FinTech and Policy MSc

University of Surrey

Cases in FinTech and Policy is a compulsory module that aims to help students develop an understanding of the process involved in successfully analyzing case information to complete a Fintech-related project, in preparation for the FinTech and Policy Project module. It enables students to understand a real-life, complex, multi-layered, global issue and synthesize appropriate information while preparing an analysis on the case. The Cases in FinTech and Policy module facilitates the independent learning process and provides students with the knowledge, skills and understanding required to articulate findings in a structured report format.

This module introduces the students to the key ethical and regulatory issues associated with artificial intelligence, as well as to the methods of analysis of those issues used in ethics and in law. The focus of the module is on the current state of the art in the applications of artificial intelligence (in particular: of machine learning), with smaller emphasis on hypothetical future developments. The module makes use of the case study method to introduce students to ethical and regulatory (legal) questions through discussion of relevant major incidents from recent years. The module helps students develop their thinking on how to translate abstract ethical (and regulatory) requirements of fairness, explainability or privacy into engineering and business practice.

This module provides an overview of financial regulation including regulation of banking, capital markets, consumer finance, and payments. It introduces the regulatory frameworks for each of these areas and the policy considerations that animate regulatory policy. The module also examines the impact of financial regulation on emerging FinTech businesses and considers the ways in which new technology challenges traditional models of financial regulation.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

FinTech is revolutionizing and rapidly changing the global financial services industries. Business models that can facilitate disintermediation, revolutionize how existing firms create and deliver products and services, address privacy, regulatory and law-enforcement challenges, provide new gateways for entrepreneurship, and seed opportunities for inclusive growth. This module provides an introduction to the FinTech sector. Topics may include but are not limited to: blockchain, cryptocurrencies, decentralized applications, smart contracts, payments services, alternative and P2P lending and crowdfunding, AI, machine learning (including applications such as robo-advising) and Insurtech. Students are expected to develop a broad understanding of recent FinTech development, valuation, risk and its impact in the financial industries.