Global Fintech Revolution: Practice, Policy, and Regulation

Lerong Lu examines the biggest change in modern financial industry - the Fintech (financial technology) revolution - that denotes the close interaction between the financial services industry and latest information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. The three areas of banking institutions, online lending marketplaces, and money and payment systems are explored to assess how financial innovations affect the traditional financial industry, what kinds of regulatory challenges arise, and how global policymakers react to such challenges.

With in-depth and international case studies on Fintech, including app-based banking services, mobile payments, P2P lending, and cryptocurrencies, the global Fintech hubs in six continents are assessed. The complex, dynamic, and multidimensional Fintech ecosystem is also investigated including its key players (such as regulatory strategy, regulatory sandbox, and RegTech) and Fintech corporations (including financial holding companies, Fintech unicorns, BigTech firms, and Metaverse platforms).

Lu highlights the enormous benefits for financial institutions and their consumers and argues that Fintech contributes to a more equal, democratic, inclusive, and sustainable financial system. However, he also considers the risks and multiple legal, ethical, and regulatory challenges for policy-makers and financial authorities that Fintech has posed.

Lerong Lu, Senior Lecturer in Law, King’s College London

Dr Lerong Lu is Senior Lecturer in Law (Associate Professor) and Director of LLM Law & Technology Programme at the King’s College London. Prior to this position, he was Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol. He obtained PhD and LLM degrees from the University of Leeds and is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He has published extensively in the fields of financial law and regulation with over 40 articles in academic journals and edited books.