THE RISK BANKING AND FINANCE SOCIETY
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REBEL COLE

Lynn Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor of Finance at Florida Atlantic University
Rebel Cole, Lynn Eminent Scholar and leading expert in banking and finance, will keynote the RBF Global Finance Forum 2026.

REBEL COLE

Lynn Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor of Finance at Florida Atlantic University

Biography

Dr. Rebel Cole is the Lynn Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor of Finance at the College of Business, Florida Atlantic University. He received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988, following a BA in Economics and Political Science from the same institution in 1981.

From 1988 to 1997, Dr. Cole worked within the Federal Reserve System, primarily at the Board of Governors in Washington, DC. There, he played a leading role in the design, development, and implementation of the System for Estimating Examination Ratings (SEER)—the Fed’s primary system for off-site monitoring of banks and holding companies—as well as the 1993 iteration of the Survey of Small Business Finances.

Since leaving the Federal Reserve, Dr. Cole has served as a special advisor to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and numerous other organizations, providing training and technical assistance to central banks in more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. He has participated in over 60 international missions, supporting the development of stress tests, financial stability indicators, and off-site monitoring systems for commercial banks and other financial institutions.

Dr. Cole has published extensively in top academic journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Real Estate Economics. His primary research areas are commercial banking, corporate governance, financial institutions, real estate, and small-business finance. His work has been cited more than 11,000 times according to Google Scholar and over 2,500 times according to Scopus. Many of his research papers are available on his website: www.rebelcole.com.

In addition to his academic contributions, Dr. Cole is a frequent commentator in the financial press. He has been quoted in or appeared on The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fox Business News, CNN Money, NPR, PBS Nightly Business Report, Accounting Today, The American Banker, and many other major outlets.

Selected Recent Publications

  • Tindall, Greg; Cole, Rebel; Javakhadze, David. (2025). Innovation Responds to Climate Change Proposals, Journal of Business Ethics, 198, 509–536.
  • Cole, Rebel; Damm, Jason; Hackney, John; Suleymanov, Masim. (2025). It’s Not (Only) Personal, It’s Business: Personal Bankruptcy Exemptions and Business Credit, Review of Finance, 29(1), 275–313.
  • Cole, Rebel; Cowling, Marc; Liu, Weixi. (2024). The Effect of Collateral on Small Business Rationing of Term Loans and Lines of Credit, Journal of Financial Stability, 74, Article: 101320.
  • Wu, Qionbing; Cole, Rebel. (2024). Macroeconomic Conditions and Bank Failure, Journal of Forecasting, 43(5), 1212–1234.