The American Finance Association (AFA) is the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.

The AFA was planned at a meeting in December 1939 in Philadelphia. The first journal, published in 1942, was called American Finance (link to first issue). It was renamed The Journal of Finance and became a regular serial journal in August 1946. Association membership has grown steadily over time. The AFA sponsors an annual meeting each January, where papers are presented, covering the gamut of financial topics, and the AFA’s current president speaks on a chosen subject. The Association has officers and a board of directors who assist in key decisions, and a set of bylaws governing those decisions.

Purpose of the AFA:

• to provide for the mutual association of persons with an interest in finance
• to improve public understanding of financial problems
• to provide for the exchange of financial ideas through the distribution of a periodical and other media
• to encourage the study of finance in colleges and universities
• to conduct such other activities as may be appropriate for a non-profit, professional society in the field of finance.