Fintech

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Fintech 

Financial technology (“Fintech”) continues to make new financial products and services available, while upending old rules. Regulators and market participants face challenges in understanding and balancing the benefits of fintech against its potential risks. Innovation can help to catalyze growth, create new opportunities, promote transparency, and manage risk. It can also create new risks, including cybersecurity and regulatory arbitrage risks.

The Center on Finance, Law & Policy serves as a cross-school connector that helps faculty, students, and staff explore cutting edge issues in fintech through interdisciplinary coursework, research, and convenings.

woman reading big data program

Explore Michigan's Fintech courses

Fintech is too big to be contained by just one school. At Michigan, graduate and undergraduate students can gain an interdisciplinary education in fintech by taking classes at the public policy school, law school, business school, college of engineering, and more.
View 2020-21 Fintech courses
COVID impact

The role of fintech during COVID-19

Apr 20, 2020| 11:30
Adrienne Harris, a Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence, explains how “fintech” plays a role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial...
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Featured video from The role of fintech during COVID-19
Fintech in the African Context promotional graphic
Event

2020 Fintech in Africa

The CFLP hosted “Fintech in the African Context” as part of the University of Michigan’s Africa Week. Panelists included Njunga Ndung’u, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Viola Lewellyn, founder of TradeTech firm Ovamba. Panelists discussed regulatory frameworks, barriers to scale, and business models that respond to the varied needs of Africans.
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Speaker at the risks and opportunities conference
Conference

2017 FinTech risks and opportunities

View the videos from this two-day conference where expert panelists drew from the fields of computer science, data science, complex systems, economics, finance, law, and public policy to explore how fintech could be used to enhance financial stability and address other challenges in financial markets. Hosted by the U.S. Office of Financial Research and the CFLP.
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Fintech Faculty Experts at Michigan

Portrait of Bob Dittmar

Robert Dittmar

Professor of Finance, Ross School of Business; Co-Faculty Director, Michigan Ross FinTech Initiative. Prof. Dittmar's work centers around asset pricing, robo-advising, and other fintech innovations. At Ross, he co-teaches the FinTech Innovations course, and serves as the faculty director of the Maize & Blue Fund.
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Peter Adriaens 1090x681

Peter Adriaens

Professor of Engineering and Entrepreneurship, College of Engineering, Ross School of Business; Faculty Director of Center for Smart Infrastructure Finance; Faculty advisor for Blockchain@Michigan. Prof. Adriaens' research centers around clean technology (CleanTech) and the use of blockchain and other technology to support the equitable financing of public infrastructure projects.
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Portrait of Andrew Wu

Andrew Wu

Michael R. and Mary Kay Hallman Fellow, Ross School of Business; Co-faculty director, Michigan Ross FinTech Initiative. Prof. Wu's research centers around the underlying technology of fintech, including blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and robo-advising. He also applies machine learning and automated text analysis to large-scale, unstructured data.
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U-M FinTech Collaboratory

U-M College of Engineering • Ross School of Business Ford School of Public Policy • LSA

Advancing fintech innovation through cross-disciplinary projects, research, and curriculum.

U-M's Fintech Collaboratory has built a multidisciplinary curriculum around financial technology developments, such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and digital payments systems. Established in 2019 with a $1 million dollar gift from the Ripple University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), the Fintech Collaboratory enables University students and faculty to conduct research and develop programming at the forefront of financial technology. As an integrated effort between the schools and research centers, the Collaboratory looks at advances in financial technology through a multifaceted lens and addresses the business impact and social ramifications of these growing technologies, alongside the computational data. Fintech is a rapidly emerging and evolving field. The Collaboratory provides an invaluable educational resource for providing active learning experiences, allowing the curriculum to develop alongside the technology, and allowing students and faculty research to shape real-world solutions to contemporary economic challenges, such as global infrastructure and data portability and security in a mobile era.

Fintech student clubs:

  • BBA Tech Club (open to Ross undergrads) - Learn about the tech industry and interact with students, alumni, and faculty with similar interests, as well as industry representatives.
  • MBA FinTech Club (open to Ross MBA students) - Explore Fintech opportunities and gain knowledge through educational sessions, speakers, and career connections.
  • Michigan Code Academy (open to all students) - Break down barriers in the broader U-M community and develop technical skills through extracurricular learning.
  • Michigan FinTech (open to all students) - Participate in presentations, conferences, workshops, and action-based learning to drive fintech innovation on campus. 
  • Michigan Investment Group (open to all students) - Help manage an equity fund; attend education and networking sessions with top finance and technology firms.
  • Tech Club (open to Ross MBA students) -  Build your network, learn about trends and developments in the tech industry, and gain career support.
  • Wolverine Blockchain (open to undergrads) - Learn about and discuss issues related to blockchain and distributed ledger technology

U-M Coveners: