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Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference

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Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference

Co-sponsored by the University of Delaware and The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

 

April 10-11, 2025

 

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
10 N Independence Mall W, Philadelphia, PA 19106

 

The Fintech and Financial Institutions Conference is a forum for presenting and discussing current research on the inter-linkages of the fintech sector and the broader financial system. The Conference will focus on understanding economic consequences and impacts in both directions, as well as regulatory implications of the fintech sector. The Conference will also focus on technology and engineering developments that are key to the way fintech works within the financial system. The Conference aims to include high-quality academic papers from multiple fields, including finance, economics, computer engineering, management information systems, and others. The Conference aims to foster the dialogue between the Fin and Tech sides of fintech.

 

We aim for a conference that unites the research conversation across the Fin and Tech Tracks, with authors, discussants, and session chairs contributing to an interdisciplinary conversation.  In particular, the event will intermingle sessions for two “tracks” of the conference, with approximately equal agenda time for each.

 

We will host two keynote speakers, to give full emphasis to the intersecting issues relevant to both tracks.

 

register now

 

Please contact udfedconf@udel.edu with inquiries about the Fintech and Financial Institutions Conference. 

CONFERENCE program

Agenda

FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

 

Thursday, April 10:

8:00                  Light Breakfast

8:30                  Opening Remarks

                         Robert M. Hunt, Senior Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia 

                         Oliver Yao, Dean, Lerner College of Business of the University of Delaware, Representative of the Federal Reserve Bank of

                         Philadelphia

9:00-10:20         Session #1 with Session Chair Qianqian Yu (Lehigh University)

                          Fintech Financing of Payments (FinTrack)

                               1. Buy Now Pay (Less) Later: Leveraging Private BNPL Data in Consumer Banking

                                         Discussant: Andrew Herzberg, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

                                                 - Christine Laudenbach (SAFE and Goethe University)

                                                 - Elin Molin (Lund University) 

                                                 - Talina Sondershaus (Lund University)

                                                 - Kasper Roszbach (Norges Bank)

                               2. The Welfare Benefits of Pay-As-You-Go Financing

                                         Discussant: Sean Higgins, Kellogg School, Northwestern University

                                                - Paul Gertler (University of California, Berkeley)

                                                - Brett Green (Washington University in St. Louis)

                                                - Renping Li (Washington University in St. Louis)

                                                - David Sraer (University of California, Berkeley)

10:20                Coffee Break

10:40-noon      Session #2 with Session Chair Ben Collier (Temple University)

                          Regulation and Credit Supply (FinTrack)

                                1. Regulating Credit: Effects on Market Structure, Lender Technologies, and Credit Access

                                         Discussant: Barry Scholnick, University of Alberta

                                                 - Susan Cherry (Stanford University)

                               2. The Decline of Branch Banking

                                         Discussant: Shohini Kundu, University of California at Los Angeles           

                                                - Rajesh Narayanan (Louisiana State University)

                                                - Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond)

                                                - Philip Strahan (Boston College & NBER)

noon-1:30         Lunch with Special Featured Speaker: Patrick Harker, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

1:30-2:50          Session #3 with Session Chair Michelle Lowry (Drexel University)

                          Digital Payments Systems and Economic Effects (FinTrack)

                                1. Digital Payments and Monetary Policy Transmission

                                        Discussant: Naz Koont, Stanford University

                                               - Pauline Liang (Stanford University)

                                               - Matheus Sampaio (Northwestern University)

                                               - Sergey Sarkisyan (The Ohio State University)

                                2. Financial Innovation, Labor Markets, and Wage Inequality: Evidence from Instant Payment Systems

                                        Discussant: Nishant Vats, Olin School, Washington University at St. Louis

                                              - Jacelly Cespedes (University of Minnesota)

                                              - Carlos Burga (PUC-Chile) 

                                              - Carlos Parra (PUC-Chile)

                                              - Bernardo Rica (Insper) 

2:50                   Coffee Break

3:20-5:00          Session #4 with Session Chair Jiaheng Xie (University of Delaware)

                         Fintech and Changes (Tech Track Session) 

                                 1. Fighting Climate Change with FinTech

                                             - Antonio Gargano (University of Houston)

                                             - Alberto Rossi (Gerogetown University)

                                 2. Preliminary Lessons Learned from the Change Healthcare Nationwide Pharmacy Outage

                                             - William Yurcik (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

                                             - Andreas Schick (U.S. Food & Drug Administration)

                                 3. Matrix profile enhanced Bayesian online change point detection for Bitcoin ETF trading

                                             - Masoud Neshastehriz (University of Delaware)

                                             - Paul Laux (University of Delaware)

5:00 pm            Reception and Student Poster Session

                               1. Explainable Portfolio Management Using Offline Reinforcement Learning, by Gahzaleh Zehtab (University of Delaware)

                               2. Do Closing Minority Depository Institutions Affect Credit in Their Communities, by Noara Razzak (Clemson University)

                               3. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Financial Stakes and Cognitive Biases on Decentralized Prediction Markets, by Ziyi

