FTMBA 2024 Financial Technologies
The financial industry had until recently a very high degree of concentration. This situation is rapidly changing as disruptive technologies enable new forms transacting, reduce the barriers to entry and intensify the competition among financial service providers. New and disruptive technologies are leading to major changes in the realms of payments, lending and borrowing, insurance, wealth management, venture capital. To understand these massive changes, we need to have a good understanding of technological innovations as well as of the economics of the financial sector.
This course studies technology-driven innovations in the financial sector; highlighting the potential role and applications of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence in various stages of the financial services industry. 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.
The framework of the course combines three major building blocks:
(1) Two-sided Markets / Platform Businesses: The rise of FinTechs cannot be solely understood by focusing on advances in technology. Equally important is the structure of many financial markets. In the words of Rochet & Tirole "...many if not most markets with network externalities are two-sided. To succeed, platforms in industries such as software, portals and media, payment systems and the Internet, must “get both sides of the market on board.” Accordingly, platforms devote much attention to their business model, that is, to how they court each side while making money overall."
(2) The Role of Technology: We focus broadly on Blockchain and AI, but treat these terms as broad categories within which many finer classifications are useful (such as smart contracts, machine learning and deep learning methods)
(3) Regulation: The emergence of players that offer digitally enabled financial services poses both opportunities and risks at many levels of analysis. Changes in regulatory frameworks will shape various outcomes and are therefore a necessary ingredient for a sound understanding of upcoming developments in this area.
We study these issues in a format, which combines lectures, case studies, and expert opinions and state-of-the-art practices from the industry.
| Date | Time |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, 08.05.2024 | 09:00 - 16:30 |
| Thursday, 16.05.2024 | 09:00 - 16:30 |
| Friday, 17.05.2024 | 09:00 - 16:30 |
| Friday, 07.06.2024 | 23:50 - 23:55 |
Guest lectures
Case studies
interactive grading elements (class participation, quizzes, case studies) (40%)