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Workshop on "Fintech and Digital Currencies"

26–27 September 2019 | Basel, Switzerland

About the conference

The ninth BIS Research Network meeting took place on 26 and 27 September 2019, bringing together researchers from academia and central banks around the theme "Fintech and digital currencies". Organised jointly with ABFER and CEPR, the first session assessed technology, financial intermediation and regulation, while the second session focused on cryptocurrencies, central banks and the monetary system. Amit Seru gave a keynote speech on the interaction between fintech firms and banks.

  • Antonio Fatas (INSEAD, ABFER and CEPR)
  • Leonardo Gambacorta (BIS and CEPR)
  • Amit Seru (Stanford Graduate School of Business, ABFER and CEPR)

Conference materials

Day 1 - 26 September

Welcome remarks
Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva (Bank for International Settlements)
Session 1: Technology, financial intermediation and regulation

Chair 

Jean-Charles Rochet (Geneva School of Economics and Management)

Speaker

Eric Lam, (Hong Kong Monetary Authority), presentation

Paper 1: Funding decision in online marketplace lending

Discussant: Julapa Jagtiani (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia), discussion paper

Speaker

Jon Frost (Bank for International Settlements), presentation

Paper 2: BigTech and the changing structure of financial intermediation
(with Leonardo Gambacorta, Yi Huang, Hyun Song Shin and Pablo Zbinden)

Discussant: Katrin Tinn (McGill University on leave from Imperial College Business School) discussion paper

Speaker

Fabio Braggion (Tilburg University), presentation

Paper 3: Can technology undermine macroprudential regulation? evidence from peer-to-peer credit in China
(with Alberto Manconi and Haikun Zhu)

Discussant: Kelly Shue (Yale School of Management), discussion paper

Keynote speech

Amit Seru (Stanford Graduate School of Business)

Fintechs and banks: complements or substitutes?

Day 2 - 27 September

Session 2: Cryptocurrencies, central banks and the monetary system

Chair 

Stijn Claessens (Bank for International Settlements)

Speaker

Sören Karau (Deutsche Bundesbank)

Paper 4: On the transmission of news and mining shocks in Bitcoin 
(with Ester Faia, Nora Lamersdorf and Emanuel Mönch)

Discussant: Maarten van Oordt (Bank of Canada), presentation

Speaker

Raphael Auer (Bank for International Settlements), presentation

Paper 5: Beyond the doomsday economics of "proof-of-work" in cryptocurrencies

Discussant: Rod Garratt (University of California Santa Barbara)

Speaker

Markus Brunnermeier (Princeton University), presentation

Paper 6: On the equivalence of private and public money
(with Dirk Niepelt)

The digitalization of money
(with Harold James and Jean-Pierre Landau)

Discussant: Aleksander Berentsen (University of Basel), presentation

Speaker

Michael Kumhof (Bank of England), presentation

Paper 7: The macroeconomics of central bank issued digital currencies
(with John Barrdear)

Discussant: Wilko Bolt (Netherlands Bank), presentation

Closing remarks