Prelims

Half Title Page

The Emerald Handbook of Fintech

Title Page

The Emerald Handbook of Fintech: Reshaping Finance

Edited by

H. Kent Baker

American University, USA

Greg Filbeck

Penn State Behrend, USA

And

Keith Black

University of Massachusetts, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2024

Editorial matter and selection © 2024 H. Kent Baker, Greg Filbeck and Keith Black.

Individual chapters © 2024 The authors.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83753-609-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-608-5 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-610-8 (Epub)

Dedication

We dedicate the book to Linda and Rory Baker, Judy, Janis, Aaron, Andrea, Kyle, and Grant Filbeck, and Melissa, Parker, and Patricia Black.

List of Figures and Tables

About the Editors

H. Kent Baker, CFA, CMA, is a University Professor of Finance at the Kogod School of Business, American University. He is an award-winning author who has authored or edited 45 books, including several textbooks. Professor Baker coedited the Financial Markets and Investments Series (Oxford University Press) and is the editor and coauthor of The H. Kent Baker Investments Series (Emerald Publishing). As one of the most prolific finance academics, Professor Baker has published more than 215 peer-reviewed journal articles and 130 practitioner-oriented works. His articles appear in such journals as the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, European Financial Management, Journal of Corporate Finance, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Harvard Business Review. His publications have more than 16,400 Google Scholar citations. He serves on more than a dozen editorial/advisory boards. Professor Baker has consulting and training experience with more than 100 organizations and has conducted over 800 training programs in North America and Europe. He was the past President of the Southern Finance Association and its 2019 Distinguished Scholar. Professor Baker received a BSBA (management) from Georgetown University; an MBA (finance), MEd (educational administration), and DBA (finance) from the University of Maryland; and an MS (quantitative methods), MA (training and career development), PhD (educational administration and organizational development), and PhD (counseling and student development) from American University.

Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA, CIPM, FDP, PRM, holds the Samuel P. Black III Professor of Finance and Risk Management at Penn State Behrend and serves as Interim Vice Chancellor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. He previously served as the Director of the Black School of Business from 2016 to 2023 and Senior Vice President of Kaplan Schweser from 1999 to 2006. He also held academic appointments at Miami University (Ohio) and the University of Toledo, where he served as the Center for Family Business Associate Director. Professor Filbeck has authored or edited 16 books and published more than 110 refereed academic journal articles appearing in the Financial Analysts Journal, Financial Review, and Journal of Business, Finance, and Accounting, among others. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business and Economic Perspective. Professor Filbeck is a Presidents Council Representative for the Eastern Region United States for the CFA Institute. He also served as President of the CFA Society Pittsburgh from 2014 to 2018 and the Financial Analysts Society of Toledo from 1998 to 1999. Professor Filbeck was the President of the Southern Finance Association from 2015 to 2016. He received the Impact on Practice Award from the Black School of Business in 2015, the Outstanding Teaching Award among iMBA faculty in 2010 and 2012, the Penn State Behrend Regents Award for Outstanding Researcher in 2011, and the Penn State Behrend Outstanding Outreach Award in 2013. He has a BS (engineering physics) from Murray State University, an MS (applied statistics) from Penn State University, and a DBA (finance) from the University of Kentucky.

Keith Black, CFA, CAIA, FDP, CDAA, is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he teaches cryptocurrency investments, alternative investments, and institutional investment consulting. Professor Black also serves as the Managing Director of education at RIA Channel, where he produced the Nasdaq Advisor Academy course on cryptocurrencies and the Apollo Academy course on alternative investments. He has written or contributed to over 30 books and refereed journal articles, including publications in the Journal of Alternative Investments, Journal of Trading, and Journal of Investing. Professor Black authored Managing a Hedge Fund (2004), Investing in Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets (2024), and co-authored the second, third, and fourth editions of the CAIA Level I and II textbooks on alternative investments. He holds a BA from Whittier College, an MS from Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

