• To understand the technology trends characterizing the Fintech Revolution
• To outline how Fintech start-ups disrupt traditional financial service areas
• To identify the different actors, both existing and emergent, in the current financial services landscape and outline their roles for shaping the Fintech Revolution
• To understand the role of regulation for enabling or restricting the Fintech Revolution

The traditionally stable and conservative financial industry has found itself into a state of flux as it is facing changing consumer preferences, new competitors, rapid spread of emerging technologies and changing regulatory environment. Referred to as the Fintech Revolution, this new phenomenon is characterized by the emergence of new actors, who challenge the dominance of established financial institutions in providing financial services.

Utilizing new technologies (e.g. Blockchain, open APIs, Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Analytics), these fintech start-ups successfully venture in traditional financial areas, such as payments, wealth management, investments, trading, insurance, risk management. Fintech start-ups also alter the way companies manage their finances in relation to accounting, taxes, invoicing, acquisition of funds. Further, by increasing the availability of and accessibility to financial services through technology and regulatory changes, the Fintech Revolution heralds the financial inclusion of a number of individuals and businesses, who are currently not participating efficiently in the existing financial systems.

The purpose of this course is to provide insights into the ongoing Financial Revolution and to showcase how digitalization transforms the existing financial sector by providing opportunities for new contenders and traditional actors alike. The course further aims at demonstrating the pervasiveness of disruptive financial technologies by exposing the students to a wide range of topics and to a number of successful fintech cases on local, regional and global scale. The course also introduces students to a number of tools and frameworks to help them analyze the ongoing transformation of the financial industry.

Class 1.   Introduction to the Fintech Revolution

Class 2.   Payment platforms

Class 3.   Cross-border payments and remittances

Class 4.   Blockchain, Smart Contracts and CryptoCurrencies

Class 5.   Innovation in Capital Markets (Trading, Crowdfunding, Peer-to-Peer Lending)

Class 6.   WealthTech

Class 7.   Disrupting Business Financial Management

Class 8.   InsurTech

Class 9.   Open Banking

Class 10. The changing nature of regulation 

Class 11.  Financial Inclusion

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Chishti, Susanne, and Janos Barberis. The FINTECH Book: The Financial Technology Handbook for Investors, Entrepreneurs and Visionaries. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.

Gabor, D., & Brooks, S. (2016). The digital revolution in financial inclusion: international development in the fintech era. New Political Economy, 1-14.

Guo, Y., & Liang, C. (2016). Blockchain application and outlook in the banking industry. Financial Innovation, 2(1), 24.

Hedman, J. and S. Henningsson (2016) Open Sesame: Saxo Bank and the Journey Towards an Open Platform Strategy, in CIO Challenges in Denmark (N. Bjørn-Andersen, ed). Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur, 187-198.

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