Postgraduate Course: FinTech Infrastructures and Policy (CMSE11645)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Financial markets have been radically transformed in the last decade through developments in financial technology (FinTech). This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to critically assess (1) the economic, social, and political implications of novel financial technologies and (2) the role of policy and regulation in shaping financial innovation. |
| Course description |
This course is designed to provide students studying on the Finance, Technology and Policy MSc programme with the knowledge and skills necessary to critically examine the social, political, and technological impacts of FinTech innovations and the role of government policy and regulation in shaping their direction of development.
The course addresses this topic through an interdisciplinary lens. While the course draws on the economics literature on financial innovation, it also draws on concepts and theories from strategic management, political economy, economic sociology, and science and technology studies. Theoretically, the course approaches the study of fintech innovation through an infrastructural lens, rather than a focus on discrete technologies: that is, one that focuses on the interconnected systems/assemblages of practices, routines, standards, and devices that underpin the day-to-day operation of financial markets and fintech products. Lectures develop main concepts and ideas while seminars draw practical lessons from practical case studies to shed light on the possible consequences of ongoing developments in FinTech.
Outline content
While the exact structure may change to reflect ongoing developments, the following is an indicative summary of lecture titles:
1. Introduction to Financial Technology
2. Historical Precedents: the Automation of Stock Exchanges
3. Historical Precedents: the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Rise of FinTech
4. FinTech Platforms, Ecosystems, and Stacks
5. PayTech and Payments Infrastructures
6. Blockchain and Infrastructures of Decentralization
7. The Changing Infrastructures of Lending and Banking
8. Machine Learning and the Changing Infrastructures of Financial Modelling
9. RegTech and SupTech
10. FinTech Policy Old and New Challenges
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
80% Essay (Individual) - 2,500 words - Assesses course Learning Outcomes 3,4
20% Presentation (Group) includes 5% peer evaluation - Assesses course Learning Outcomes 1,2 |
| Feedback |
Formative: Feedback will be provided throughout the course.
Summative: Feedback will be provided on assessments within agreed deadlines. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Exhibit a critical understanding of different concepts and theories used to understand financial innovation and its consequences.
- Understand the major features of the FinTech landscape and the role of policy and technological change in shaping its development.
- Make sophisticated use of relevant concepts and theories from the academic literature on financial innovation to assess the consequences of new financial products and technologies on financial markets, institutions, and broader society.
- Understand the priorities and mandates of financial regulators and the complex trade-offs they face in fulfilling those mandates, particularly considering recent developments in FinTech.
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Reading List
Core text(s)
Pardo-Guerra, Juan Pablo. Automating Finance: Infrastructures, Engineers, and the Making of Electronic Markets. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
MacKenzie, Donald. Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms Are Transforming Financial Markets. Princeton University Press, 2021.
Calomiris, Charles, and Stephen Haber. Fragile by Design. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Quinn, Sarah. American Bonds: How Credit Markets Shaped a Nation. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2019.
Bains, Sunny. Explaining the Future: How to Research, Analyse and Report on Emerging Technologies, Oxford University Press, 2019. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Practice: Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Apply creative, innovative, entrepreneurial, sustainable and responsible business solutions to address social, economic and environmental global challenges.
Work with a variety of organisations, their stakeholders, and the communities they serve - learning from them, and aiding them to achieve responsible, sustainable and enterprising solutions to complex problems.
Communication, ICT, and Numeracy Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Convey meaning and message through a wide range of communication tools, including digital technology and social media; to understand how to use these tools to communicate in ways that sustain positive and responsible relationships.
Cognitive Skills
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Be self-motivated; curious; show initiative; set, achieve and surpass goals; as well as demonstrating adaptability, capable of handling complexity and ambiguity, with a willingness to learn; as well as being able to demonstrate the use digital and other tools to carry out tasks effectively, productively, and with attention to quality.
Knowledge and Understanding
After completing this course, students should be able to:
Demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of contemporary organisational disciplines; comprehend the role of business within the contemporary world; and critically evaluate and synthesise primary and secondary research and sources of evidence in order to make, and present, well informed and transparent organisation-related decisions, which have a positive global impact.
Identify, define and analyse theoretical and applied business and management problems, and develop approaches, informed by an understanding of appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques, to explore and solve them responsibly. |
| Keywords | Fintech,Infrastructure,Policy,Financial innovation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Taylor Spears
Tel: (0131 6)51 1057
Email: Taylor.Spears@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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