FinTech risks and opportunities: An interdisciplinary approach

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Financial technology, or FinTech, can be traced back to the introduction of the telegraph in the 1860s. As internet technology became available, FinTech has evolved rapidly. Financial firms digitized their processes, and companies began introducing consumer-facing products such as online banking and payments. Today, FinTech continues to disrupt and evolve, not only in how financial products and services are delivered, but who delivers them. Regulators and market participants face challenges in understanding and balancing the benefits of FinTech against potential risks. Innovation helps catalyze growth and new opportunities while generating new risks. Regulatory structures in place could fail to accommodate changes in the financial marketplace. Regulators may overreact to new technologies, stifling innovation and locking in old forms of doing business. At the same time, regulatory complacency can have disastrous results, permitting the buildup of systemic risk or widespread consumer harms.

This conference will explore how the private sector, researchers, and policymakers can harness the upside potential of financial innovation while reducing the downside risks.

View a full list of speakers and register for this free two-day conference. Can’t make it in person? Watch online.

Panel topics will include:

• The contours of entity-based regulation of innovation: FinTech charters and regulatory boundaries
• FinTech innovations and the economy: High-Frequency Trading, Robo-Advising, and Artificial Intelligence
• Systemic Risk in the Infrastructure: FinTech Problems and Solutions
• FinTech and Financial Inclusion
• RegTech: How Can Regulators be Part of the Solution?
• Innovation & Regulation: Tradeoffs and Paths Forward

Hosted by the Office of Financial Research and the Center on Finance, Law, and Policy at University of Michigan

• finance
• FinTech