                                   Zhao (Temple University)

                               4. Lender Specialization and Public Information Dissemination, by Hyun Jun Yoo (Graduate Center, CUNY)

                               5. The Readability Levels in Annual Reports of Chinese Listed Companies and the Manipulative Behaviors of Managers for Self-

                                  serving Incentives, by Shi Chen (University of Delaware)

 

Friday, April 11:

8:00                  Light Breakfast

8:30                  Opening Remarks 

                         UD Vice Provost Kim Isett

8:50-10:10          Session #1 with Session Chair Valentina Bruno (American University)

                         Technology, Data, and Potential Outcomes (FinTrack)

                               1. AI Coordination and Self-Fulfilling Financial Crises

                                    Discussant: Winston Dou, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

                                         - Hao Yang (Swiss Finance Institute and USI Lugano), via Zoom

                               2. Leveling the Field: Equitable Interest Rates for Unsecured Personal Loans

                                    Discussant:Violet Chen (Stevens Institute of Technology)

                                        - Ram Gopal (University of Warwick)

                                        - Xiao Qiao (City University of Hong Kong)

                                        - Moris Strub (University of Warwick)

                                        - Zonghao Yang (Stevens Institute of Technology)

10:10-10:30       Coffee Break

10:30-11:30       FinTrack Keynote Speaker - Stefan Nagal (University of Chicago)

11:30-12:10        Session #2 with Session Chair Vitaly Meursault (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

                          Blockchains For Better and For Worse Part A (FinTrack)

                                1. Learning from DeFi: Would Automated Market Makers Improve Equity Trading?

                                     Discussant: Joseph Abadi (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

                                         - Katya Malinova (DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University)

                                         - Andreas Park (University of Toronto)

12:10-1:10         Lunch 

1:10-1:50          Session #3 with Session Chair Vitaly Meursault (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

                       Blockchains For Better and For Worse Part B (FinTrack)

                             1. Anatomy of a Crypto Bank Run

                                   Discussant: Jonathan Rose,  Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

                                       - Yuan Gao (University of Arizona)

                                       - Richard Sias (University of Arizona)

1:50-2:50        TechTrack Keynote Speaker - Ramayya Krishnan (Carnegie Mellon University)

2:50-3:20        Coffee Break

3:20-4:20        Session #4 with Session Chair Yu Zhu (University of Delaware)

                       Technology-driven innovations (TechTrack)

                            1. Generative AI for Modeling Customer Behavior: Exploring Effective Intervention Strategies

                                     - Xuewen Han (Tsinghua University)

                                     - Kunpeng KZ Zhang (University of Maryland)

                                     - Sean Xin Xu (Tsinghua University)

                            2. LeverEdge: On-Chain Leveraged Tokens

                                    - Reza Rahimian (Concordia University)

                                    - Jeremy Clark (Concordia University)

4:20                Conference scheduled to end

 
 
Please allow 15 extra minutes in travel schedules in case of slippage. Please contact udfedconf@udel.edu with inquiries about the FinTech and Financial Institutions Conference. 

 

 

Papers Being Presented

FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

 

                  Economics/Finance Track Paper Presentations

(Discussants & schedule TBA)

The Welfare Benefits of Pay-As-You-Go Financing

  • Paul Gertler (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Brett Green (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • Renping Li (Washington University in St. Louis)

  • David Sraer (University of California, Berkeley)

AI Coordination and Self-Fulfilling Financial Crises

  • Hao Yang (Swiss Finance Institute and USI Lugano)

Regulating Credit: Effects on Market Structure, Lender Technologies, and Credit Access

  • Susan Cherry (Stanford University)

Digital Payments and Monetary Policy Transmission

  • Pauline Liang (Stanford University)

  • Matheus Sampaio (Northwestern University)

  • Sergey Sarkisyan (The Ohio State University)

Anatomy of a Crypto Bank Run

  • Yuan Gao (University of Arizona)

  • Richard Sias (University of Arizona)

Learning from DeFi: Would Automated Market Makers Improve Equity Trading?

  • Katya Malinova (DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University)

  • Andreas Park (University of Toronto)

Leveling the Field: Equitable Interest Rates for Unsecured Personal Loans

  • Ram Gopal (University of Warwick)

  • Xiao Qiao (City University of Hong Kong)

  • Moris Strub (University of Warwick)

  • Zonghao Yang (Stevens Institute of Technology)

Financial Innovation, Labor Markets, and Wage Inequality: Evidence from Instant Payment Systems

  • Jacelly Cespedes (University of Minnesota)

  • Carlos Burga (PUC-Chile) 

  • Carlos Parra (PUC-Chile) 

  • Bernardo Rica (Insper) 

Buy Now Pay (Less) Later: Leveraging Private BNPL Data in Consumer Banking

  • Christine Laudenbach (SAFE and Goethe University)<laudenbach@safe.de> 

  • Elin Molin (Lund University) 

