MSIM4313 - Contemporary Financial Technology

Year of Study:4
Credit Units: 3
Duration: 45hours
Prerequisites: MSIM3202 Information Technology Infrastructure and Security or COM2001 Information Systems in Business
Module Description
This module provides an overview of emerging Financial Technology that is changing the way people make payments, transfer money, lend, and invest. Driven by the internet economy, new technological innovations are emerging in the financial services, such as peer-to-peer lending, crowdsourcing, and bitcoins investment. They are becoming a viable alternative to traditional banking businesses in trading finance, credit and loans. The mobile platform has also created a new form of payment that is displacing traditional payment methods such as cards and cash. This is a big impact of both the adoption of new technology by the financial industry and the need for architectural and infrastructure updates to keep up with new competition. The module will also study some of the innovative payment ideas, services and platforms that come from non-bank sector, such as Paypal, Amazon, Apple Pay and Ali-pay. Crypto-currency is another key innovation that is gaining popularity in money transfer and payment. People will soon be able to use crypto-currencies, such as bitcoin, anywhere in the world instantaneously. In this respect, the module will examine crypto-currencies and the blockchain technology on which bitcoin is based.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:

  1. analyse the driving forces of digital technologies, and their impacts on financial services and industry;

  2. discuss the emerging technologies in financial services including peer-to-peer lending, crowdsourcing, and crypto-currency. Assess the technology and infrastructure requirements to establish these services;

  3. analyse various innovative payment services and their platforms, sought to expand and replace traditional banking services; and

  4. utilize some online payment platforms and technologies to design innovative business application