Global Fintech Revolution

Abstract

Abstract This book is a timely work examining the ongoing Fintech revolution across the world. Fintech denotes the close interaction between the financial services industry and latest information technologies like big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. Fintech has produced novel financial services, products, institutions, and business models. The Fintech revolution has brought enormous benefits for financial institutions and their consumers, such as cutting service costs, improving business efficiency, and enabling high-quality product options. Nonetheless, Fintech has posed multiple legal, ethical, and regulatory challenges for policy-makers and financial authorities regarding data security, consumer protection, and financial stability. This book attempts to accomplish three tasks. First, it provides readers with a better understanding of Fintech by examining its conceptual meanings, main forms, special features, and social values. Second, it investigates the complex, dynamic, and multidimensional Fintech ecosystem. It assesses global Fintech hubs in six continents, while discussing the ecosystem’s key players like Fintech regulators (e.g., regulatory strategy, regulatory sandbox, and RegTech) and Fintech corporations (e.g., incumbent banks, financial holding companies, Fintech unicorns, BigTech firms, and Metaverse platforms). Third, this book conducts detailed Fintech case studies in three areas, including app-based banking, online P2P lending, and digital money and payment. It argues that Fintech contributes to a more equal, democratic, inclusive, and sustainable financial system. This book should appeal to a diverse readership across law, business, finance, computer science, and sociology disciplines, providing useful information for academics, university students, practitioners, policy-makers, and think tanks researching the global Fintech revolution.