applications
Ayala-Rincón, M., Fernandez, M., Silva, G. F., Kutsia, T. & Nantes-Sobrinho, D., 1 Oct 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: JOURNAL OF AUTOMATED REASONING.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Detecting Collective Liquidity Taking Distributions
Balcau, A., Sanchez-Betancourt, L., Sarkadi, S. & Ventre, C., 14 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 504 - 512 9 p. (ICAIF 2024 - 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
To Compete or Collude: Bidding Incentives in Ethereum Block Building Auctions
Wu, F., Thiery, T., Leonardos, S. & Ventre, C., 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 813 - 821Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
A Financial Time Series Denoiser Based on Diffusion Models
Wang, Z. & Ventre, C., 14 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 72 - 80 9 p. (ICAIF 2024 - 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
ARL-Based Multi-Action Market Making with Hawkes Processes and Variable Volatility
Wang, Z., Ventre, C. & Polukarov, M., 14 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance (ICAIF 2024). p. 437 - 444 8 p. (ICAIF 2024 - 5th ACM International Conference on AI in Finance).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Towards Automated Policy Predictions via Structured Attribute-Based Access Control
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2024, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’24). Daimi, K. & Al Sadoon, A. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 13-22 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1058 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Towards Automated Policy Predictions via Structured Attribute-Based Access Control
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2024, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovations in Computing Research (ICR’24). Daimi, K. & Al Sadoon, A. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 13-22 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems; vol. 1058 LNNS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Category-Based Administrative Access Control Policies
Bertolissi, C., Fernandez, M. & Thuraisingham, B., 1 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
MEV Sharing with Dynamic Extraction Rates
Braga, P., Chionas, G., Krysta, P., Leonardos, S., Piliouras, G. & Ventre, C., 19 Nov 2024, Proceedings of the ACM CCS Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security (DeFi'24): CCS 2024. p. 1 - 10 10 p. (DeFi 2024 - Proceedings of the Workshop on Decentralized Finance and Security, Co-Located with: CCS 2024).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
An Algorithmic Theory of Simplicity in Mechanism Design
Ferraioli, D. & Ventre, C., 16 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) Proceedings of the 20th Conference on Web and Internet Economics (WINE 2024).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Equilibria of Carbon Allowance Auctions: Emissions and Productivity
Zhao, L., Polukarov, M. & Ventre, C., 2025, Proceedings of the 25th International Conference. on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2024): Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems - 25th International Conference, Proceedings. Arisaka, R., Ito, T., Sanchez-Anguix, V., Stein, S., Aydoğan, R. & van der Torre, L. (eds.). p. 136–152 17 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 15395 LNAI).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
A Logic for Policy Based Resource Exchanges in Multiagent Systems
Ceragioli, L., Degano, P., Galletta, L. & Viganò, L., 4 Jul 2024, (Accepted/In press) 27TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
Hierarchical Higher-Order Port Graphs: A Rewriting-Based Modelling Language
Fernandez, M. & Mackie, I., 1 Sept 2024, Proceedings of PPDP 2024.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
The Ackermann Award 2023
Fernández, M., Goubault-Larrecq, J. & Kesner, D., Feb 2024, 32nd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic, CSL 2024. Murano, A. & Silva, A. (eds.). Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing, 1. (Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs; vol. 288).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Other chapter contribution › peer-review
From Static to Dynamic Access Control Policies via Attribute-Based Category Mining
Bamberger, A. & Fernández, M., 2023, Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation - 33rd International Symposium, LOPSTR 2023, Proceedings. Glück, R. & Kafle, B. (eds.). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, p. 188-197 10 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); vol. 14330 LNCS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
A Formal Approach For Modelling And Analysing Surgical Procedures
Sandu, I., Borgo, R., Dasgupta, P., Thurairaja, R. & Viganò, L., 2 Aug 2024, (Accepted/In press) 20th International Workshop on Security and Trust Management (STM 2024). Springer, 11 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper › peer-review
News
New tool analyses huge amounts of data at record speeds
New tool analyses huge amounts of data at record speeds The algorithm can spot trends in hundreds of millions of data points in less than 20 minutes.

Three King's scientists win prestigious New Investigator Awards
Three King’s academics have been awarded funding from EPSRC to establish research groups.

New software detects money laundering faster than ever before
The tool can isolate suspicious and potential criminal behaviour three times more effectively than conventional methods.

KBS-Mathematics-Informatics Research Discussion on Climate Finance
Virtual meeting held to discuss research collaboration in the field of climate finance.

Events

AI and Finance - Collaborative Frontiers
Join this workshop exploring the transformative potential of AI in financial systems.
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PhD research
We welcome postgraduate research students from around the world to join our world-leading community of researchers. PhD students play a vital role in advancing innovation and cutting-edge discovery across our areas of research.

PhD research
We offer an exciting research environment where PhD students can pursue their own projects in a variety of fields including cyber security. The Department of Informatics invites applications for postgraduate research students for funded and self-funded projects starting in October each year.