About the Contributors

Sumit Agarwal is the Low Tuck Kwong Professor at the School of Business and Professor in the Departments of Economics, Finance, and Real Estate at the National University of Singapore. Previously, he held positions as a Professor of Finance at Georgetown University, a senior Financial Economist in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and a senior Vice President and credit risk management executive in the Small Business Risk Solutions Group of Bank of America. Professor Agarwal's research interests involve financial institutions, household finance, behavioral finance, international finance, real estate markets, urban economics, and capital markets. He has published in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. Professor Agarwal received a PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Ioannis Akkizidis is a Product Manager in analytical financial systems for Wolters Kluwer in Zürich, Switzerland. He has more than 20 years of experience in financial risk and profitability analysis and designing and implementing advanced solutions in the financial industry's risk management field, turning theory and market demands into practice. Dr Akkizidis has authored several financial books, book chapters, and articles. He is also a cofounder and board member of the Swiss Risk Association. He lectures at Universität Zürich on postgraduate courses in quantitative finance and holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Wales, United Kingdom.

Tan Chek Ann, CFA, is a Principal Data Scientist at Phillip Securities Pte Ltd, a leading financial technology firm in Asia, delving into areas such as robo-advisory, portfolio management, and derivative trading. His academic research concerns machine learning, empirical asset pricing, and behavioral and household finance. He holds an MSc in Quantitative Finance from Singapore Management University under the SMU Impact on Asia scholarship and the Monetary Authority of Singapore Financial Scholarship Programme (Individual Track). He is a PhD candidate at the National University of Singapore.

Alessio Azzutti is a Lecturer in Law and Technology at the University of Glasgow's School of Law. He previously served as a Research Associate at the Centre for Banking and Finance Law at the National University of Singapore and as a Research Associate at the Institute of Law & Economics at the University of Hamburg. He is a policy-oriented and interdisciplinary researcher at the intersection of the scientific fields of finance, law, and technology. He is affiliated with several international networks of researchers, including the European Banking Institute, the European Law Institute, the Hamburg Network of Artificial Intelligence and Law, and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. He received an MSc in Finance and Risk Management from the University of Florence and an LLM in Law and Economics from Utrecht University, and defended his doctorate juris dissertation at the University of Hamburg in June 2024.

John W. Bagby is a Professor Emeritus, Smeal College of Business and College of Information Sciences, Pennsylvania State University. He also held academic positions in business schools at the University of Kansas and the University of Cincinnati and visiting positions at McCombs School − University of Texas at Austin, California State University – Long Beach, and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. Professor Bagby has conducted numerous sponsored research projects and is widely published in books, textbooks, monographs, collective research works, academic interdisciplinary and law journals, business journals, SSRN postings, and presentations. Topics include securities regulations, fintech, business organizations, product liability, modeling money damage computations, cybersecurity, privacy, transportation law and economics, intellectual property rights, electronic forensics, and regulatory policy/administrative law. He has a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of Kansas and a JD from the University of Tulsa. Professor Bagby completed the MBA core at the Stern School, New York University, and received an MBA from the University of Kansas.

Hugo Benedetti is an Assistant Professor at ESE Business School, Universidad de Los Andes, Chile. His research focuses on entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, and fintech, particularly blockchain technology and blockchain-enabled assets. Professor Benedetti has published academic articles in the Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Financial Crime and Economic Modeling, coedited The Emerald Handbook on Cryptoassets, and coauthored chapters included in The Emerald Handbook of Blockchain for Business, The Palgrave Handbook of Technological Finance, and Essential Concepts of Sustainable Finance: An A-Z Guide. Professor Benedetti frequently delivers workshops on entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, and fintech to incubators, angel investor networks, and venture capital funds. He has advised and mentored several fintech and blockchain projects. Professor Benedetti is a Fulbright scholar and received a PhD in finance from Boston College.

David A. Burnie, CFA, CTP, is a Professor of Finance at Western Michigan University and Director of the Master of Science in Finance program. He is the current editor of the American Journal of Business. Professor Burnie has published in the Journal of Business, Finance, and Accounting, International Journal of Finance and Economics, Global Finance Journal, The Financial Review, The European Journal of Finance, Applied Financial Economics, and the Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance. His research interests are in short- and long-term corporate finance and investments. Professor Burnie has a BA from the University of Guelph, an MBA from the University of Windsor, and a PhD from Syracuse University.