  • Talina Sondershaus (Lund University)

  • Kasper Roszbach (Norges Bank)

The Decline of Branch Banking

  • Rajesh Narayanan (Louisiana State University)

  • Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond)

  • Philip Strahan (Boston College & NBER)

 

Tech Track Paper Presentations

(additional paper TBA)

Generative AI for Modeling Customer Behavior: Exploring Effective Intervention Strategies

  • Xuewen Han (Tsinghua University)

  • Kunpeng Zhang (University of Maryland)

  • Sean Xin Xu (Tsinghua University)

Fighting Climate Change with FinTech

  • Antonio Gargano (University of Houston)

  • Alberto Rossi (Gerogetown University)

Matrix profile enhanced Bayesian online change point detection for Bitcoin ETF trading

  • Masoud Neshastehriz (University of Delaware)

  • Paul Laux (University of Delaware)

Preliminary Lessons Learned from the Change Healthcare Nationwide Pharmacy Outage

  • William Yurcik (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)

  • Andreas Schick (U.S. Food & Drug Administration)

Organizers and Program Committee

FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

 

Organizers

Conference Chair:

  • Paul Laux (University of Delaware)

Fin Track Chairs:

  • Michael Gelman (University of Delaware)

  • Vitaly Meursault (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

Tech Track Chairs:

  • Nektarios Tsoutsos (University of Delaware)

  • Gang Wang (University of Delaware)

     

Program Committee

  • Joseph Abadi (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

  • Tetyana Balyuk (Emory University)

  • Jack Bao (University of Delaware)

  • Sunita Chandrasekaran (University of Delaware)

  • Bintong Chen (University of Delaware)

  • John D'Arcy (University of Delaware)

  • Michael De Lucia (US Army ARL, UD)

  • Sebastian Doerr (Bank for International Settlements)

  • Laura Field (University of Delaware)

  • Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham (Yale)

  • Charles Gouert (NVIDIA Research)

  • Deeksha Gupta (John Hopkins University)

  • Vinu Joseph (NVIDIA)

  • Jinwook Lee (Drexel University)

  • Wenli Li (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

  • Chen Liu (Intel)

  • Dimitris Mouris (Nillion)

  • Marina Niessner (Indiana University)

  • Ashish Pujari (Google)

  • Sebastian Doerr (Bank for International Settlements)

  • Xiao Fang (University of Delaware)

  • Alberto Rossi (Georgetown University)

  • Philip Strahan (Boston College)

  • James Vickery (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

  • Wujie Wen (NC State University)

  • Jiaheng Xie (University of Delaware)

  • Jiafeng Xie (Villanova University)

  • David Yermack (New York University)

  • Gloria Yang Yu (Singapore Management University)

  • Xu Yuan (University of Delaware)

  • Yao Zeng (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Kunpeng Zhang (University of Maryland)

  • Tianjian (TJ) Zhang (California State University Dominguez Hills)

 

  • Hong-Sheng Zhou (Virginia Commonwealth University)
  • Yu Zhu (University of Delaware)

 

 

 

Please contact udfedconf@udel.edu with inquiries about the Fintech and Financial Institutions Conference. 

 

Stefan Nagel

2025 KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Stefan Nagel



We are pleased to announce that one of our keynote speakers will be Stefan Nagel, Fama Family Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, University of Chicago.

Professor Nagel research focuses on asset pricing, investor behavior, and the formation of investor expectations. His most recent work explores the role of personal experiences in shaping expectations about the macroeconomy and financial market returns, models of investor learning about long-run growth with decaying memory, and the application of machine learning techniques to understand the risk and return of investment strategies in the stock market. Nagel has won various awards for his research, among them the Smith-Breeden Prize of the American Finance Association for the best paper in the Journal of Finance in 2004 and the Fama/DFA prize for the best asset pricing paper in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2006 and 2020 (first prize) and 2010 (second prize).

MORE ABOUT PROFESSOR NAGEL

RAMAYYA KRISHNAN

2025 KEYNOTE SPEAKER - RAMAYYA KRISHNAN



We are pleased to announce that one of our keynote speakers will be Ramayya Krishnan, dean of Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and William W, and Ruth F. Cooper professor of management science and information systems.

Krishnan has founded four externally funded research centers, raising close to $100M dollars over the course of the last decade. He directs the Block Center for Technology and Society and advises policy makers, business leaders and international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank on Technology and Policy. He is an American Association for the Advancement of Science - AAAS Fellow (section T), an INFORMS Fellow, an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration and a commissioner of the Geotech Center of the Atlantic Council. Krishnan also has extensive experience and expertise in public policy. MORE ABOUT PROFESSOR KRISHNAN

Lodging & Travel

A hotel room.

Secure your lodging at our special conference rate at the Hotel Monaco near the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Discounted rates are available for reservation until March 20 when using this link: FRB Fintech Conference Block. 

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