https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2024-2025/E_FIN_BFINTThis course provides students with the knowledge to understand from an economic perspective the role of banks, as well as the drivers and key developments of the FinTech industry. After the completion of the course, students will be able to: 1. Use economic models to explain the role of the financial system and recognize the impact of various market frictions on individual welfare. 2. Understand one particular type of market friction caused by information asymmetry, i.e., the agency problems of debt, and articulate the role banks play in reducing this type of market inefficiency. 3. Recognize the liquidity creation role of banks and explain how it could cause bank run problems. 4. Describe the main drivers of the emergence of the FinTech industry, and explain how it can make the market more efficient and complete. 5. Understand the FinTech landscape and its main components. 6. Have a deep understanding of the bitcoin blockchain technology, and recognize the importance of the underlying economic incentives that make such a decentralized system work. 7. Develop a critical and practical view on the future stand of the traditional banking sector and the FinTech industry.Banks play a key role in the modern society and have come to dominate financial markets. However, their reach is not universal and their dominance not unchallenged, especially since the advent of the FinTech industry, which has hit at the core business of large banks through its disruptive combination of online platform, big data, and crowdfunding. This course covers both the traditional banking model and the new FinTech model, and includes the following six topics: I. The Economic Role of Financial System II. The Economic Role of Banks III. Bank Run and Investment Banking IV. FinTech I: PayTech, CreditTech and InvestTech V. FinTech II: Blockchain technologyLectures and tutorialsAssignment and written examStudents in the MSc Finance: Honours Programme Finance and TechnologyAdmission to the MSc Finance: Honours Programme Finance and Technology