The course is broken down into three parts. The first part of the course will
look at everything to do with the new FinTech technology and how that is
developing and evolving. The second part will look at everything to do with Big
Data and the third part will look at how this is all going to fit into the
regulatory environment in which financial services necessarily operate.
The first part is again broken down into three main chunks. So, the first part is
going to be the introduction to FinTech and explaining what the trends are in
the way that it's evolving at such a rapid rate. The second part will look at
some of the products that are available currently. You've got things like peer to
peer lending. We have wealth management that's become a lot more capable and
prominent because of the the things that you can do and quickly. And, of course,
payment mechanisms now are much more efficient in the way in which they
can get things done and, therefore, much cheaper. Finally, we will be looking
at the underlying technology that makes it secure. So we'll look in some depth at
things like blockchain which backs it all up. We'll look at cryptographic means
of ensuring we have security and privacy for all the transactions that take place.
The second part of the course is going to look at an introduction to Big
Data. We'll be looking at data sources we'll be looking at the technology from
data mining and why that's important and we'll be looking at how you want to
manage the data in order to make sure you don't mess it up because one of the
key areas in dealing with data is that the quality must be maintained in order for
you to get maximum value from it. The other part will look at some modern
tools and will be looking at how we carry out data analytics to get a value
extracted from that and we'll also be looking at how we can use visualization
techniques in finance because clearly, with the huge volume of data we have to
deal with, it's sometimes difficult to get the message across and visualization
techniques can be a big help in that. The third and final part is going to be
looking at how everything fits into the existing regulatory framework which is
necessarily quite strenuous to make sure that people don't lose money. We'll be
looking at values such as the ethical behavior of people and, of course, systems
within this area. We'll be looking at how it fits within the regulatory framework
because one of the problems with regulation is the regulator works
on the basis of what's currently happening and when something new comes along
they have to see what impact it has before they then think of redesigning
the regulations to ensure that they cover all the requirements to safeguard
people's money. We'll also be looking at cybersecurity which is a very
important area to ensure that you understand what the implications are
from that and how to try and safeguard from attack. This very vital
information will also consider looking at the talent pool to show why this is
such a challenge because clearly, with new technology, there aren't going to be
enough new people around who understand
what needs to be done. And obviously we're also going to consider the key
challenge of data storage because this is going to be a major
problem in terms of ensuring that it can be properly protected and looked after
so that it retains its value.