Financial services in the twenty-first century: the present system and future developments in FinTech and financial innovation

This textbook covers financial systems and services, particularly focusing on the present system and future developments. Broken into four parts, it briefly covers the history of financial markets to present day, discusses the future of financial markets, and ends with an overview of the law and regulatory components of this progressive system. The book incorporates extremely recent advances such as FinTech, blockchain, and artificial intelligence as applied to financial institutions and markets, and discusses trends likely to reshape the global financial system in the 21st century, including the rise of emerging countries (BRICS), the shift of economic power from the United States to Asia, and the likely new world financial order. It also explores these themes while discussing central banks and monetary policy, interest rates, inflation/deflation, financial markets and instruments, exchange rates, and FOREX. Lastly, it discusses the legal and regulatory framework of these advancements. Combining rigorous detail alongside exercises and PowerPoint slides for each chapter, this textbook helps finance students understand the wide breadth of financial systems and speculates the forthcoming developments in the industry.