FinTech - Shaping the Financial World mit course finance technology fintech
Introduction and Key Technological Trends Affecting Financial Services
- For those who want to study fintech
- How the financial industry is being disrupted by technology
- Business models, productions, applications, etc.
- AI, deep learning, blockchain, APIs
- Competitive landscape of fintech startups, big tech vs. big finance
- Gain critical reasoning skills to:
- Understand 'ground truths' of fintech
- Conduct business/technology strategic analysis
- Hype vs. reality
Financial World
- Intermediates money and risk
- Functions
- Credit
- Investments
- Risk transformation
- Insurance
- Capital markets and price discovery
- Advice
- Sectors
- Commercial banks/credit unions
- Asset managers and investment vehicles
- Insurance companies
- Investment banks and brokerage firms
- Exchanges and clearinghouses
- Financial advisors
- Data
- The new oil
- Investing, market making, marketing, etc.
- Funding and risk management
- Risks
- Credit, funding, liquidity, market
- Accidents
- User experience and user interface
- Tech marrying the financial industry isn't new but the first wave (banking apps, etc.) had pretty bad UI/UX
FinTech
- First form of digital money is ~140 years old
- COVID-19 will likely accelerate this digitization (less paper money, etc.)
- Buy vs. build
- Examples of fintech of our time
- AI
- Blockchain
- Natural language processing
- Open API
- Biometrics
- Chatbots
- The cloud
Fertile Ground and Disruptive Potential
- The financial industry is ripe for disruption/modernization
- Digitization of money, securities, credit, etc.
- Increase in customer data
- More computational/analytical power
- Increased public acceptance of technology
- Potential areas
- AI for managing risk and targeting products
- Improving the UI/UX of existing financial products
- Better inclusion and tailored services
- Micropayments
- Efficiencies to increase margins in the financial sector
Actors
- Big finance
- Fortresses with moats
- Big tech
- Data, networks, activities (DNA)
- Commercializing data
- Startups
- Disruptive innovators
- More flexibility
- Asymmetric risk takers
- Not protecting a business model (eg. credit card business)
- Official sector
Required Readings
- The economic forces driving fintech adoption across countries
- FinTech and market structure in financial services: Market developments and potential financial stability implications
- FDIC Chairman McWilliams: The Future of Banking
Study Questions
- What are the major technological trends materially influencing the provision of financial services?
- How is the competitive landscape shaping adoption of these new technologies around the globe?
- How are FinTech start-ups and Big Tech firms competing and cooperating with incumbents from big finance? How has Big Finance reacted?
- What do you wish to achieve in this Fintech course?