This book exemplifies the potential of FinTech to deliver important economic and societal gains, such as enhancing competition and financial inclusion to deliver tailored financial products and services at more affordable prices and at greater convenience. The emergence of FinTech directly challenges the business models of incumbent financial intermediaries like banks, which are adapting by developing their own FinTech offerings and partnering with FinTech and large technology firms. FinTech also constitutes both known and unknown risks to financial stability and challenges regulators to evaluate whether existing regulations are sufficient. The emergence of FinTech as a global phenomenon requires insightful cross-country analysis and different perspectives to evaluate its development and associated opportunities and challenges. This book will be of interest to practitioners, regulators and students of this essential enabling technology that is a major component of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Timothy King is Director of the Centre for Quantitative Finance at the University of Kent. His research interests include Banking, FinTech, Corporate Governance and Corporate Finance. He has published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Corporate Finance and British Journal of Management.

Francesco Saverio Stentella Lopes is Senior (type B) Researcher at the University of Rome. His research focuses on Banking and Innovation, and he has published in renowned academic journals including the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Banking and Finance.

Abhishek Srivastav is currently Senior Lecturer in Finance at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include Empirical Corporate Finance, Climate Change and Financial Intermediation. He has published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics and Management Science.

Jonathan Williams is Professor of Banking and Finance at Bangor University, Co-Director of the Institute of European Finance, Chair of the European Association of Teachers of Banking and Finance, and Editor of World Banking Abstracts. His main research interests are in Empirical Banking.