This class exists in these courses :
• IÉSEG > MSc in Finance > Semestre 2 > 2,00 ECTS

Prerequisites

Knowledge of banking theory and applied econometrics would be an advantage.

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of what FinTech is and why it emerged.
• Understand and explain the fundamentals and economics of the following FinTech: blockchains, cryptocurrencies, mobile money, crowdfunding, marketplace lending.
• Analyze the potential of these FinTech (and their applications) and evaluate why they may change financial services.
• Understand and explain how technology and regulation are interacting and impacting on financial services.
• Critically assess new technologies and FinTech business models.
Breakdown complex organizational problems using the appropriate methodology
Construct expert knowledge from cutting-edge information
Demonstrate an expertise on key concepts, techniques and trends in their professional field

Course description

FinTech covers technology-enabled business model innovation in the financial services industry. FinTech is rapidly evolving across the globe and represents an existential challenge for major parts of the financial sector. These innovative technologies can disrupt existing industry structures and blur industry boundaries, facilitate disintermediation, radically change how firms create and deliver products and services, generate significant privacy, regulatory and law-enforcement challenges, offer new gateways for entrepreneurship, and create opportunities for inclusive growth.
In this course, we will provide an introductory overview of innovations that are central to FinTech. Specifically, these innovations include cryptocurrencies and blockchains, mobile money, crowdfunding, marketplace lending. We will also explore threats and opportunities that these technologies pose to incumbent firms and discuss the way that FinTech interacts with law enforcement and regulation issues. The approach adopted to address these themes is analytical.

Class type

Class structure

Teaching methods

• Interactive class

Assessment

The final grade of this course consists of two parts:
1. Individual written exam (90%): This exam will include questions about all materials, particularly the materials covered during lectures, but also about the articles. The exam will be closed-book and include multiple-choice questions and open questions about definition, application and integration of concepts. Different parts may not get same weight. Note that for some questions, different answers will be viable, as long as the reasoning is compelling and based on the principles covered in the lectures.
2. Participation (10%): Your in-class performance will be evaluated based on the quality of your comments in class.

Recommended reading

• Christensen, C., M. Raynor, and R. McDonald (2015). What is disruptive innovation? Harvard Business Review, December 2015 issue. -

• Yermack, D. (2017). Corporate governance and blockchains, Review of Finance 21, 7-31. -

• Bech, M. and R. Garratt (2017). Central bank cryptocurrencies, BIS Quarterly Review, September 2017 issue. -

• Suri, T. (2017). Mobile money, Annual Review of Economics 9, 497-520. -

• Agrawal, A. K., C. Catalini, and A. Goldfarb, (2014). Some simple economics of crowdfunding, in J. Lerner and S. Stern, eds.: Innovation Policy and the Economy, 14 (University of Chicago Press). -

• Morse, A. (2015). Peer-to-peer crowdfunding: Information and the potential for disruption in consumer lending, Annual Review of Financial Economics 7, 462-482. -