Jeffrey M. Clark is a Senior Lecturer and the David Gaunt Faculty Fellow in Real Estate at the Finance Department, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Professor Clark is also the Faculty Director of the Master of Finance Program at the Isenberg School of Management. His teaching and research interests include real estate fintech, corporate real estate strategy, investment and development, capital markets, valuation, data and analytics, and project and process management. He is also a 35-year practitioner of real estate, including leading programs, teams, and organizations on six continents that have executed over 4,000 commercial real estate transactions and developed more than 40 million square feet of new office, industrial, manufacturing, critical data centers, retail and logistics sites, valued at over $5 billion. An active investor in US multifamily and residential properties, Professor Clark has created partnerships that have invested over $100 million. He holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MBA from the University of Georgia.

Douglas J. Cumming, CFA, is the DeSantis Distinguished Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at the College of Business, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. He is also a Visiting Professor of Finance at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Professor Cumming has published over 230 articles in leading refereed academic journals, including 43 in the Financial Times top 50 journals. Examples include the Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of International Business Studies, and the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Clarivate listed him as one of the top 92 most cited researchers in the world in the business and economics category. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited over 27,000 times. Professor Cumming's work has been reviewed in numerous media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Adri de Ridder is an Associate Professor of Finance at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, Sweden, and a Visiting Professor of Finance at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Previously, he worked for the Federation of Swedish Industries, Avesta Sheffield, and Skandia. His research focuses on payout policy and the relation between firm value and ownership structure. More recently, his research examines the pricing characteristics of Swedish art paintings. Besides several textbooks related to financial economics, he has published in finance and economic journals, including the European Journal of Finance, Global Finance Journal, Journal of Multinational Financial Management, and the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. He received a PhD from the University of Stockholm after his PhD studies at London Business School.

Zachary Glatzer is a doctoral student in finance at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. Mr Glatzer has researched financial technology (fintech) throughout his coursework. He is developing papers on cryptocurrencies, mobile money and banking, high-frequency trading, fintech acquisitions, and initial coin offerings. He has presented and discussed papers on monetary systems, fintech, and cryptocurrency at finance conferences. Mr Glatzer also has experience in risk advisory consulting and teaching at secondary education institutions. He has a BS in Economics from the University of Florida and an MS in International Economics from Florida Atlantic University.

Halil Kiymaz, CFA, is the Bank of America Professor of Finance at Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College. He has published six books and more than 90 articles in scholarly and practitioner journals. His research appears in such journals as the Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Review, Global Finance Journal, Journal of Applied Finance, Journal of Economics and Finance, Review of Financial Economics, and Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics. He received several research awards, including the McGraw-Hill Irwin Best Paper Award and Outstanding Research Awards at the Global Conference on Business and Finance. He also serves on the editorial board of several journals. Professor Kiymaz is the former Academy of Financial Services president and finance editor of the International Journal of Emerging Markets. He has taught as a Visiting Professor at multiple international universities, including the East Chinese University of Science and Technology, the University of Paris, Kadir Has University, and Copenhagen Business School. He received an MBA, MA, and PhD from the University of New Orleans.

Fan Liu is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the International Business School Suzhou (IBSS), Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, an Honorary Lecturer at University of Liverpool, and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. She also serves as the Director of International for IBSS. Previously, she taught at the University of Iowa in the United States. Her teaching covers a broad range of topics in Economics and Finance. Professor Liu’s research focuses on the areas of financial inclusion and resilience, financial intermediation, innovation and fintech, macroeconomics, entrepreneurship, and household finance. She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Emerging Markets Review, and Empirical Economics. She serves as an associate editor for a Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journal. Professor Liu holds a PhD in economics from the University of Iowa.

Angela C. Lyons is a Full Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and a Faculty Fellow at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her work focuses on emerging issues in development and behavioral economics, emphasizing economic and financial inclusion, financial and digital literacy, fintech, poverty and inequality, and the economic empowerment and protection of vulnerable populations. She has collaborated with over 40 countries in developing practical and sustainable models that improve the livelihoods, economic resiliency, and financial security of families and communities worldwide. Notably, Professor Lyons has served under five G20 Presidencies on the T20 (Think20), the research and policy advice network of the G20 countries, contributing to the global advancement of the future of work and education in the digital age. Her current work leverages the power of new frontier methods in data science, such as machine learning and geospatial analysis, to reduce global poverty and economic vulnerabilities and promote the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She has a PhD in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Abdiel Martinez is an independent financial consultant with experience in foreign exchange and macro strategy. He received a BA in International Business from Rollins College, where he graduated summa cum laude.

