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2023/2024  KAN-CCMVV2310U  FinTech Foundations for Finance

English Title
FinTech Foundations for Finance

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and GMA (CM)
Course coordinator
  • Robert Kauffman - Department of Digitalisation (DIGI)
Main academic disciplines
  • Finance
  • Information technology
  • Strategy
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 16-02-2023

Relevant links

Learning objectives
The course enables students to apply finance, economics, strategy, operations, and technology knowledge so they will have managerial skills to manage in financial services settings that emphasize rapid tech innovation, exponential industry opportunities, ubiquitously available services, and platform-based standardization. There are four specific objectives to achieve this goal:
  • 1. Analyze process disruption driven by the Fintech Revolution and its technologies, and design new approaches to take advantage of tech innovations to create fintech startups.
  • 2. Use a business process analysis tool to represent AS-IS and TO-BE process designs that improve service and operational performance, while controlling risk for fintech profitability.
  • 3. Evaluate threats from new FinTech entrants and develop approaches that finance, banking, strategy, operations and technology professionals can use to address market changes.
  • 4. Recognize technical standards, regulatory frameworks, and fundamental patterns of industry change to understand what it will take for fintech startups to succeed in the marketplace
Course prerequisites
None
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
Number of compulsory assignments that must be approved: 1 of 2 (option for elective courses)

Description of compulsory assignments: Two FinTech innovation case analysis opportunities with in-class presentations and Q&A will be available on different topics to highlight different topics and contents.

o Students in groups and activities. Each assignment requires a 2-3 (max) student group case analysis and will involve a leading FinTech innovation setting for a firm or fintech industry group in a business sector modeled and evaluated via AS-IS and TO-BE process diagrams, using a business process modeling (BPM) analysis tool.

o Presentations in class. PPTX slides will be used for in-class group presentation of 15 minutes max. The group presentation must be supported by managerial and strategic analysis based on the theory, framework, and explanatory approaches the instructor introduces throughout the course.

o Presentation Q&A. Students will manage a Q&A session on their case for other class session attendees.

o Related class discussion. The instructor and a visiting senior executive will facilitate class discussion to deepen student learning by sharing additional relevant theoretical perspectives, evaluative frameworks, and explanatory approaches – as well as share other real-world settings in which such problems are observed.

Similar purpose assignments with different fintech contexts and business content. Two runs of a similar assignment will occur in which approval to take the final exam can be obtained: (a) the first will be held in late-September into mid-October; and (b) the second will be held in mid-October into early-November latest. Different topics and case firms will be used to support learning.

If a student group’s assignment did not result in ordinary final exam approval. In mid-November, individual students will not have any additional attempts to have the compulsory group case assignment approved by the instructor prior to the final ordinary exam. So, if the student has not received approval for the compulsory assignment due to lack of effort or illness (by receiving a No Show / U), then participation in the ordinary individual exam is not permitted.

An exception. If there is evidence the student made significant effort to participate but failed due the low quality of their submitted work (by receiving a FAIL / IN score), there is a remedy. The student can do a compulsory individual make-up assignment in the form of a 10-page take-home written analysis of a FinTech innovation case. It will cover knowledge associated with the course contents and business process modeling techniques. If approved, the student will be able to attend the retake exam in February.
Examination
FinTech Foundations for Finance:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration 2 weeks to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the student fails the ordinary exam the course coordinator chooses whether the student will have to hand in a revised product for the re- take or a new project.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Professionals in financial services and finance-related jobs today require knowledge of the digital technology forces that create innovation, disrupt business processes, and transform financial services industry structure and competition. The result has been newly-emerging practices, altered approaches to financial intermediation, technology-enhanced products, more readily-accessible services, increasing entry from FinTech start-ups, and severe challenges to long-standing industry players and financial markets. This course prepares Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Operations, Strategy, and IS students to navigate the new FinTech Revolution-driven industry landscape that has been created amid these changes. This course emphasizes key technologies (e.g., blockchain, open APIs, platform envelopment, mobile phones and chatbots, AI and ML, big data analytics, and regtech innovations, among others) that are creating the changes. It also considers the business  processes affected (e.g., lending, payments, bank funding, risk management, securities trading, remittances, cybersecurity, money laundering, products, and service design), and recent developments that reflect changes in how the industry works (e.g., disintermediation, platform transformation, technology-based strategic rivalry, reintermediation, and regtech developments to avoid money laundering).

