Transformations in Banking, Finance and Regulation - Volume 17: Digital Banking and Finance: A Handbook

Finance is undergoing a profound transformation. Digital technologies are reshaping payments, lending, insurance, and wealth management. Big data technology is now an integral part of the financial services industry and will continue to drive future innovation. Digital finance has fundamentally changed how we live and do business, and it has been a major disruptor of the finance industry. The advantages of digital finance have long been recognized. Rapidly growing digital technologies also have the potential to deliver financial services at significantly reduced costs, thereby increasing financial inclusion and generating significant efficiency improvements across the economy. To build inclusive societies and address rising inequalities, global and national leaders must bridge the digital divide across and within countries to reap the benefits of digital financial services and build appropriate regulatory frameworks for ensuring trusted transactions in a digitalized economy. This means finding the right balance between enabling financial innovation and addressing risks, including insufficient consumer protection, a lack of financial and digital literacy, unequal access to digital infrastructure, and data biases that need action at the national level. This book focuses on financial technology, with a particular emphasis on the impact of digital finance on the finance and banking industries. Chapters address topics such as FinTech, big data, Bitcoin, corporate governance, and economic policy, while also considering current global issues like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Supported by the most recent research and illuminating case studies, this handbook offers an insightful overview of how the finance and banking sectors are changing under the influence of the digital age.

Professor Christopher Gan is Head of the Department of Financial and Business Systems, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand. He is an Adjunct Professor of the Mittal School of Business, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India, and of Finance and Economics at the Faculty of Economics & Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia. He is also the Minjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor at the College of Economics and Finance, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China, and has been a visiting professor at the Chonnam National University International Summer Session, Gwangju, South Korea, since 2017. Prof Gan has over 250 journal publications (most of which are in Web of Science Clarivate Analytics and Scopus) and chapters in books and edited and fully refereed conference proceedings volumes, is the associate editor of the International Journal of Bank Marketing and a member of the editorial boards of 15+ international journals, and has guest co-edited special issues of the following Web of Science Clarivate Analytics or Scopus journals: Sustainability (MDPI), Energies (MDPI), Journal of Risk and Financial Management (MDPI), and Journal of Financial Economic Policy (Emerald Pub). His research areas include applied economics, quantitative finance, risk and financial management, banking, microfinance, and Asian financial economics. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching, including the New Zealand National Teaching Excellence Award in 2003.

Dr Nirosha Hewa-Wellalage's main area of research centres on issues related to corporate finance practices. Her main research goal is to explore the ways marginalised firms, such as micro, small and medium firms (SMEs), firms owned by females and ethnic minorities, and refugees financing their firms, can find ways to be sustainable in the long run while contributing to economic development. She has published in leading international journals including Journal of Business Ethics, Small Business Economics, and International Review of Financial Analysis. Dr Nirosha was awarded the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Outstanding Scholar Award, Young Researcher Award — Baku World Science Forum, and Early Career Research Excellence Award from the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand (MSSANZ). Currently, she is a principal researcher for three research grants from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ). Also, Dr Nirosha recently received a Lottery Community Sector Research grant with researchers from the University of Canterbury and Refugee Orientation Centre, New Zealand. Dr Nirosha has also served as an examiner for several Masters and PhD theses. She serves as an editorial board member and reviewer of top-rank journals.

Dr Ahmed Imran Hunjra is currently an Associate Professor of Finance at the Rabat Business School, International University of Rabat, Morocco. He has over thirteen years of teaching experience in Finance and Quantitative Methods across a large number of universities internationally. His current area of research interest is in the domain of corporate finance, with a strong passion for topics related to the integrity and reputation of corporations, e.g., transparency, accountability, responsibility, fairness, and sustainability. He is a prolific author and has published in a broad range of highly cited international research journals, including International Review of Financial Analysis, Journal of International Financial Markets, and Institution & Money. He is a senior area editor of the International Journal of Emerging Markets and sits on the editorial board of several ABS & ABDC indexed journals. Recently, he won the Best Researcher Award 2022 from Rabat Business School, Outstanding Reviewer Award 2021 & 2023 from Emerald Literati, Distinguished Reviewer Award 2021 from Virtus Interpress, Best Paper Award 2022 & 2023 from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), and International Research Award and Best University Teacher Award 2020 from PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He has supervised six PhDs and over fifty MS/MPhil scholars to successful completion.