Fintech Innovation and Financial Inclusion

Seminar - 2 hours. The course explores how fintech is disrupting traditional financial services and providing new opportunities and challenges for financial inclusion. Today, the traditional financial sector is failing to provide certain basic services. There is a critical need for access to responsible credit: approximately 40% of American households are liquid asset poor, meaning they do not have enough savings to cover basic expenses for three months if their income was interrupted. Yet, many communities remain excluded from traditional financial services: approximately 22% of Americans are either unbanked or underbanked. Fintech uses technologies to reshape how financial products and services are structured, provisioned, and consumed, thereby providing the opportunity to address the limitations of the traditional financial sector. But is fintech living up to its promise? The course explores the unique opportunities and challenges presented by fintech. The course is structured in four parts. First, we will discuss the latest innovations in fintech and how these are transforming the financial mainstream. Second, we will explore the intersection of fintech with consumer protection and financial inclusion, and evaluate claims that fintech may be reinforcing existing inequalities and diluting consumer protections. Third, we will discuss what lies ahead for fintech if we are to strike the right balance between enabling financial innovation and ensuring consumer protection and financial inclusion. Finally, we will devote the last part of the course to student presentations and discussions on proposed solutions to financial inclusion through fintech.

Prerequisite: Recommended: Law 215 Business Associations
Final Assessment: Paper
Grading Mode:  Letter Grading