Financial Markets in a Time of Disruption

The FinWork Futures research centre at King’s College London invites all undergraduate and postgraduate offer holders in the accounting and finance domains to a webinar exploring various ways in which financial markets are presently being disrupted. Given that the remit of the research centre is on technology, we will look at some emerging research on how technological change is disrupting financial markets and financial market professionals. Beyond this we will also explore different ways in which another great disruptor (Covid-19) is being felt across financial markets and financial institutions.

Specific themes to be explored will be of interest to all those keen to pursue a career in finance or financial services. For example, we will discuss:

• how cryptocurrency continues to gain a greater foothold as both an asset and means of payment globally
• How the work of audit professionals is being transformed the increasing use of machine learning and artificial intelligence
• How banking institutions have responded to the Covid-19 epidemic
• And how equity markets in China are likely to fare in a post-Covid world.

Different speakers will offer short primers on each of these themes before we proceed to a Q&A with the online audience.

Professor Crawford Spence, Vice Dean (Corporate Relations) & Co-Director of the FinWork Futures Research Centre

Crawford is a professor of accounting and has been at King’s since 2017. Previously, Crawford has worked at Warwick Business School, UK; the United Arab Emirates University, UAE; Concordia University, Canada; and, the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He has held visiting appointments at Kobe University, Japan; University College Molde, Norway; and, the Universidad Pùblica de Navarra, Spain.

Along with Alex Preda and Rita Samiolo, Crawford co-directs the FinWork Futures Research Centre, which explores how technological innovation is disrupting financial professions and financial expertise. He sits on the editorial boards of Accounting, Organizations and Society, The Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Contemporary Accounting Research.

 

Professor Alex Preda, Co-Director of the FinWork Futures Research Centre

Alex Preda is Professor of Accounting, Accountability and Financial Management at King's Business School. He holds a PhD from the University of Bielefeld. Prior to joining King’s College London he worked at the University of Edinburgh and at the University of Konstanz.

Alex's principal research activities relate to global financial markets, and his research interests include: strategic behaviour in financial markets; decision-making and cognitive processes in electronic anonymous markets; market automation and trading technologies; valuation processes in markets; the role of communication in decision-making processes; the public understanding of finance; the governance of global finance.

 

Dr Rita Samiolo, Co-director of the FinWork Futures Research Centre

Rita is Lecturer in Accounting and Financial Management. She holds a PhD in Accounting from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Rita’s research is in the area of social and institutional studies of accounting. She has a broad interest in the changing roles and rationales of accounting in different governance settings – the pitfalls and possibilities of governing by numbers. She is particularly interested in examining economic calculation from the perspective of the history and sociology of science, unpacking the epistemic assumptions underlying costing and performance measurement approaches. She has worked on empirical topics such as the appraisal of large public sector projects and the rise of rankings in transnational governance.

 

Dr Louis Nguyen, Senior Lecturer in Finance

Duc Duy (Louis) Nguyen is Senior Lecturer in Finance at King’s Business School. Prior to joining King’s, he was a Lecturer in Banking and Finance at the University of St Andrews.

Louis holds a BSc (Hons) in Computing from the National University of Singapore, an MSc (Distinction) in Accounting, Finance, and Management from the University of Bristol, and a PhD in Finance from the University of Edinburgh. He was awarded the David Hume Publication Prize in 2015 for research excellence and the Accenture and Gold Medal & Prize for being the top student in the BSc Computing (E-Commerce) program.

Louis’ research and teaching interests include empirical corporate finance, financial intermediation, and labour economics. His works have been published in leading journals across disciplines, including the Review of Financial Studies, the Review of Finance, and the British Journal of Management; and been covered in mainstream outlets such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, BBC, and Boston Globe. His research has been funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust and the Carnegie UK Trust.

Dr Zhong Chen, Lecturer in Accounting

Zhong Chen is a Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at King’s Business School. He holds a PhD in Finance from ICMA Centre, University of Reading. His research interests lie primarily in the fields of empirical corporate finance, particularly in corporate financial hedging, mergers and acquisitions, dividend policy, institutional investors, and corporate governance. His papers have been presented at conferences including ECCCS, American Accounting Association, Financial Management Association (FMA) International, FMA Europe, FMA Asia/Pacific and have been published in Journal of Corporate Finance and European Financial Management.