News & Press

LinkedIn Announcement - Project Completion

Ready-to-copy LinkedIn post for project announcement:

Suggested LinkedIn tags: @Jeffrey Chu @Stephen Chan @Yuanyuan Zhang @Yiting Liu @Bern University of Applied Sciences @Renmin University of China @SNSF

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CIEP 2025 Shanghai - China International Talent Exchange Conference

Presentation at the 23rd China International Talent Exchange Conference

Shanghai, October 20-23, 2025 - Prof. Dr. Joerg Osterrieder delivered a keynote presentation at the 23rd China International Talent Exchange Conference (CIEP 2025) in Shanghai. The conference brought together international scholars, leading journal editors, and emerging researchers to discuss cutting-edge advances in data science, fintech, and the digital economy.

Presentation Title: “Digital Finance: Non-Systematic Systematics, LLM Narratives, and High-Frequency Trading Around Macro-News Announcements”

The presentation examined the intersection of large language models, narrative analysis, and ultra-high-frequency trading dynamics around macroeconomic announcements. Key research findings included:

Metric	Finding
First 10 microseconds profit	$35 million (CME futures)
Minimum reaction latency	3 nanoseconds (EUREX)
Trading volume concentration	60% in first microseconds
Cross-market arbitrage window	37 milliseconds

Conference Sessions:

1. Economic Resilience Roundtable (Oct 20, Shanghai Yoja Hotel) - International scholars examining digital finance infrastructure and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region

2. Meeting with Editors (Oct 22, World Expo Conference Center) - Discussions with editors from JASA, Digital Finance, Finance Research Letters, JIFMIM, and Management and Marketing

3. Young Scholars Forum (Oct 22, World Expo Conference Center) - Platform for emerging researchers in digital finance

The participation in CIEP 2025 represents a significant milestone in the Swiss-Chinese research collaboration, providing opportunities for research dissemination, network expansion, and future collaboration development.

View full Shanghai conference page

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Press Release

Swiss-Chinese Research Collaboration Advances Graph-Based Credit Risk Assessment

Bern/Beijing, December 2025 - A bilateral research collaboration between Bern University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland) and Renmin University of China has successfully concluded a 21-month project developing novel graph neural network methodologies for consumer credit risk assessment. The project, funded by the Leading House Asia under the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Bilateral Science and Technology Programme with China, produced eight peer-reviewed publications and established frameworks for continued international research cooperation.

The research team developed a homophily-guided graph neural network approach that constructs meaningful borrower networks from tabular loan data, achieving 3.9-4.7% improvement in prediction accuracy over state-of-the-art baseline methods across five international datasets. The methodology has significant economic implications, with estimated annual loss reductions of CHF 500,000-900,000 per CHF 100 million lending portfolio.

Prof. Dr. Joerg Osterrieder, Principal Investigator and Coordinator of the MSCA Digital Finance Network, stated: “This project exemplifies the value of sustained international research collaboration. By combining Swiss expertise in industry applications with Chinese strengths in statistical methodology, we developed approaches that advance both academic knowledge and practical financial risk management.”

Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Chu, Co-Principal Investigator at Renmin University of China and associated partner of the MSCA Digital Finance Network, added: “The collaboration has been remarkably productive, yielding publications in top-tier journals including Expert Systems with Applications, Finance Research Letters, and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Our joint work on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain analytics has further strengthened the research partnership.”

Dr. Stephen Chan, collaborating researcher, noted: “The project’s integration with major research networks, including COST Action CA19130 with over 300 researchers across 51 countries, has amplified the impact of our findings and created pathways for continued collaboration.”

The research team has submitted four follow-up funding applications to continue the collaboration, including proposals to SNSF BRIDGE, Innosuisse, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Awards & Recognition

Yiting Liu Receives 2024 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad

Bern, December 5, 2024 - Yiting Liu, doctoral researcher on the SNSF Leading House Asia project, received the prestigious 2024 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad (Category A) at a ceremony held at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Switzerland.

The award was presented by H.E. Ambassador Qian Minjian. Yiting Liu was also invited to speak at the ceremony as a representative of this year’s award recipients.

The Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad, established in 2003, recognizes academic excellence among self-financed Chinese students pursuing doctoral or post-doctoral research overseas. The award is highly competitive, with no more than 650 recipients selected globally each year from among Chinese scholars demonstrating exceptional research performance.

Yiting Liu commented: “I am deeply honored to receive this recognition. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors, Prof. Dr. Joerg Osterrieder and the project team, for their continuous support throughout my doctoral journey. I am also thankful to the China Scholarship Council and the Chinese Embassy in Switzerland for their encouragement and long-standing support for Chinese scholars abroad. This award is a meaningful milestone, and I remain committed to advancing my research and contributing to cross-cultural academic exchange.”

The award recognizes Yiting Liu’s contributions to the SNSF Leading House Asia project, including lead authorship on publications in Expert Systems with Applications and Finance Research Letters, development of novel graph-based credit risk methodologies, and presentations at international conferences including the 4th International Symposium on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Hong Kong.

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Research Milestones

PhD Qualifier Report - June 2024

Yiting Liu successfully completed the PhD Qualifier Report on graph-based credit risk assessment methodologies. The research focuses on leveraging network topology for improved default prediction in consumer lending markets.

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Conference Presentations

Date	Event	Location	Presenter
Feb 20-22, 2025	ICMS 2025	Dubai, UAE	Jeffrey Chu, Stephen Chan
Aug 21-23, 2025	EcoSta 2025	Tokyo, Japan	Jeffrey Chu, Stephen Chan
Dec 13-17, 2024	ISBDAI 2024	Hong Kong	Yiting Liu
Oct 2025	China Talent Exchange	Shanghai	Joerg Osterrieder

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Media Contact

Prof. Dr. Joerg Osterrieder University of Twente Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences Email: joerg.osterrieder@utwente.nl ORCID: 0000-0003-0189-8636

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(c) Joerg Osterrieder 2025