School of Management and Entrepreneurship, Shiv Nadar University

Dadri, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Greater Noida, 201314

MBA & MBA (Executive)
FinTech (Emerging Technology) | 1 Credit

Overview
With the advent of easily accessible technologies through smartphones in the hands of millions in
China, India and soon in Africa, the financial landscape has changed forever. This course's focus
is to understand the implication of the rise of Technology in Finance from established financial
firms, investors, consumers, and FinTech start-ups point of view. The focus of this course will be
on understanding the implications of technology on finance. Even though it is being offered as an
Emerging Technology elective, the course will also cater to students looking to work in the growing
FinTech industry. No prior knowledge of finance or technology is compulsory. Students will be
required to participate in substantial self-learning and prepare for case discussions (wherever
applicable).

This course will combine readings, lectures, cases, quizzes, and project work. This course is
categorized into four modules. In the first module, the focus will be on getting a broad overview of
FinTech and understanding the FinTech ecosystem. In the second module of this course, we will
look into the payment technologies and understand how tech firms challenge the established banks
in the payment space. In the third module, our focus will be on understanding how technology
changes the way people borrow money. We will understand how tech firms are rethinking credit
grant and discuss some alternative ways of raising money through Crowdfunding. Finally, in the
fourth module, we will discuss the disruption through FinTech in the field finance focusing on
Robo advisors & algorithm based trading.

In total, there will be ten sessions planned of 90 minutes each over the quarter. Grading will involve
Class Participation, Individual Assignment, Group Case Submission, Group Project Report, and an
End-term Exam. The tentative session plan is given below:
 Session plan
Module 1: FinTech Overview (3 Hours)
Session 1: Course Introduction; FinTech Definition; Evolution of FinTech; Goal of FinTech;
Top FinTech Companies; Introduction to FinTech Segments – CredTech, PayTech,
WealthTech, InsurTech, PropTech, etc.; FinTech Deals in India and what driving them; India
Stack

Session 2: FinTech Business Models: Payments – Trends in PayTech, Incumbants vs FinTech

who has the edge?; Market Place Lending – FinTech lending model, drivers in FinTech
lending, Bank vs FinTech lending who has the edge?; Wealth Management, and Crowdfunding
– Trends, Investment Managers vs Robo-advisors who has the edge, Influential technologies
in FinTech – API, Open Banking, AI/ML, Blochain & Distributed Ledger Technology; Cloud,
Edge, Big Data, Options for incumbents; Challenges facing FinTech sector; FinTech
Ecosystem – FinTech Start-ups, Investors, Traditional Financial Institutions, Government,
Financial Customer, & Technology Developers

Reading:
1. FinTech: Ecosystem, business models, investment decisions, and challenges (Product:
BH865-PDF-ENG)
2. The banking Tech trends that will dominate 2020 – (Required Reading for Assignment)
https://www.americanbanker.com/list/the-banking-tech-trends-that-will-dominate-
2020
3. Pulse of FinTech H1 2021 – Global –
https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2021/08/pulse-of-fintech-h1-2021-
global.html

Module 2: Payment Technologies (7.5 Hours)

Session 3: History of Payment Methods – For bartering to credit era, current global trands in
payment methods, check clearing system and its limitations, NEFT/RTGS clearing system,
Advantages and disadvantages of NEFT/RTGS,

Session 4: PayTech innovation through UI wrappers, Digital Wallets business model and
innovation, Innovations in PayTech through social network, IMPS & UPI, UPI model and
innovation

Session 5: Credit card business model and evolution, credit card payment process – role of
acquisition bank, POS processors, card network and issuing bank, issues with credit card
model, innovations in credit card model – EMV chip card, Tokenization and mobile based
security such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay and the tech behind each one of them,

Session 6: Innovations in PayTech – Offline Payment Gateway and Online Payment Gateways,
and Payment Gateways profit strategies.

Session 6-7: Case Discussion

Case – Ant Financials (Product: 617060-PDF-ENG )

Module 3: CreditTech and Crowdfunding

Session 8: Introduction to Crowdfunding, the evolution of Crowdfunding for both debt and
equity financing Norms for P2P lending and Crowdfunding, benefits and applications, Impact
investments through P2P lending platforms in India, Introduction to Market Place Lenders,
Disruptive technologies in credit scoring, CreditTech, Credit scoring models

Session 9: Case Discussion

Case – Lending Club (Product #:E597-PDF-ENG )

Module 4: Innovations and Disruption in FinTech

Session 10: Disruption in FinTech
Session objective: Innovations in FinTech, Predicting the Future of FinTech, Implications for
Society, Introduction to InsurTech, RegTech, and Real-EstateTech, Algorithm Trading

Case- Quants in Utopia? Quantopian and its crowd-wisdom hedge-fund model

End-term Exam

Note:
1. The above session plan is tentative in nature and is subject to change.
2. Students may be asked to make a brief presentation on their project work in the final
session.

