The FinTech Innovation Hub at the University of Delaware's STAR Campus

FinTech Innovation Hub

The FinTech Innovation Hub on the University of Delaware’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus is a nexus for high-quality education, groundbreaking research and workforce development in the exciting field of financial technology. It serves as a national center of excellence that leverages the region’s expertise and assets to address broad challenges in financial health. 

Created through a partnership with Delaware Technology Park and Discover Bank, and with state and federal funding, the FinTech Innovation Hub brings together unique strengths and resources to create the tools to help individuals and families build wealth and fair access to credit, to support entrepreneurs and to continue growing the robust financial-services sector and small business community. UD students benefit through experiential learning, research and engagement opportunities, preparing them to lead and succeed in this high-demand industry. 

 

The FinTech Innovation Hub also plays a key role in economic development in Delaware. Since the 1980s, Delaware has been a global leader in banking and financial services, which account for 9% of the state’s jobs. The Hub’s assets and its prime location in the mid-Atlantic technology corridor help Delaware secure and expand its central role in these sectors, while also attracting greater investment from out-of-state firms.

FinTech and Financial Institutions Research Conference

The Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference is jointly planned and sponsored by the University of Delaware and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The conference will be held April 10-11, 2025 with an evening poster session and reception on April 9. 

 

The location for the conference is the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia:

10 N Independence Mall W, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

 

Learn About the Conference

 

2025 CONFERENCE Information

FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

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

 

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.


On the Fin Track, the conference sessions will focus on finance and economics issues that relate the technological advances of Fintech to its economic, financial, societal, and regulatory environment. These sessions will follow the standard finance conference format, will include discussants and will not be included in any published proceedings. On the Tech Track, the conference sessions will focus on engineering and technical issues that are driving the evolution of financial institutions and alternative financial service providers. These sessions will follow the standard engineering conference format, will be hosted by session chairs but will not include discussants, and will include formal proceedings published by Springer Nature.

 

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

If you’re submitting from the Fin side, the corresponding session format will be very familiar to you, and the Tech sessions will provide additional insights behind the methods and the thinking on the engineering side, a key source of the methods applied in the field and in research. If you’re submitting from the Tech side, you will also find the corresponding session format familiar to you, and the Fin sessions will provide additional insights into the economic causes and effects of industry uses of technologies.

Submissions of high-quality theoretical and empirical research papers exploring aspects related to fintech trends are invited. There is partial funding available for travel honoraria to support speakers. Priority will be given to support the goals of the conference and based on need. Authors should request consideration if needed.

 

High quality papers as judged by the program committee, but which are not appropriate for the joint sessions considering the interdisciplinary audience, may be invited to the poster session (such papers from the Tech Track will still be included in the proceedings volume).

 

Call For Papers
Submission deadline
: January 14, 2025 (11:59 PM EST)

Submission website: https://fintech25.org

Full overview of the 2025 Fintech Conference

FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

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

 

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.

 

Paper submission deadline has passed. Registration for the Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference is open until April 3. 

FINTECH AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS RESEARCH CONFERENCE

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

 

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.

 

On the Tech Track, the conference sessions will focus on engineering and technical issues that are driving the evolution of financial institutions and alternative financial service providers. These sessions will follow the standard engineering conference format, will be hosted by session chairs but will not include discussants, and will include formal proceedings published by Springer Nature.

 

The paper submission deadline has passed. Registration for the Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference is open until April 3. 

We invite PhD students to submit posters for the conference poster session  in the evening on April 9. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase your research, gain feedback from leading experts, and engage with peers in your field. Posters should cover the same areas of interest as outlined in the call for papers, including both economics/finance and engineering/technical aspects.

We expect to be able to provide partial travel honoraria for students upon request; priority is given to students on a need-basis.

The poster submission deadline has passed. Registration for the Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference is open until April 3. 

We are delighted to announce our keynote speakers for the Fintech and Financial Institutions Conference:

 

  • Stefan Nagel, the Fama Family Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
  • Ramayya Krishnan, Dean of the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and William W. and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Registration for the Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference is open until April 3. 

Organizing Committee

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

Fin Track:

Joseph Abadi, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Jack Bao, University of Delaware

Tetyana Balyuk, Emory University

Bintong Chen, University of Delaware

Sebastian Doerr, BIS

Xiao Fang, University of Delaware

Laura Field, University of Delaware

Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Yale University

Deeksha Gupta, Johns Hopkins University

Wenli Li, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Marina Niessner, Indiana University

Raluca Roman, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Alberto Rossi, Georgetown University

Philip Strahan, Boston College

James Vickery, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia VM

Gloria Yang Yu, Singapore Management University

David Yermack, New York University

Yao Zeng, University of Pennsylvania

 

Tech Track:

The list of Tech Track committee members will be posted online at https://fintech25.org/users/pc before the paper submission deadline.

