The professors opened the first scientific conference on Fintech in Europe with a statement: “Fintech is about the democratization of information.”

The first presentation was dedicated to the evolution of Fintech and was given by Douglas Arner from the University of Hong Kong: Fintech—that is to say, technology-enabled financial solutions—actually has a long history, from an originally analogue context to the ongoing process of digitalization. In recent years the focus has shifted, and is no longer defined by the financial products or services themselves, but rather by who delivers them. This latest evolution in Fintech, led by start-ups, poses challenges for regulators and market participants alike, particularly with regard to balancing the potential benefits of innovation with the possible risks of new approaches.

The next speech, by Kay Giesecke from Stanford University, offered an insight into machine learning in housing finance. The mortgage market comprises a huge portion of private wealth and most of the population is directly affected. Nevertheless, it still primarily functions based on “old school” techniques and paper work. This led Professor Giesecke and his coauthors to apply new machine learning techniques to an analysis of the US mortgage market—analysis based on an unprecedented data set of monthly records from the last two decades for more than 120 million mortgages—and to demonstrate significant implications for housing finance.

Michel Rauchs from the University of Cambridge presented his first Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study, a systematic and comprehensive examination of how blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are being used in the public and the private sectors, based on non-publicly available data gathered from over 200 central banks, other public sector institutions, DLT start-ups, and established companies. His contribution was followed by a panel discussion between academics and practitioners on the myths and realities of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

After a lunch break that offered great opportunities for networking, Alexander Braun from the University of St. Gallen reopened the program, presenting current trends and potential future developments in Insurtech according to his latest industry landscape study.

Markus Brunnermeier from Princeton University picked up on blockchain economics and delivered a scientific answer to the question: When is record keeping better arranged through a blockchain than through a traditional centralized intermediary? He pointed out that no record-keeping system can satisfy the three desirable properties of correctness, decentralization, and cost efficiency simultaneously. His conclusion: while blockchain-based systems can keep track of ownership transfers, enforcement of possession rights is often better complemented by centralized record keeping.

The last presentation was given by a practitioner: Kelvyn Young from Swiss Re. He showed how big data and AI linked to wearables or apps are being used in health and life insurance for better prevention (e.g., thanks to early disease detection), customer service, or risk management, and how they can help to ease the exponentially growing health care costs that are weighing on our aging societies today. A further panel of both academics and practitioners subsequently debated the challenges and potentials of such Insurtech applications.

The all-day conference came to a close with best paper awards. The academic winner was the paper “How Do Banks Interact with Fintechs? Forms of Alliances and their Impact on Bank Value”. The practitioner award went to Joachim Kreutzberg, Konrad Durrer, and Christian Scharr, all from CSS Versicherung, for their work on the first blockchain involving Swiss health insurance companies. 


Want to know how digitally mature Swiss banks compare with their European peers? Have a look at our brand-new and exclusive study—carried out in collaboration with zeb—here and find out!