Financial Technologies

The module studies technology-driven innovations in the financial sector; including the blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and smart contracts, with applications e.g., in digital advisory and trading systems, peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding and mobile payment systems. Such innovations can potentially disrupt existing industry structures, reshape their boundaries, and change the way firms create and deliver products and services. At the same time, they create privacy, regulatory and law-enforcement challenges. We study these issues in a format, which combines lectures, case studies, and experts from the industry.

Students will be able to understand the global FinTech landscape and describe the role of banks, financial service providers and the customers in shaping and responding to innovation and disruption. In doing so, the students will focus on the blockchain technology and analyze the challenges and opportunities offered by its potential applications. The students will also be able to effectively communicate their analysis by being able to present, discuss, and defend their ideas using appropriate terminology.

Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain (2nd Edition), O’Reilly.Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, Edward Felten, Andrew Miller, Steven Goldfeder, 2016, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies, Princeton University Press.Campbell R. Harvey, 2014, Cryptofinance, www.ssrn.comHal Varian, 2004, Why Is That Dollar Bill in Your Pocket Worth Anything? New York Times (January 15, 2004).William Mougayar, 2016, The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology, Wiley.

We study these issues in a format, which combines lectures, project work/case studies, and experts from the industry/guest speakers.

No formal reqirements. However, a basic understanding of money and banking and affinity with IT topics is advantageous.

150