Pedagogy: Readings, Lectures, Cases, Assignments, and Project Work

Learning Outcomes:
 Understand the changing financial landscape with the advent of technology
 Understand the various application of FinTech in India and around the world
 Explain the weak points in legacy payment systems and understand the innovations in
payments.
 Understand Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending as a threat to Banking
 Interpret a credit score and identify its determinants and understand the advantages and
disadvantages to crowd-sourced lending

Evaluation
Class Participation 15%
Group Case Submission: 10%
One Individual Assignment: 20%
Group Project Work: 25%
1 End-term Exam: 30%
Class Participation
Your active participation in the discussion during class is integral to the design of this course
and counts for 15% of your final grade. Prior preparation of the assigned readings is essential
background for the lectures and class discussions, particularly as we will build upon the
material in our sessions. You should draw on your own experiences and perspectives as much
as possible, but you need to do the reading in order to contribute effectively to the flow of the
discussion.

Group Case Submission

Case discussion helps in understanding the challenges faced by companies while dealing with
varied technologies. You are supposed to work in your project group and answer the case
study questions in maximum 1000 words and submit the same before the case is scheduled to
be discussed in the class. You will be required to submit your write-up for any two of the
three cases: Ant Financial, Lending Club and Quants in Utopia. Your answers should be
analytical in nature and you should draw upon your learnings in the class and through various
readings while answering them.

Individual Assignment

The goal of the brief individual write-up (1500-2000 words) is to analyse any one required
reading for any one class of your choice, due no later than the 10th class. The list of the
readings for each session (whenever applicable) will be uploaded on the Blackboard two days
before the scheduled session. One or more of these readings will be marked for assignments
as required reading. In total there will be at least 3-4 such required readings throughout the
course. Write-ups will be due at the start of class on the day the required readings are to be
discussed. Using the readings for the relevant class, bringing in other (credible) material, if
you wish, the focus of the write-up should be analytically judgmental and evaluative of the
business considerations (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, & threats) of that week’s
discussion topic. You should be original and write what you think, not a summary of the
views presented. The write-up is worth 20% of your grade.

Group Project Work

This group project is due at the end of the course, (with possible presentation to the class),
and will count for 30% of the grade. The length of the text should be 3500-4000 words, and
include as an exhibit a brief Powerpoint deck (no more than eight slides) pitching your
group’s use case to investors or a senior management team. You can work in teams of up to 4
people on this project. You must inform me about your group formation by Session 4 and
submit your proposal on the topic by Session 6.

Your group will need to make a recommendation memo within any one financial sector that
is being materially transformed by technology as if you were advising the top management of
a company (ex: CEO of either a major bank, a big tech firm, a major conglomerate, or a
major VC firm). The purpose of the memo is to express a clear and well-reasoned point of
view (along with a market analysis) to your chosen CEO on your recommended business and
technology strategy within a particular financial sector. The specific financial sector can be
chosen from amongst payments, lending, capital markets, trading, asset management, real
estate, risk management, or insurance. Your recommendation and analysis should take into
consideration your respective organization’s characteristics, opportunities, and risks within
that sector. The goal of the group paper is to show critical analysis and understanding of
FinTech through the developments in one financial sector in the context of a business
recommendation to a real CEO. Analyzing FinTech trends and opportunities in the specific
financial sector along with the competitive landscape in the space (traditional incumbents and
FinTech disrupters), your group should provide a critical discussion of the particular financial
sector and how technology, data analytics, customer access may be shaping the opportunities
and products you recommend in the sector.

About the Instructor:

Prof Ankur holds a doctorate in Finance & Control from Indian Institute of Management
Calcutta. Before pursuing his doctorate, Ankur completed his Master of Finance & Control
from Department of Financial Studies, University of Delhi and BBA (International Business)
from Institute of Management Sciences, University of Lucknow.
Email ID: ankur.mehra@snu.edu.in; Mobile Number: +91 9903831354
Office: B 220F, Shiv Nadar University