The Salomon Center, directed by Philipp Schnabl, conducts and disseminates new research across a wide array of financial topics and organizes conferences that bring together academics, practitioners and regulators.   The Center specializes in the study of financial institutions and markets, including commercial banks, investment banks, managed funds and insurance companies.

The Center's activities are grouped into five research programs, each directed by an NYU Stern professor:

• Credit & Debt Markets directed by Edward I. Altman (past FMA President)
• Derivatives Research Project directed by Joel Hasbrouck
• Financial Policy and Institutions, directed by Philipp Schnabl
• Alternative Investments, directed by Matthew Richardson
• Household Finance, directed by Johannes Stroebel

Two of the Center's previous research initiatives have since been spun out as stand-alone entities:

• Corporate Governance directed by David Yermack, in the NYU Pollack Center for Law and Business
• The Volatility Institute directed by Robert F. Engle

Responding to the Financial Crisis, the Center was instrumental in organizing two NYU Stern School research projects that resulted in publication of, Restoring Financial Stability: How to Repair a Failed System (Wiley 2009) and Regulating Wall Street: The Dodd-Frank Act and the New Architecture of Global Finance (Wiley 2010). The Center has hosted various conferences as well as its popular Chats with Financiers program related to the financial crisis of 2007-2009.