SAFE was founded in 2013 as a cooperation between Goethe University Frankfurt and the Center for Financial Studies (CFS). Since January 2020, SAFE has been working as a legally independent institute and is a member of the Leibniz Association. The institute contributes to the strengthening of a sustainable and crisis-proof financial system that promotes innovation and serves the individual needs of business and citizens.
SAFE is strongly networked with other research facilities and institutions internationally. The institute's research focuses on six thematic areas: Financial Intermediation, Law&Finance, Financial Markets, Money&Finance, Household Finance, and Macro Finance. SAFE strives for excellent research and combines this with the goal to carry academic results into politics, administration, and society, both at national and European levels. In addition, SAFE works on the development and provision of infrastructure in the field of European economic and financial data, which should enable better empirical analyses.