FinTech at the University of Delaware

“The FinTech Innovation Hub adds another gem to UD’s STAR Campus, where collaborative hubs in health and life sciences already are thriving and strengthening the economy of the whole region. The research and innovation at this new hub will expand Delaware’s legacy of national leadership in financial services, drawing on UD’s top-shelf expertise in finance and technology. It also opens new space for education, giving our students access to a highly collaborative ecosystem and preparing them for great jobs and future success. And it puts UD and the state at the forefront of promoting equity in financial services and health — two serious problems facing our world.” — UD President Dennis Assanis

 

 

Nektarios Tsoutsos (left) of the University of Delaware’s College of Engineering and Gang Wang of the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics have been named new co-directors of UD’s endeavors in financial technology.

Meet the Co-Directors 

 

The University of Delaware’s burgeoning endeavors in financial technology — fintech, for short — will have new leadership, effective September 1.

Nektarios Tsoutsos, an expert in cybersecurity in the College of Engineering, and Gang Wang, an expert in adoption of digital technologies and their societal impact in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, will direct UD’s fintech ecosystem, taking over for colleagues who set the table last year — Prof. Carlos Asarta of Lerner and Prof. Rudolf Eigenmann of the College of Engineering.

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Events

FinTech's Spring Web Series

Nektarios Tsoutsos and Gang Wang, co-directors of the University of Delaware’s FinTech Innovation Hub, are excited to host the hub’s spring web series. There will be three virtual sessions between Feb. 19 and May, each highlighting AI's evolving role in the fintech industry. All students, faculty, alumni and industry professionals are welcome to attend. Special thanks to Discover Bank for sponsoring these webinars.

 

Upcoming:

Webinar #3 - An Awkward Matrimony: Banks and FinTechs Learning to Speak in Common Compliance Terms

When: May 7, 2025, noon to 1:00pm

Agenda: 45 min presentation / 15 min Q&A

Moderator: Branan Cooper, Financial Services Risk Management Executive

Panelists: Dan Frechtling, CEO, Boltive; Josh Lambert, Chief Compliance Officer, Best Egg; Benjamin Melnicki, Chief Compliance, Officer, Cross River; Brian Shaw, VP of North America, Certa.ai

What to expect: Let's face it — banks and credit unions often view outsourcing a product or service and partnering with a fintech as a less expensive, more efficient, more interesting way of doing business and, in so doing, relax their oversight of consumer protection. Fintechs are innovative and expect financial institution collaborators to get products to market quickly. Creating a productive working relationship with common language and expectations are paramount to success. AI will play a decisive and enabling role. Hear from an industry experts who have worked with and for banks and fintechs on perspectives and suggestions on fostering more harmonious approaches to regulatory compliance.

Registration is required for Zoom access and the deadline is May 6.

REGISTER NOW

 

 

Previously:

Webinar #1 - Feb. 19: The Importance of Risk Management and Compliance in a Changing World with a presentation by Branan Cooper, Financial Services Risk Management Executive

Webinar #2 - March 12: Introducing AI Agent and Agentic Workflow with a presentation by Harry Wang, Professor of Management Information Systems and CEO at Takin.ai

 

 

Lunch & Learn Series

The Lunch & Learn events, sponsored by Discover Bank, bring together FinTech corporations and the University of Delaware's faculty and staff to discuss collaborative opportunities. The typical format includes two short presentations, about a FinTech activity and a UD academic activity (e.g., research or educational efforts), respectively, followed by an open discussion.

The FinTech Innovation Hub on UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus is a nexus for high-quality education, groundbreaking research and workforce development in the exciting field of financial technology. 

For questions, please contact Nektarios Tsoutsos (tsousos@udel.edu) and Gang Wang (gangw@udel.edu).

Upcoming:

Time: Wednesday, April 16, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Venue: 301 Innovation Gallery, FinTech Innovation Hub 

             591 Collaboration Way, Newark, DE 19713

 

This event is sponsored by Discover Bank

 

Agenda:

11:30     Lunch will be provided

11:50     Introductions (all participants)

11:55     Zakiyyah Ali and Josh Berkow, Tech Council of Delaware

12:25     Satwik Patnaik, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

12:55     Open Discussion

Please register here by April 14. Registration is free and required.

 

Previously:

Mar. 18, 2025:  John Royer, CEO of InsightHub; Dr. Xi Peng, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information SciencesFeb. 26, 2025:  Benjamin Melnicki, (Chief Compliance Officer at Cross River Ban) and Dr. Yixiang Deng, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences

Feb. 5, 2025:  Heather Holding (Sr. Director; Head of Enterprise Risk Management & Chief Privacy Officer at Best Egg - fintech) and Dr. Andrea Everard (Professor of Management Information System, Associate Dean for Graduate Program at Lerner College of Business and Economics)

Dec. 4, 2024: Branan Cooper (Financial Services Executive, The Importance of Compliance and Risk Management & Building Future Compliance Talent) and Garrison Davis (Founder, Little Bob Tech)

Nov. 13, 2024: Laveda Whitfield (Star Communications) Xu Yuan (Associate Professor of CIS, University of Delaware)

