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UCL Institute of Finance & Technology
The world of finance is changing. New technologies are disrupting the way we do business. Innovative, creative and original approaches are required to stay ahead of the curve. UCL Institute of Finance & Technology was established to respond to these challenges. We pioneer true collaboration, bringing together the greatest minds from industry and academia to teach, research, and innovate together under one roof.
IFT is fast becoming a hub of excellence of knowledge on digital finance and alternative investment. Our postgraduate degree programmes incorporate contemporary themes such as Machine Learning, IoT and Artificial Intelligence with research and industrial experiences that will help our students to develop both foundations in digital and sustainable finance and commercial competencies. IFT's academic and industrial staff are experts in their fields, providing critical advice to institutions across the public and private sector spectrum, at home and abroad.
Photo credit: Deepmind via Unsplash
How Deadly is Financial Leverage?
Financial leverage is built on the idea of spending money to make money – buying a home or investing in a business, for example. This blog by IFT PhD student Philipp Wirth summarises a recent seminar on the “deadly” nature of financial leverage when applied to COVID-19 and care home deaths. The paper by Peter Morris and Ludovic Phalippou (Said Business School, Oxford) and Betty Wu (Adam Smith Business School, Glasgow) examples how and why leverage must be calculated properly to support future policy responses.
Machine Learning in Market Abuse Detection
The world of finance is changing ever more quickly, thanks to the emergence of new technologies. Some of these changes are advantageous; the accelerated adoption of machine learning and AI is increasing efficiencies in risk and assessment, underwriting and claims processing. But technological developments also pose risks to financial institutions.
Is it really 100% recyclable?
We see “100% recyclable” labels everywhere – on yoghurt pots, containers, and plastic bags. But are they true to their promise? And how can we work to promote plastic recycling not just among individual consumers, but more widely in industry? Dr Chao Liu, Lecturer in Decentralised Finance and Blockchain at IFT, presents the issue and the Plastic Credit system he has devised.
AI in finance
If ‘data science’ is ‘statistics re-invented’, then arguably artificial intelligence must go further than that to differentiate itself. IFT’s Director of Research, Professor Sir Alan Wilson, reflects on the overlap between data science and AI, and what more it can offer. Prof Wilson reads this as the ability to offer insights from the analysis of large data sources or ‘big data’ that goes beyond statistics.
Networked markets: the evolution of high-frequency trading (HFT)
Financial markets have undergone a deep reorganisation in the last 20 years. A mixture of technological innovation and regulatory constraints has promoted the diffusion of market fragmentation and high-frequency trading. In this blog, IFT PhD student Zihao Liu reports on the inaugural seminar in IFT’s Agora Seminar Series – “High frequency trading and networked markets” with Professor Rosario Nunzio Mantegna.
Finance, technology and interdisciplinarity
The Institute’s USP is rooted in linking research in finance and technology – the latter in two senses, technology in finance itself, and technology in the wider economy – the customer of financial services. A subsidiary aim is to link academic research with industry and the public services. This stance demands interdisciplinarity and it is useful to explore what this means.
Transforming public services through collective entrepreneurship and sustainable finance
In the following blog, IFT PhD researcher Filippo Addarii presents his rationale for engagement with sustainable finance. His story is that of the first Social Outcome Contract (SOC) in Italy for the work inclusion of prisoners.
Welcome to the Parnassus Blog!
During the summer heat in Rome, Professor Francesca Medda, our Institute Director, likes to escape to the Vatican Museum. In this blog, she reflects on why we have named this platform Parnassus, in celebration of Rafael’s painting by the same name. Rafael’s work pictures a host of artists from Sappho to Dante, surrounded by the muses on the mythological mountain, Parnassus, where the arts and study are protected.
Searching for success: job hunting for international students
Ting Chen, a recent IFT graduate, presented her key recommendations to ensure a smooth job search process.
On Friday 12 August, we were pleased to welcome back an alumna of the Institute of Finance and Technology, Ting Chen, to share her experiences of job hunting as an international student.
Creative Investing: New Paths for Venture Capital and Private Equity
On 17 June 2022, IFT assembled a panel of experts in finance and technology to discuss how the landscape of investment must change to meet the challenges of the times. IFT PhD student Millie Deng recaps what we learned.
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