FINANCIAL REGULATION AND FINTECH POLICY - 2021/2

Module Overview

This module provides an overview of financial regulation including regulation of banking, capital markets, consumer finance, and payments. It introduces the regulatory frameworks for each of these areas and the policy considerations that animate regulatory policy. The module also examines the impact of financial regulation on emerging FinTech businesses and considers the ways in which new technology challenges traditional models of financial regulation.

Module provider

School of Law

Module Leader

LINDSAY Ira (Schl of Law)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None.

Module content

Part I: Financial Regulation

• Banking regulation 


• Insurance regulation


• Securities regulation


• Consumer finance including credit cards, personal loans and mortgages


• Financial payments anti-money laundering regulations

Part II: Issues in regulation of FinTech

• Cryptocurrencies


• Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending


• Algorithmic trading and systemic risk


• Online banking, lending and insurance

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate:

• Knowledge of the main features of important financial regulatory schemes


• Understanding of the theory of financial regulation


• Ability to analyze how financial regulations apply to fact-patterns


• Appreciation of the challenges posed by new technology for financial regulation


• Understanding of the ways in which financial regulation might be a barrier to or impetus for adoption of FinTech

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• A take-home examination to be completed over 24 hours during the exam period consisting of two to four questions with a word limit of 3,500 words in total (addresses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7)

Formative assessment and feedback:

Essay Assessment 1500 words

Students will be provided with opportunities to receive written and/or oral feedback mid-semester on their formative assignment in order to prepare for the summative assessment. Formative essay questions will be of a similar type to those found on the final exam.

Module aims

• Introduce the main forms of financial regulation relevant for FinTech including regulation of banking, insurance, retail investments, securities, consumer finance, and payments
• Appreciate the problems to which regulation in each of these areas responds
• Evaluate the regulatory strategies used in each of these areas
• Consider the extent to which industry changes caused by FinTech are putting pressure on the existing approaches to financial regulation
• Analyze the extent to which financial regulation is a barrier to or opportunity for applications of new FinTech

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

Seminars adopt a flexible learning approach, with a combination of mini-lectures, interactive discussions and group project work, delivered by academics with room for 1-2 visiting members of industry where appropriate.

Instructors will use lectures to convey basic knowledge of the legal frameworks and of regulatory theory. This will be supplemented by in-depth discussion of controversial issues in regulatory policy. Students will apply their knowledge of financial regulation and policy to analyse the interaction between financial regulation and FinTech both at the level of how the legal rules apply to new technology and at the level of how the legal rules should be changed in response to technological changes. This will develop students¿ ability to do both legal and policy analysis and to see how the two forms of analysis are interrelated.

The learning and teaching methods would typically comprise:

• 2 hour seminars X 5 weeks


• 3 hour seminars X 6 weeks

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: LAWM162

Other information

None.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2021/2 academic year.