ALF and FEP sign protocol to promote academic research on specialised financing

The Portuguese Association of Leasing, Factoring and Renting (ALF) and the Economics Faculty of Porto University (FEP) signed a cooperation protocol through which they join forces in the promotion of academic research on specialised corporate financing.

The initiative brings together the only entity responsible for specialised financing in Portugal and a higher education institution recognised for its teaching and research in the various areas of Economics, Finance and Management.

Based on this protocol, the two entities will implement various actions to promote knowledge and research on the three sectors of specialised financing, namely Leasing, Factoring and Renting. The document signed by the president of ALF, Alexandre Santos, and by the director of FEP, José Varejão, also points out to the articulation of the entities in the promotion of themes on which master's degree students will be able to write dissertations.

Alexandre Santos, president of ALF, highlights "the importance of connecting the specialised financing sector to the academic world and promoting student contact with the financial sector. Leasing, Factoring and Renting are very expressive products in the Portuguese economy, so it is of the utmost interest that they are properly studied, and FEP is a benchmark Faculty in the production of knowledge and scientific work of its students, teachers and researchers in general".

José Varejão, FEP's director, adds that "the protocol now signed will allow FEP's students to deepen and exercise their training in the field of specialised business financing, while contributing to the advancement of knowledge about this important sector of activity that ALF represents."

In order to carry out the academic work, the association, with almost four decades dedicated to specialised financing, undertakes to make available statistical information on the three sectors and to promote access to its Members that are part of them.

Among the joint actions to be developed over the two-year duration of the protocol are seminars and workshops, as well as working meetings specialised in these themes, among other initiatives.