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COST Action 19130 - Fintech and Artificial Intelligence in Finance - Towards a transparent financial industry

The financial sector is the largest user of digital technologies and a major driver in the digital transformation of the economy. Financial technology (FinTech) aims to both compete with and support the established financial industry in the delivery of financial services. Globally, more than $100 billion of investments have been made into FinTech companies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) since 2010, and continue growing substantially. In early 2018, the European Commission unveiled (a) their action plan for a more competitive and innovative financial market, and (b) an initiative on AI with the aim to harness the opportunities presented by technology-enabled innovations. Europe should become a global hub for FinTech, with the economy being able to benefit from the European Single Market.

The Action will investigate AI and Fintech from three different angles: Transparency in FinTech, Transparent versus Black Box Decision-Support Models in the Financial Industry and Transparency into Investment Product Performance for Clients. The Action will bridge the gap between academia, industry, the public and governmental organisations by working in an interdisciplinary way across Europe and focusing on innovation.

The key objectives are:

• to improve transparency of AI supported processes in the Fintech space
• to address the disparity between the proliferation in AI models within the financial industry for risk assessment and decision-making, and the limited insight the public has in its consequences by developing policy papers and methods to increase transparency
• to develop methods to scrutinize the quality of products, especially rule-based “smart beta” ones, across the asset management, banking and insurance industries.

Our COST Action FinAI

• Events
• How to join
• Important links
• Technical Coordination
• Contacts

COST FinAI Working Groups

• Working group 1 - Transparency in FinTech
• Working group 2 - Transparent versus Black Box Decision-Support Models in the Financial Industry
• Working group 3 - Transparency into Investment Product Performance for Clients

COST Action Tools

To apply for an STSM grant or ITC grant, please register here: Official e-COST tool

• STSM application
• ITC application
• Training schools
• Conferences and workshops

Collaboration with industry, governments and international organisations

• Industry coordination
• Government collaboration
• Regulators
• International organisations

Grant Periods

The COST Action runs from September 2020 until September 2024 and is divided into five grant periods, each with different goals and budget.

Grant Period 1

Grant Period 1 runs from November 1, 2020 until March 31, 2021. The goals are:

• Acquiring an overview of methodologies, knowledge and approaches to blockchain, ICOs and P2P lending in Finance
• Comparing the efficiency of different methodological approaches in measuring transparency in Finance
• Regional market studies regarding investment product vendors, product range, regulation and marketing have been performed
• Strategy to engage stakeholders in the Action
• Specification document for the knowledge exchange platform
• Strategy to ensure and improve COST diversity (gender balance, ECI participation, ITC involvement)
• At least 50% of STSMs have been hosted/ orginated in ITC
• Set up a plan for dissemination of the results
• Set up process for deciding on how to award STMS applications, conference support, other financial support
• Co-coordination of PhD programmes
• Encouraging partnerships with private entities
• Strategy paper on how to obtain additional research funding

Any documentation that supports those goals, is stored here.