Conference takes international look at tech and finance

Head of the Future of Money Division at the Bank of England Nick McLaren was the keynote speaker at an international conference hosted by Essex Business School.

The conference was titled ‘Financial Intermediation in the Third Millennium: Perils and Pearls of Technology’ with Mr McLaren exploring the case for a retail central bank digital currency in his speech.

The event was organised by the Financial Technology Centre EsseX (FinteX) at Essex Business School, the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and the Financial Intermediation Network of European Studies (Finest).

Joint organiser Professor Franco Fiordelisi from Essex Business School said: “The conference saw a set of high-quality papers presented and discussed by scholars from around the world, including representatives from central banks such as the Bank of England and the Bank of Spain, as well as top-ranked universities like Yale, Pennsylvania, Miami, Minnesota, Southern California, HEC, Texas A&M University, Oxford, and Imperial, among others.

“These papers addressed developments in cryptocurrencies, Big Tech, Big Data, and digital payments.”

Other key themes covered included corporate finance, banking, monetary policy, competition and financial innovation.

The conference was jointly organised by Professor Fiordelisi, Professor Anjan Thakor from WUSTL, and Professor Paolo Fulghieri from the University of North Carolina.