The Warwick Business School (WBS), part of the University of Warwick in the West Midlands of England, has received substantial financial support for a fintech innovation centre.
The university’s Fintech Innovation Lab, located at the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology, will function as a multidisciplinary unit examining areas such as information systems, data science, finance, AI, behavioural science, and engineering.
Professor Ram Gopal, Head of the Gillmore Centre, comments on its website: “The mission of the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology is to conduct world-class, cutting-edge research at the intersection of finance and technology that has the transformative potential to impact both theory, policy, and practice.”
The centre adds that it will conduct research on how fintech products can empower consumers, how investment in AI and machine learning can benefit companies, and the impact of financial technology on wider society and consumer behaviour.
InsiderMedia, which attended the centre’s launch event, reports that the centre is receiving millions of pounds in investment. This builds on the creation of the Gillmore Centre five years ago, supported by a £3m from Warwick alumni and Founder of Mondarin Investment Partners, Clive Gillmore.
Professor Gopal told Insider at the launch event that the school expects 60 to 80 students in its first year of activity and hopes to increase this number to 100 to 120 students.
The centre’s creation comes at a time of increased investment in UK fintech in the form of both government and private sector funding – the latter is also being sought by the government, which is trying to open the UK up to international business and investment.
Fintech has largely been located in the City of London, the centre of the UK’s financial activity and a global financial capital in its own right. Regional scenes have been developing at pace in other cities, however, with Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast, among others, receiving more and more attention from both government and business.
