Investigating the Financial Geography of FinTech in Europe

Keywords: FinTech, Financial Geography, Europe, Global Financial Networks
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 12

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the emergence of FinTech and the financial geography of Europe. Building on the interdisciplinary analytical framework of Global Financial Networks, which relates the development of financial centers to financial and business services, offshore jurisdictions, as well as national and supra-national governments, we address three questions: a) which are the factors that drive the development of FinTech in Europe, b) how the growth of the FinTech sector relates to the spatial concentration of financial and business services actors in financial centers and c) how regulatory harmonization and financial systems integration are being affected by the rise of FinTech. Our investigation is based on a mixed methods approach. We combine quantitative and qualitative data from various sources, including corporate websites, press releases, news articles, and think-tank reports, as well as interviews with high-level professionals from FABS and officials from European regulatory agencies, conducted in April 2021. In addition to the interviews conducted in Europe, we also rely on insights from a pool of over 200 interviews carried out from 2016 to 2019, all over the world, including China, the USA, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The paper, while exploratory in nature, offers a significant contribution to the literature of economic and financial geography of Europe, including the emerging geographies of FinTech and its controversies.