Bora Ozkan is an Associate Professor of Finance at Temple University's Fox School of Business, where he also served as Academic Director of the school's online MBA and BBA programs. His research interests are fintech, ESG, corporate finance, and business education. He has published in the International Journal of Economics and Finance, International Journal of Business and Society, Management Research Review, and Journal of Education for Business. Professor Ozkan received a Master's degree in Financial Economics and Business Administration and a PhD in Financial Economics from the University of New Orleans.

Debidutta Pattnaik is an Assistant Professor at the International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar. He teaches corporate finance, financial markets, investment banking, and advanced research methods. Professor Pattnaik's research focuses on corporate finance, AI and ML applications, scientometrics, and text analytics. His work appears in the Journal of Corporate Finance, Financial Review, Journal of Forecasting, Economics Modelling, Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of Service Research. With a robust industrial background spanning over 14 years and prolific publications, Professor Pattnaik ranks among RePEc's top 25% of Indian economists. He received the ‘2021 Runner-up Outstanding JME Article of the Year Award’, ‘JMTP Article of the Year Award 2020’, and multiple ‘Top-cited Article of the Journal’ awards. Professor Pattnaik has a PhD in Finance from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology, India, and holds a CFA charter from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India.

Dianna Preece, CFA, is a Professor of Finance at the College of Business, University of Louisville. She teaches undergraduates and MBA students, focusing primarily on financial markets and the banking system. Professor Preece has published over 30 academic articles and various book chapters on finance topics. Her research interests include banking, investments, and firm diversity. Professor Preece is a former board member of the Southern Finance Association. She often presents papers at the annual meeting and participates in panel discussions on topics ranging from hedge funds to debt markets. Professor Preece also teaches at the banking schools for the American Bankers Association, the Kentucky Bankers Association, and the Iowa Bankers Association. She holds a BA, an MBA from Marshall University, and a DBA from the University of Kentucky.

Kerem Proulx is an independent financial consultant with experience involving operational risk, leveraged finance, and credit risk. He focuses on modeling tail risk using computational methods. Mr Proulx has a BBA in Finance from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University. He received high honors for his research in applying machine learning methods to forecasting equity volatility.

Christian Rauch is an Associate Professor of Finance and Dean at Umm Al Quwain University in the UAE. His research focuses on financial intermediation and institutional asset management, especially alternative investments, focusing on fintech. Leading academic journals, like the Journal of Financial Economics, have published his work. Various newspapers, such as the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal, have cited his work. Professor Rauch has been involved in pro bono advisory projects involving capital market regulation, such as the Venture Capital Scale-Up project for the UK government. He cofounded a business-to-business fintech start-up from Barclays Bank's RISE accelerator in London. Professor Rauch has been an active member of the London and UAE start-up communities by mentoring founders and advising investors. He obtained a PhD in Finance from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and degrees from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany, and the New York University School of Law.

Efthymios Rizopoulos is a RegTech/SupTech Associate at the Financial Conduct Authority. He has previously worked as a researcher at SOAS University of London and Alliance Manchester Business School, where he actively participated in launching the university's fintech center. His research experience focuses on market microstructure, financial economics, economic development, banking and fintech, and decentralized finance. His research interests span finance, economics, management, and information systems. His current work and publications comprise papers on high-frequency trading, stock markets, fintech, the banking and financial services industry, and nonfungible tokens. He holds a PhD in finance from the University of Manchester.