Oct. 23, 2024: Pedro Moore (Director of GrowthStage Incubator, Delaware Technology Park) and Leting Zhang (Assistant Professor of MIS, University of Delaware)

May 24, 2024: DelawareBio (Michael Fleming), Health Risk Analytics (Prof. Jiaheng Xie) and FinTech's Exponential Impact Potential with Special Student Groups (Prof. Amanda Bullough)

May 8, 2024: DelTechpark/Growthstage (Pedro Moore), Creating Fintech Startups (Andrew Novocin)

April 10, 2024: CollegeAve (Joe DePaulo) and UD Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, CEEE (Carlos Asarta)

Mar. 13, 2024: Tech Impact and Impact of Technologies (Prof. Gang Wang)

Feb. 28, 2024: The Kendal Corporation and UD Center for Cybersecurity, Assurance and Privacy

Feb. 14, 2024: Using the FinTech Innovation Hub to advance financial technology and wellness in Delaware.

To receive updates on the FinTech Lunch & Learn events, please join the fintech-ud@udel.edu mailing list by contacting nglittle@udel.edu.

 

2024 Fintech Technology Workshop

Held in May 2024, the workshop brought together researchers, practitioners and industry experts to discuss the latest advancements, challenges and opportunities in the fintech space. Presenters included representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. Treasury and multiple higher education institutions. The event, which drew 60 participants, was sponsored by Discover Bank and Aramark.

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ABOUT THE FINTECH INNOVATION HUB FACILITY

 

Located on the University of Delaware’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus, the FinTech Innovation Hub enables ground-breaking research and cross-disciplinary collaborations. It provides space, resources and technical assistance to early-stage financial and business software entrepreneurs and startup companies.

RESOURCES

Aeriel photo of University of Delaware's STAR Campus

Spaces for startups to develop and grow, managed by Delaware Technology Park, with onsite access to business development resources and technical assistance

Interior of the FinTech Innovation Hub

Labs and centers associated within UD’s College of Engineering and Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics focused on financial analytics and literacy, cybersecurity, human-machine learning and data analysis

Presenter explains research at a data sciences conference

The Data Innovation Lab, a division of Tech Impact, which will convene policymakers, entrepreneurs, corporate innovators and community advocates, including through a year-long, full-time fellowship program

Tenant Organizations

UD-Affiliated

Facilitates teams of AI partners within and outside UD to collaboratively apply technological solutions and create impactful and beneficial AI projects.

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One-on-one hoteling space for career advisors and community outreach professionals to facilitate conversations among students, business leaders, entrepreneurs, research scientists and engineers, yielding a team-based mentoring approach that is a critical component of workforce development and community engagement.

Advances the research frontiers and the underlying infrastructure at the nexus of computational and data science, enabled by high-performance computing and big data. 

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Provides more than 2,000 teachers annually with high quality, grade-appropriate professional development and peer-networking opportunities to empower them to deliver the practical skills students need to graduate as economically literate and flourishing citizens.

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Explores programming models and their usage to parallelize and accelerate scientific applications on large scale supercomputers.

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Empowers aspiring innovators as they pursue new ideas for a better world. Committed to supporting student success and cultivating a lifelong community of collaboration, connections and impact through venture development, and academic programs, certificates and the Innovation Fellows program.

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Facilitates the economic impact of UD’s research commercialization for the benefit of the public and the state. The Office includes the Technology Transfer Office (TTO), the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the APEX Accelerator Delaware.

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Partners

Advancing financial health and wellness for low- to moderate-income populations and other underserved communities by supporting and scaling real-world technology solutions.

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Serves diverse life-science sectors with the goal of expanding the state’s vibrant science-based economy. Delaware Bio’s 130-plus member companies and organizations represent 8,000 innovation-based jobs vital to Delaware’s economic future.

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The largest consumer-only bank in the U.S. and a leading fintech employer in Delaware, Discover Bank has established a $36 million venture fund and has deployed $40 million in Community Reinvestment Act funds to develop the FinTech Innovation Hub.

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The first healthcare analytics company to deliver multi-dimensional and patient performance data and comparative efficacy metrics to optimize the continuum of care.

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A leading national not-for-profit organization of communities, programs and services that advocate for and empower older adults to achieve their full potential with a focus on financial literacy, equity and digital security. Kendal has located its national HQ to STAR Campus and has a university-collaboration model that drives innovation.

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A team of professionals that innovates in global supply chain functions and risk, and developers that build innovative, high-performance applications.

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A non-profit organization that leverages technology to advance social impact, partnering with hundreds of non-profit organizations around the world to realize the potential of technology to achieve their mission and improve outcomes.

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A craft bar and kitchen, founded by UD alumni, with numerous locations offering unique settings and ambiance. 

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CONTACT

To stay updated on activities and opportunities for participation:

  • Nektarios Tsoutsos, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, tsousos@udel.edu
  • Gang Wang, associate professor of management information systems, gangw@udel.edu

 

To discuss business opportunities or for other information:

  • Tracy Shickel, Associate Vice President of Corporate Engagement, tshickel@udel.edu, 302-513-1366