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Global Issues Report

Financial Technology in the Future

Emiliano Valtierra

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301

Dr. Vierra

November 13, 2019

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Abstract

This Global Issues Report will identify a problem related to Financial Technology

Education and provide a solution to UTEP.

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Global Issues Report:

Financial Technology Education in the future

Financial Technology, or Fintech, is the future of Finances. Hong Kong is currently

offering Fintech in multiple Universities, which will be extremely used in the future and we can

see signs of this. The University of Texas at El Paso needs to incorporate and offer Financial

Technology Education to better prepare their students.

Discussion

Financial technology should be offered in UTEP. Financial Technology, or Fintech, is a

growing field that needs to be taught everywhere. To better understand what Fintech really is,

Kagan (2019) defines it as an improved and automated way managing financial services, with

the use of electronics by implementing specific algorithms on specialized computer softwares in

order to manage the financial operations of different processes, individuals, businesses and even

the government. To better understand how complex Fintech can be, it is used for the

development and the constant use of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, to mention any. According to

Joyce Lau (2019), author for Times Higher Education (THE), Fintech education is developing in

Hong Kong for it is a growing field for teaching and researching for multiple universities in

Hong Kong. Lau (2019) mentions the Hong Kong Fintech Week, which is the largest event

dedicated to Financial Technology in Asia, and she quotes Kar Yan Tam, dean of the business

school at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, “The fintech industry will take

off. It’s not just hype – it’s here to stay”. Constructing from Lau’s research and Kar Yan Tam,

Financial Technology is going to be the future and it will reach the whole world; even though

Fintech is already in the Unites States, Financial Technology Education is not offered at The

University of Texas at El Paso according to the UTEP Academic Catalog. Fintech is the future
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and should be being taught now, the people that can decide on what to teach or what programs to

offer at UTEP, should strongly consider on adding Financial Technology Education.

Finance Technology will make the management of money simpler to every adult or

financially independent person. Every financially independent person needs to manage their

income into their needs, which would be all of their expenses, all their wants, which would be

more identified as the luxuries someone does not really need and maybe divide their money into

a savings account; this is an example of the management of money that individuals apply almost

every day, as Kurt (2019) more explicitly puts it, personal finances divide into necessities,

personal desires and goals for the long or short run. In today’s world, it is no surprise that

technology and artificial intelligence is taking over, if papers and homework are done with a

computer, if jobs consist on knowing how to use and fix computers, if multi-millionaire

companies are digital, then it can be speculated that everyday finances will be done with

computers in the near or far future.

The complexity of finance implementation varies. The term finance is integrated of

activities that involve the management of money. According to Kurt (2019), finance is

everything associated with leverage, debt, credit, banking and investments. In the United States,

people, businesses and even the government need money in order to keep operating, Kurt (2019),

divides the types of finance into personal finances, which depend completely on the individual’s

income, their necessities, their goals and personal desires; corporate finances, which are all the

decisions that businesses make in order to grow, an example of this would be a company

releasing an IPO (Initial Public Offering) in order to receive funding from investors and have

capital to start new projects; and public finances, which are the decisions taken by the federal

government in order to stabilize the economy and “prevent market failure”, an example of this is
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taxes, which the government then use to pay for public services. These descriptions and

examples only confirm that finance is all about the management and allocation of money.

Financial technology will simplify the approach of many fields. To clarify, finances are

used for money management, lending, insurance, real estate, among others; financial technology

does not only simplify these, but it also consists of investing, cryptocurrency, online transactions,

and many others as seen on Figure 1. This technology allows investing in a simpler, quicker,

more efficient way, it gives people access to the market through their phones and make

transactions, people can buy shares to a company and save them for 10 years, but they also have

the option to sell that share in under 5 minutes. Universities should include Financial Technology

because it will open a door of a plethora of options for students who decide to be entrepreneurs

or don’t know what they will want in the future.

Financial technology is the future. Everyday we see people rely on their phone or

computers more and more, technology takes a big part of our lives and it can be observed how

much it is actually used. It is not a surprise that every day, people have access to an almost

infinite amount of information at an extremely low effort. This sends a clear signal to speculators

that technology is the future and it will keep evolving. As technology has been adopted in

universities to simplify certain processes, technology has also been adopted by traders, bankers,

economists, accountants in order to facilitate their job and this can be seen in banks and trading

offices, it is no secret. According to Chris Holmes and Rachel King (2019), every person used to

go to the bank to manage their finances and banking issues, yet, today, about 49% of all

customers access and or manage their banking from their home through their phone, laptop or

tablet (p. 219). Financial technology or technologies today help everyone that has access to them
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by allowing for more efficient and even effective ways of completing transactions or orders

without having to leave their houses or workspace.

Financial technologies allow organizations to be more effective. Effectiveness has always

been a critical factor in the eyes of every entrepreneur or CEO, because the less money spent,

and the less time used is extremely beneficial. As Chris Holmes and Rachel King (2019) specify,

corporations are trying to move away from paper, and with the help of technology innovations,

they are now able conduct business through the web and come closer to eliminating the use of

paper as much as possible (p. 219). Holmes and King (2019), authors of “The evolution of

business-to-business FinTech: What the future holds”, talk about how the needs and certain

expectations of multiple corporations are changing because and for technology (p. 220), and as

an example, the authors describe how organizations now look for more agile, transparent,

efficient, secure and quick way of making payments or completing financial transactions.
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Conclusion

Every example and situation mentioned in this paper are indicators of Financial

technology staying for good. It is necessary to teach this subject to young students, and just as a

plethora of universities in Hong Kong, the University of Texas at El Paso should include

FinTech as a career because it is the future and it will help students understand how money

works and how it should be managed.

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References

Holmes, C., & King, R. (2019). The evolution of business-to-business FinTech: What the future

holds. Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems, 13(3), 217-225. Retrieved from http://0-

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=139153690&site

=eds-live&scope=site

Kagan, J. (2019). What is financial technology - fintech?

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fintech.asp

Kurt, D. (2019). What is finance? https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/what-is-finance/

Lau, J. (2019). Hong Kong pioneers fintech education as field looks set to ‘take off’. Retrieved

from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/hong-kong-pioneers-fintech-

education-field-looks-set-take

Saw, I. S., Ei, Y. C., & Lai, T. S. (2018). Characteristics and strategies of a consistently

profitable proprietary day trader at bursa Malaysia. Management & Accounting

Review, 17(3), 109-129. Retrieved from http://0

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=133951760&site

=eds-live&scope=site
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Figures

Figure 1. Different fields under the Financial

Technology umbrella

Figure 2. How different countries have

adopted Financial Technology

Figure 3. The evolution of payment methods