Students should have taken previous courses on Financial Economics, Financial Systems and Institutions and Economics of Banking.

The aim of this course is to make the student aware of the important changes and challenges that digitalization implies for the well-functioning the entire financial system and the financial function of the economy. To achieve this objective, the student must acquire the knowledge which is detailed in the course¿s program and also some particular set of abilities and attitudes. The relevant abilities are: -The ability to solve complex problems. -The ability to find, communicate and select the relevant information for a particular decision. -The ability to apply multidisciplinary knowledge to solving a particular problem. -The ability to work in teams and distribute the workload to deal with complex problems. In terms of the attitudes, after completing the course, the students should have: -A critical attitude with respect to the operation of the financial markets enabling them to discover opportunities for wealth creation. -A collaborative attitude that will allow them to obtain, share and analyse the information and knowledge necessary to perform complex tasks.

Program Unit 1: Introduction - Economics, Finance, and Technology *The role of finance in the economy. *General principles in finance: no free lunches and other uncomfortable truths. *A special asset: money (currency, bank deposits, and central bank reserves). *Technology and the financial industry. *Financial regulation. Unit 2: Distributed Platform Ledgers and Blockchains, Bitcoins, Tokens, and Beyond *Basic insights: trust and distrust. *History: Bitcoin as the solution to the Byzantine generals¿ problem. *The mechanics of bitcoin and DPLs. *Blockchain governance. *Vulnerability and risks. *Applications beyond coins and outside finance. *Applications in finance. *Stablecoins and CBDC. Unit 3: Online Alternative Finance - P2P Lending, Crowdfunding, and ICOs *Introduction to traditional lending. *Peer-to-peer lending as an alternative. *The role of venture capital in the economy *Crowdfunding as an alternative. *The IPOs market. *ICOs. Unit 4: Big Data and Machine Learning in Finance *What are big data bases? *What is machine learning? *Applications in finance. *Benefits and dangers for customers. Unit 5: Problems in the Regulation of Digital Finance *Introduction. *What activities to regulate? *What participants to regulate?

Teaching methodology will be as follows: -Each topic or sub topic is presented by the professor in a theory session. After the theory session the students have to study the materials, do complementary readings. Work on relevant practical cases and problem sets and questions from the students are solved in the next practice session. -The course material for each topic (slides that will be used in theory sessions and problem sets to be solved in practice sessions) is provided in advance through the intranet in Aula Global. -Each teacher has scheduled weekly office hours that the students can use to obtain extra help.