Dimitrios Salampasis is the Fintech Capability Lead and Senior Lecturer of Emerging Technologies and FinTech at the Swinburne School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship in Melbourne, Australia. He holds international visiting professor positions and is a Financial Services Institute of Australasia Fellow. Professor Salampasis is an award-winning global thought leader, educator, researcher and sought-after keynote speaker, passionate about innovation and strategy, global affairs and geopolitics, digital economy, sustainability, and emerging technologies nexus. He specializes in the organizational, human, technological, geopolitical, regulatory and ESG sides of emerging technologies and FinTech. Professor Salampasis is a mentor and advisor for start-ups and scale-ups in Australia and overseas and is regularly involved in advisory work with international stakeholders. He holds a PhD in industrial engineering, business and management from the Lappeenranta University of Technology.

Georgios Samakovitis is a Professor of Fintech and Deputy Head of the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom. He specializes in banking and payment systems technologies and artificial intelligence for fintech. His research focuses on governance technologies for anti-money laundering and financial crime and developing distributed ledger technology infrastructure for collective intelligence in fintech networks. Professor Samakovitis joined the Counter Fraud and Data Analytics Advisory Group of the HMG Cabinet Office and the FinCrime Working Group at the UK Payments Strategy Forum. He is a member of the Bank of England CBDC Technology Forum and the BSI UK Data Standards Expert Panel. His PhD focused on banking technology investment decisions from the University of Edinburgh.

Peter Scholz is a Full Professor of Digital Finance at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Mosbach, Germany, where he serves as the academic co-head of the banking department. Prior to joining DHBW, he was a Professor of Banking at the Hamburg School of Business Administration. Professor Scholz brings over than 10 years of practical experience from his tenure at Deka Investment and Deutsche Bank, where he worked in various financial market-related divisions, including asset management, global markets, risk management, and private and retail banking. His research interests focus on the financial sector's digital transformation, sustainable finance, and performance of active asset management and equity derivatives, with a particular emphasis on retail certificates and technical timing strategies. Professor Scholz has published in renowned journals such as the Financial Analysts Journal and the Journal of Wealth Management. He holds a PhD in business sciences from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

Sean Stein Smith is an Assistant Professor of Business and Economics at Lehman College, City University of New York. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, where he chairs the Accounting Work Group. Professor Smith has published articles and books on the intersection of accounting and emerging technologies, including the Forbes Crypto & Blockchain vertical. He is an NJCPA Board of Trustees member and the NYSSCPA Manhattan-Bronx chapter president. Professor Smith was an AICPA Outstanding CPA of the Year (2022). He is on the Advisory Board of Gilded and is a Strategic Advisor to the Central Bank Digital Currency Think Tank. Professor Smith was a Visiting Research Fellow at the American Institute of Economic Research. He received a BS, MS, and MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson and a DBA from Capella University.

Iván Sosa Gómez is a distinguished professional with 14 years of experience exclusively focused on the insurance industry. As the Corporate Head Driver, he leads the definition of the vision, strategic objectives, and action plans that are driving InsurTech+. Besides this role, Dr Sosa serves as an InsurTech Advisory Board member, providing invaluable insights into business strategies for achieving growth objectives within the insurance sector. His contributions extend beyond his corporate responsibilities, as he actively engages in academic activities focused on the InsurTech ecosystem and its transformative impact on the industry. With his unwavering dedication to the insurance industry and hybrid expertise in business consulting and academic research, he is positioned as a key driver of change in the InsurTech landscape. He obtained a Master's degree in Marketing and Sales Management from IMF Business School and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Rey Juan Carlos University.

Andrew C. Spieler, CFA, CAIA, FRM, is the Robert F. Dall Distinguished Professor of Finance in the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University. He has published in such journals as the Journal of Financial Research, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, Global Finance Journal, and Journal of Applied Finance. He was the Chair of the Derivatives Committee at the New York Society of Securities Analysts. Professor Spieler is the Co-Director of the annual real estate conference sponsored by the Wilbur F. Breslin Center for Real Estate Studies. He received a BA in mathematics and a BS in economics from Binghamton University (SUNY), an MS in finance from Indiana University, and an MBA and PhD in Finance from Binghamton University (SUNY).

