FinTech is the broad term we now use to describe the wave of innovations transforming the financial sector through technology-driven business models. At its core, FinTech reduces the need for traditional intermediaries, reshapes how firms design and deliver financial products, and raises new questions about privacy, regulation, and law enforcement. At the same time, it opens doors for entrepreneurship and creates opportunities for more inclusive forms of economic growth. The concept also extends to how technology is reshaping the essential functions of financial intermediation—payments, capital raising, remittances, risk management, market price discovery, and even the handling of information asymmetries and incentives. Today we see these changes everywhere: mobile banking apps linked to social media platforms, fully electronic trading systems.
This course is designed to give students a structured introduction to Financial Technology (FinTech) and to examine its impact on global and regional financial systems. We will look at the fundamentals of the field—digital payments, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance (DeFi), artificial intelligence in finance, cybersecurity, and the evolving regulatory environment. The course is intended as a first step in the discipline of FinTech. For students in finance and banking, it may lead to more advanced electives in the area. For others, it serves as a stand-alone overview, offering a solid foundation in a field that is becoming increasingly central to modern financial practice.
- Teacher: Abdelselam Elawamy