Financial technology (Fintech) combines innovative business models and computer technology to improve financial service. Since its emergence, it brings a wave of creative destruction that substantially changes the landscape of finance and have significant implications for the economy.
For example, the sudden rise of cryptocurrencies (eg Bitcoin), which compete with the fiat currencies and disrupt the existing payment system, poses great challenges to central banks and commercial banks.
Cardiff Fintech Research Group (CFRG) consists of 13 full-time academics at Cardiff University across the areas of finance, investments, quantitative methods and financial mathematics. Our Research Group encompasses several PhD students who are completing their doctoral research in areas related to Fintech.
Since its inception, CFRG has engaged in innovative and industrially relevant research and provided expertise to public and private sectors in Wales and beyond. Through links with Fintech Wales, CFRG has been involved in several projects and initiatives to promote Fintech innovations and solutions in Wales.
The Cardiff University Bitcoin Database or CUBID – created by Dr Hossein Jahanshahloo – is the first platform of its kind to allow users to access structured Bitcoin network data without advanced IT skills.
In Spring 2020, CFRG co-hosted with Fintech Wales the First Fintech Conference in Wales which attracted a large number of participants and featured speakers from the government, academia, and companies such as Microsoft. Please see the FinTech Wales AI for FinTech event on YouTube.
Aims
- Raise Cardiff Business School’s reputation as a national and international centre for Fintech research.
- Facilitate cross-disciplinary Fintech research among members of the research group and across sections and schools.
- Engage in innovative and industrially relevant research and provide our expertise to public and private sectors in Wales and beyond.
Research
Our members’ research interests in Fintech include:
- Cryptocurrencies
- Blockchain
- Banking (eg digital banking, open banking)
- Insurance (insuretech)
- Personal Finance (eg robo-advisors)
- Payments (digital payment systems)
- Lending (crowdfunding, P2P lending etc.)
- Capital Markets (algorithmic and high frequency trading)
- Wealth Management
- Machine Learning and AI
- Computer-assisted Textual Analysis
Meet the team
Academic staff
Postgraduate students
Associated staff
- Dr Arash Aloosh, Assistant Professor of Finance at NEOMA Business School
- Dr Oriol Caudevilla, Fintech Advisor and Mentor
- Dr Imtiaz Khan, Reader in Data Science, Cardiff Metropolitan University
- Professor Andrew Urquhart, Professor of Finance, ICMA Centre, University of Reading
- Professor Xian Xu, Fudan University, China
- Dr Larisa Yarovaya, Associate Professor in Finance, University of Southampton
Publications
- Wang, Y. 2021. Blockchain applications in logistics. In: Vickerman, R. , Noland, R. B. and Ettema, D. eds. International Encyclopedia of Transportation. Vol. 3, Elsevier. , pp.136-142.
- Fang, Y. et al. 2020. Optimal forecast combination based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition for agricultural commodity futures prices. Journal of Forecasting 39 (6), pp.877-886. Volume39, Issue6 September 2020 Pages 877-886. (10.1002/for.2665)
- Fang, Y. et al., 2019. Foreign ownership, bank information environments, and the international mobility of corporate governance. Journal of International Business Studies 50 (9), pp.1566-1593. (10.1057/s41267-019-00240-w)
- Aretz, K. , Banerjee, S. and Pryshchepa, O. 2019. In the path of the storm: does distress risk cause industrial firms to risk-shift?. Review of Finance 23 (6), pp.1115-1154. (10.1093/rof/rfy028)
- Wang, Y. et al. 2019. Making sense of blockchain technology: How will it transform supply chains?. International Journal of Production Economics 211 , pp.221-236. (10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.02.002)
- Hewett, N. , Lehmacher, W. and Wang, Y. 2019. Inclusive deployment of blockchain for supply chains.
