The Tech Revolution in Finance

A series of lectures presented by Gresham College.

These lectures will be given by Professor Professor Raghavendra Rau, Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business.

Financial intermediaries, like banks, mutual funds and brokers, who connect investors to firms (who need finance), have existed for thousands of years. Because they control a scarce resource, information, these intermediaries are expensive. Platforms, like crowdfunding platforms (organised meeting places for investors to meet firms) offer an alternative. Today’s technological revolution is all about the competition between centralized intermediaries and decentralized platforms.

This lecture discusses the technological innovations that are responsible for this competition: crypto, big data, and AI.