Manuel Stagars, CFA is an Economist and former senior researcher at Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), with a research focus on the technological and institutional aspects of big data, open data, and data policy. He is also a serial tech entrepreneur with over a decade of global experience. Mr Stagars also directed several award-winning documentary films about fintech, blockchain technology, digital transformation, and deep tech. Mr Stagars holds a BSc degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has published books on data quality, open data, entrepreneurship, and market place lending (with Ioannis Akkizidis) with publishers including Wiley, Springer and Palgrave Macmillan.

Ayan Tyagi, CRISC, is a seasoned professional serving as the Director of Technology Transformation at Citi Bank in the United States. With a rich and diverse background, he has contributed significantly to the architecture and development of high-performance trading systems, technology, and cybersecurity risk management. He has also spearheaded global digital transformations for prominent Wall Street banks. A published author with contributions to international journal articles, Dr Tyagi's expertise encompasses various domains, including blockchain technology, information governance, cloud computing, and enterprise risk management. He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from MDU Rohtak, India, a Master’s in Computer Science from Stony Brook University, and a PhD in Information Technology with a specialized focus on emerging technologies and information systems security from the University of the Cumberlands, Kentucky.

Omer Unsal is an Associate Professor of Finance at Merrimack College. His research focuses on corporate innovation, employee treatment, financial misconduct, and corporate governance. Professor Unsal has published in the Journal of Corporate Finance, Financial Review, Journal of Financial Research, and Corporate Governance: An International Review. He received an MBA from Western Michigan University and a PhD in Financial Economics from the University of New Orleans.

Carlos Humberto Munoz Valdez is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the IPADE Business School. He is a former executive from companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, and GE, with responsibilities as financial planning and analysis (FP&A) senior leader and project management office (PMO) leader. He is a DBA candidate at Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College. His dissertation focuses on the relationship between adopting blockchain technology and its impact on cryptocurrency volatility. He is also a business advisor for family offices and real estate companies. Mr Valdez holds an MBA from the IPADE Business School.

Sebastian Vogel is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He is interested in market microstructure, market design, and asset pricing. His research includes work on using electronic trading platforms in OTC markets, the behavior of market participants in OTC markets, and topics related to corporate finance, like the advantages and disadvantages of auctions vs negotiations when selling a firm. Professor Vogel holds a Master's degree in finance from the Stockholm School of Economics, a Master's degree in mathematics from the University of Hagen, Germany, and a PhD in finance from EPFL and the Swiss Finance Institute.

Markos T. Zachariadis holds the Chair of Financial Technology and Information Systems at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, where he is also the Founding Director of the Centre for Financial Technology Studies. Professor Zachariadis is also a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the Future of Resilient Financial Systems, an Advisory Board member of the Abu Dhabi Global Market's Research Centre, and a FinTech Research Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Digital Innovation, University of Cambridge among many other industry and academic appointments. His research sits at the cross-section of the economics of digital innovation, financial technology studies, and network economics and has studied the economic impact of ICT adoption on bank performance, the diffusion of payment networks, and the role of data and standards in payment infrastructures, financial markets, and digital banking extensively. He holds a PhD in Management and Economics of Digital Innovation in Finance: Information Technology and Strategy from the London School of Economics and Policy Science.

Acknowledgments

In 1968, Paul McCartney wrote ‘The Long and Winding Road’, which appeared in the Beatles' album Let It Be, in 1970. The lyrics of this reflective song talk about the journey of life and the memories created along the way. Thus, the long and winding road is a metaphor for a journey and the challenges encountered. Similarly, publishing this book has been a long and winding road with its twists and turns. This journey would not have been completed without the contributions of many people, each playing important but different roles. We want to recognize a few of these participants in this journey.

We relied on the chapter authors who took time from their busy schedules to share their knowledge and expertise on specific fintech topics. Being a chapter author requires much time, effort, and dedication. Without them, The Emerald Handbook of Fintech: Reshaping Finance would not have been possible. We are indebted to each chapter author. We are also grateful for all the highly talented professionals at Emerald Publishing who were involved with this book project. We especially thank Kirsty Woods (Books Commissioning Editor, Education), Lydia Cutmore (Content Development Editor), and Kousalya Thangarasu (Book Project Editor). Our respective institutions also provided support: Kogod School of Business at American University, the Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend, and the Isenberg School of Business at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Finally, our families also offered encouragement during the process.