COMM 486T - FinTech
New technologies continue to disrupt and revolutionize how finance functions are performed. This course covers a range of topics that illustrate how FinTech providers and users employ technology to create new financial products and transform financial services. These innovations affect a range of financial market participants and have significant impacts on firms, individual investors and households. For example:
- Robo-advising, AI and commission-free trading have changed how investors and households manage their investments in financial assets.
- iBuying—the use of valuation algorithms in real estate, used automobiles and other markets—has changed how people buy and sell those assets.
- High-frequency trading and the use of alternative data have changed how professional traders behave and are transforming the financial management industry.
- Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have introduced new possibilities for payment systems and have expanded the set of alternative assets (including NFTs) available to investors.
This course gives students tools to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of the FinTech revolution, and teaches how to connect these innovations to traditional finance frameworks. The course is open to everyone who seeks to learn about new and emerging trends in finance and finance technology, whether they seek a career in finance, high-tech innovation or technology management, or whether they want to improve their own financial decision making. The specific topics covered each year will vary according to the interests of the students and the instructor and with new developments in FinTech and related fields.
Learning objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be:
- familiar with FinTech and other new trends in finance and finance technology,
- able to assess recent innovations using traditional finance paradigms,
- well-equipped to understand regulatory debates surrounding FinTech challenges.
Prerequisite: COMM 370
Corequisite: COMM 371