FinTech

Banks and other financial institutions are central entities that are crucial to the way capital markets are organized today. They have a variety of tasks: They lend to business and retail customers, thereby creating money, accept deposits, transfer money, advise customers, help companies issue stock, and much more. While all of these services are important for the smooth allocation of capital in an economy, recent technological advances allow companies called FinTechs to challenge banks' traditional business models. While FinTechs are still centralized entities, decentralized innovations based on blockchain technologies have the potential to fundamentally upend the system.

We start with a discussion of the problems with capital allocation and what financial institutions are doing to address these problems. The key question we are interested in is how efficient alternative solutions offered by traditional banks, FinTechs and Decentralized Finance applications are compared to each other. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the new technologies and how likely are they to prevail? In the different parts of the course, we will explore specific examples, including the status quo and possible ways forward.

FinTech in the Winter Semester 2025/2026:

The course will take place as a block course in the Winter semester 2025/2026, in the first half of the semester (with three meetings per week) and end before the end-of-the-year break. It begins on October 29 and includes interactive lectures, held on Wednesdays at 9:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in Building 20.21 (SCC), room 217, and tutorials, typically held on Thursdays at 9:45 a.m., in the same room. A list of exact dates for lectures and tutorials can be found in the syllabus on ILIAS. Students should bring a laptop or tablet for the interactive parts of the sessions.

Web ressources

All course materials (slides, problem sets, syllabus,...) can be found on the ILIAS page of the course. All kinds of announcements related to the course will be published exclusively on ILIAS.

Case study and final exam

There will be a case study where students will be asked to present the business model of a FinTech company. Topics will be announced on November 12. Solutions (presentation slides) must be uploaded by 11:59 p.m. on December 9 and presented in the first session on December 10. Students may work on the case study in groups of up to three. 

Participation in the case study is voluntary! Students may earn up to four points toward the final exam.

There will be a 75-minute exam on March 10 at 8:00 a.m. in Hochspannungstechnik-Hörsaal, Building 30.35.