Fintech School

Day/Module 1 – Financial services and digitalization

About technological breakthroughs and the bank of the future

Many incumbent and challenger banks will founder in the coming years; not because they fail with new technology or the latest regulation, but because they can’t grasp the changing nature of customer demands and market dynamics. Hyper-connectivity, platform economics, and new lifestyles make societies rethink money and they also change the way companies compete. Highlights of the course include:

• How 21st century technological and social dynamics shape customer expectations
• Key developments of the digital age including advances in hardware, cloud computing, or 5G
• How to combat legacy in technology, processes, employees, and customers
• How to leverage partnering and new tech to achieve parity with competitors forged in the digital age
• Why data giants are pushing into finance, their odds of winning, and how to protect your business from them

Session 1: Key drivers and new market rules of the digital era

Session 2: Understanding and serving banking customers in the digital age

Session 3: Ticking time bombs in your organization – legacy systems

Session 4: Techfin: IT titans’ foray into the banking world

Session 5: Developing a strategy for digital transformation

Day/Module 2: Navigating the fintech wave

The ongoing disruption of financial services

Enabled by new technology and new regulation, so-called fintechs are one the one hand challenging banking behemoths, and on their expanding their reach when partnership-deals are struck. For customers fintech has led to an explosion of offerings, more user-friendly applications, and increased transparency. In this module you will learn:

• About future business models in banking
• About the importance of the banking license and how stable this entry barrier is
• About shifting needs and consumer attitudes towards financial services
• Why China’s and other Asian startups are leaping ahead of its Western peers
• About the most important players on the different levels, namely infrastructure, platform, and application
• How to use tools such as technology watch to find the right adoption path and timing

Session 1: Introduction to fintech, including trends and enablers such as regulation

Session 2: The technological fundamentals Part I: APIs, hardware, cloud, Banking-as-a-Service

Session 3: The technological fundamentals Part II: AI, machine learning, big data, DLT, blockchain

Session 4: The most important fintech segments and notable use cases

Session 5: Competitors or collaborator: Devising a fintech strategy

Day/Module 3: Blockchain essentials

A new trust machine transforming the economy and how to harness its potential

The technology behind cryptocurrencies is truly game-changing, not just for money transactions. From energy production to human identities – algorithmic trust is set to unleash large-scale disruption unseen since the rise of the internet. But what does it mean for your business? Following points will be covered in the module:

• Introduction to crypto-currencies, blockchain, DLT, tokenization, and smart contracts
• The dawn of a new techno-economic paradigm, enabled by pervasive and cheap “trust” becoming the new key resource
• Direct and indirect ways it will impact your business
• A step-by-step guide on when a blockchain makes sense for your company and which basic type of setup to use

Session 1: A new trust machine – promise and peril for incumbents

Session 2: Essential concepts in blockchain part I

Session 3: Essential concepts in blockchain part II

Session 4: Blockchain in the enterprise part I: governance, risk, and compliance

Session 5: Blockchain in the enterprise part II: tax, fraud, and crime

Day/Module 4: Blockchain for banking and financial services

What banks are doing and what they should be doing about blockchain

As banks are wrestling to implement blockchain applications to improve back-end processes, they must not lose sight of the game-changing potential of the technology. But the change might be different than what doomsayers predict. Even if the technology’s final form has not yet materialized, management theory can be a powerful compass to predict where the market is going. This course covers the following questions:

• What are the key areas of finance affected by the blockchain and what can use cases teach us
• What blockchain-strategies are financial institutions pursuing
• How the blockchain can change business models in finance and open new revenue channels
• Which challengers are most likely to use blockchain technology to cut into banks’ profit pools and how to counter it
• What are regulators, lawmakers, and central bankers up to

Session 1: Blockchain in banking part I: banking use cases and case studies

Session 2: Blockchain in banking part II: digital currencies, regulation, and the law

Session 3: Blockchain in banking part III: digital currencies in practice

Session 4: Blockchain in banking part IV: central banks, regulators, and the law

Session 5: The future of blockchain