- Silva, E. S. et al., 2019. Forecasting tourism demand with denoised neural networks. Annals of Tourism Research 74 , pp.134-154. (10.1016/j.annals.2018.11.006)
- Wang, Y. , Han, J. H. and Beynon-Davies, P. 2019. Understanding blockchain technology for future supply chains: a systematic literature review and research agenda. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 24 (1), pp.62-84. (10.1108/SCM-03-2018-0148)
- Wang, Y. , Touboulic, A. and O'Neill, M. 2018. An exploration of solutions for improving access to affordable fresh food with disadvantaged Welsh communities. European Journal of Operational Research 268 (3), pp.1021-1039. (10.1016/j.ejor.2017.11.065)
- Nguyen, D. . D. , Hagendorff, J. and Eshraghi, A. 2018. Does a CEO's cultural heritage affect performance under competitive pressure?. Review of Financial Studies 31 (1), pp.97-141. (10.1093/rfs/hhx046)
- Song, Q. , Liu, A. and Yang, S. 2017. Stock portfolio selection using learning-to-rank algorithms with news sentiment. Neurocomputing 264 , pp.20-28. (10.1016/j.neucom.2017.02.097)
- Yang, S. Y. et al., 2017. Genetic programming optimization for a sentiment feedback strength based trading strategy. Neurocomputing 264 , pp.29-41. (10.1016/j.neucom.2016.10.103)
- Taffler, R. J. , Spence, C. and Eshraghi, A. 2017. Emotional economic man: Calculation and anxiety in fund management. Accounting, Organizations and Society 61 , pp.53-67. (10.1016/j.aos.2017.07.003)
- Rogers, A. et al. 2017. Examining the existence of double jeopardy and negative double jeopardy within Twitter. European Journal of Marketing 51 (7/8), pp.1224-1247. (10.1108/EJM-03-2015-0126)
- ap Gwilym, O. et al., 2016. In search of concepts: the effects of speculative demand on stock returns. European Financial Management 22 (3), pp.427-449. (10.1111/eufm.12067)
- Nguyen, D. , Hagendorff, J. and Eshraghi, A. 2016. Can bank boards prevent misconduct?. Review of Finance 20 (1), pp.1-36. (10.1093/rof/rfv011)
- Yang, S. Y. , Mo, S. Y. K. and Liu, A. 2015. Twitter financial community sentiment and its predictive relationship to stock market movement. Quantitative Finance 15 (10), pp.1637-1656. (10.1080/14697688.2015.1071078)
- Kuang, P. , Schröder, M. and Wang, Q. 2014. Illusory profitability of technical analysis in emerging foreign exchange markets. International Journal of Forecasting 30 (2), pp.192-205. (10.1016/j.ijforecast.2013.07.015)
- Pryshchepa, O. , Aretz, K. and Banerjee, S. 2013. Can investors restrict managerial behavior in distressed firms?. Journal of Corporate Finance 23 , pp.222-239. (10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2013.08.006)
Events
The 2nd International Cardiff Fintech Conference - Call for Papers
The Cardiff Fintech Research Group is pleased to announce its 2nd International Fintech Conference taking place in person at Cardiff Business School on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 November 2023.
If this document cannot be read by your assistive software, you can request an accessible version by emailing web@cardiff.ac.uk. Please include the assistive tools you use and the format you require.
Past events
Cardiff Fintech Conference 2022
Cardiff, UK, 12 October 2022
The Cardiff Fintech Research Group is pleased to announce its inaugural fintech conference taking place in person at Cardiff Business School on Wednesday 12 October 2022.
The objective of this conference is to discuss cutting-edge fintech research that offers insights into the opportunities and challenges for fintech development. The Conference will feature a small number of high-quality papers to allow for in-depth presentations and discussions. The Conference will also feature a practitioner session.
We welcome submissions from all areas of financial technology, including but not limited to big data, blockchain and cryptoassets, computer-assisted textual analysis, crowd funding, digital banking, digital wealth management, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome.
Keynote Speakers
Professor Lin William Cong is the Rudd Family Professor of Management at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He is also the founding faculty director for the FinTech Initiative at Cornell and a research associate at NBER. Professor Cong serves as Editor (finance department) of Management Science, and Associate Editor of Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Journal of Banking and Finance.
Professor Brian Lucey is Professor of Finance at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, and Editor-in-Chief of International Review of Financial Analysis among various other former and current editorial roles. Professor Lucey has published extensively on a wide range of finance topics including cryptoassets, commodities and sustainable finance, and is regularly cited in the media.
Journal Affiliations
Presenters at the workshop are welcome to contribute to a special issue of The European Journal of Finance entitled “Fintech and Risk”, submission deadline 1 Nov 2022. The guest editors for the special issue are Steve Yang (Stevens Institute of Technology, USA), Arman Eshraghi (Cardiff, UK) and Maggie Chen (Cardiff, UK).
Selected conference papers may be also invited for submission to the following journals:
- Finance Research Letters
- Global Finance Journal
- International Review of Economics and Finance
- International Review of Financial Analysis
Conference Chairs
- Arman Eshraghi, Cardiff Business School
- Qingwei Wang, Cardiff Business School
Programme Committee
- Hossein Jahanshahloo, Cardiff Business School
- Yingli Wang, Cardiff Business School
- Maggie Chen, School of Mathematics, Cardiff University
- Anqi Liu, School of Mathematics, Cardiff University
- Yuhua Li, School of Computer Science, Cardiff University
Our members have contributed to the following events:
- Keynote, We Need to Talk About Bitcoin, Wales Tech Week
- Keynote, ‘AI and the Future of Finance’ Summit, University of Waikato
- Panel talk, Wealth Management in the Digital Age, Future of Finance, Virtual
- TEDx Talk, Fintech and the Future of Finance, Cardiff University
- Panel talk, ESRC Sparking Impact Workshop on Blockchain Technology, Cardiff
- Panel talk, CityUK National Conference in partnership with PwC, Cardiff
- 'Technology in Manufacturing' Consultation, Cardiff
- Collaboration with industrial partners on a Masterclass on blockchain at RICS Digital Built Environment Conference 2019 (London)
- Webinar on blockchain's role in the circular economy for the World Built Environment Forum
- Research Foresight Report for Government Office for Science on the impact of Emerging Technologies on Future Mobility
- White Paper on Blockchain for Supply Chains for World Economic Forum