Alliance Manchester Business School has launched a new specialist centre to accelerate research into financial technology.
The Centre for Financial Technology (FinTech) Studies will become a knowledge and research hub for digital advancements in finance, including cryptocurrency, blockchain and artificial intelligence. It will also collaborate with industry partners to provide theoretical insights and practical solutions to help businesses respond to the latest challenges they face in the sector.
As the FinTech industry continues to diversify, academic colleagues in the Centre will offer a range of specialist executive education courses, spanning topics such as green finance, non-fungible token analysis, and open finance.
The Centre will also act as a knowledge-sharing platform, bringing together FinTech firms and financial services institutions from across Manchester and the UK. It will host conferences and seminars, and also hackathons which set problem-solving challenges for some of the industry’s brightest minds.
Expertise
The Centre builds on extensive financial technology expertise within AMBS and is led by Professor Markos Zachariadis, Chair of Financial Technology (Fintech) & Information Systems.
He said: “The rate at which digital innovation is shaping the financial services sector has accelerated dramatically, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, and the new Centre will ensure we can continue to lead on pioneering research that helps businesses to keep up with these ongoing developments.
“At AMBS we’ve always prided ourselves on being at the forefront of FinTech studies. The Centre will bring our experts closer together and enable us to combine our knowledge to accelerate research into new areas. By working closely with industry partners, we will also ensure our studies relate to present issues and will have maximum real-world impact.”
Eco-system
In recent years The University of Manchester has also been growing its activity in the wider FinTech arena. For instance, it has established a partnership with FinTech North, an open and collaborative platform for sharing ideas, challenges and best practice, and which also showcases innovative start-ups and scale-ups.
The University has also created an internal multi-disciplinary academic network, and hosted innovation lab events to develop collaborative projects with industry partners. It has also built relationships with both the local business eco-system and with international businesses with interests in the field, while it is a strategic partner to independent industry body Innovate Finance.
Professor Zachariadis stressed that helping develop the talent of tomorrow would be a key driver of the new Centre. “The financial services industry needs new talent to drive the sector forward, and we hope we can play our role in supporting future FinTech leaders.”
Watch the launch of the centre below: