Finance, Technology and Policy

Overview

Market functions hold significant societal impacts and are vital for the development of transparent, informationally efficient and fair financial systems.

How well financial markets operate influences real-world issues, including job creation and credit approval.

Technology has fuelled the rise of ultra-fast high-tech, opaque trading venues and expanded access to financial services across the globe.

While there are positive aspects to these changes, the emergence of new technology-driven paradigms has also increased concerns about the integrity and fairness of financial systems.

Concurrently, the pace of technological transformation in financial services and markets has led to the emergence of a knowledge gap in the fast-growing intersection between finance and technology.

Why Edinburgh

The programme offers a unique degree sitting at the intersection of the three most important drivers of a modern economy:

• financial services/markets

• technology

• policy

On this MSc in Finance, Technology and Policy at The University of Edinburgh  you will gain an understanding of broader links between finance services and technology on the one hand, and policy and the technological transformation of the financial markets and services on the other.

Programme design

The programme design ensures that courses complement one another.

Courses are designed to provide you with a detailed analysis of modern (financial) markets and the transformation of the financial services industry against the backdrop of technological and policy innovations.

While our MSc offers you an unvarnished view of the functioning of existing financial market and financial services structures, it also advances criticisms of the current set up and offers the basis for the development of alternative markets and financial services products.

The programme applies principles of financial economics, sociology/philosophy, and practical programming/machine learning and big data analysis to help you focus on solving real problems and developing the skillsets that are relevant for employers now and in the future.

You will also have the opportunity to tailor your degree to include other relevant aspects of operating within the financial technology space.

Courses specifically designed for the programme further examine design, entrepreneurship and innovation, legal and the human-computer interface issues.

You will work with industry partners to develop cutting-edge solutions to live challenges as part of student consultancy projects sponsored by financial institutions.