Description of the teaching methods
The following approaches are used: instructor lectures, guest speakers, videos, background readings; contemporary FinTech cases with tool-based AS-IS and TO-BE business process analysis in group case analyses; instructor case group meetings and self-study. Lectures cover basic FinTech knowledge for future business professionals. Teaching notes will be shared to support student learning on: (1) theories, frameworks and explanatory approaches with which to interpret the FinTech innovation cases; (2) how to be successful in using BPMN for FinTechand sector case analysis work; (3) how the course teaching methods support the learning goals for students; and (4) how to do well in the final exam based on the course content and the students’ compulsory group case work.
The cases and presentations support learning about FinTech innovations in real-world organizations and industry markets around the world. Cases and presentations are done in student groups of two or three, require use of a Business Process Modeling (BPM) tool, and encourage FinTech-style redesign of product and service processes. Knowledge of process analysis is delivered ithrough online study and an in-class exercise over two weeks, along with in-class discussion and case exercise feedback. Knowledge of FinTech transformations that occur in the cases of the course is delivered through student group work, instructor consultations, and student and instructor interactions in class. Students are asked to prep the readings, videos, and cases, and actively participate in their own and others’ group presentations and in-class discussions. This will allow you to take away useful knowledge for a future career in different settings affected by the FinTech Revolution.
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback will be given to students as they participate in case discussions, do the compulsory assignments, present case study process analyses and offer innovation interpretations through Q&A and rubrics from instructor. There will also be brief individual final exam (graded) based on a contemporary FinTech innovation case analysis in a senior management memo.
Student workload
Lectures 24 hours
Tool Study and use 12 hours
Cases 20 hours
Class prep 78 hours
Exam 72 hours
Total 206 hours
Expected literature

All materials are subject to updates when coursetermstarts

  1. Clemons EK, Dewan RM, Kauffman RJ, Weber TA (2017) Understanding the information-driven transformation of strategy and society. J. Mgmt. Info. Sys., 34, 2, 425–456.
  2. Dhar V, Stein R (2017) Fintech platforms and strategy. Comm. ACM, 60(10), 32–35.
  3. Emerj.com (2019) The future of banking: AI, fintech, and how banks can survive disruption. Boston.
  4. Gomber P, Kauffman RJ, Parker C, Weber BW (2018) On the fintech revolution: Interpreting the forces of innovation, disruption, and transformation in financial services. J. Mgmt. Info. Sys., 35, 1, 220-265.
  5. He D (2017) Fintech and cross-border payments. International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC.
  6. Jenik I, Lyman T, Nava A (2017) Crowdfunding and financial inclusion. Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, Washington, DC.
  7. Kærhøg H, Jensen TK (2022) Untapped potential for fintech companies to serve Nordic SMEs. EY and Copenhagen Fintech Lab joint report. Copenhagen.
  8. McKinsey & Co. (2018) Fintech: The disruptive technologies driving start-ups and revolutionizing banking, payments and insurance. New York.
  9. McKinsey & Co. (2021) Financial services unchained: Ongoing rise of open banking. New York.
  10. PwC (2022) Payments 2025 and beyond. London.  
  11. SWIFT Smart (2017) Distributed ledger technology. Chicago.
  12. SWIFT Smart (2021) Introduction to central bank digital currency. Chicago.
  13. Wessel M, Gleasure R, Kauffman RJ (2021) Sustainability of rewards-based crowdfunding. A quasi-experimental analysis of funding targets & backer satisfaction. J. Mgmt. Info. Sys., 38, 612-646.
  14. US Federal Reserve Bank (2021) Money and payments: The US dollar in the age of digital transformation.  Washington, DC.
  15. Zachariadis M, Ozcan P (2017) The API economy and digital transformation in financial services: The case of open banking. SWIFT Institute, London
Last updated on 16-02-2023