Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and dean of the Jindal School, helped welcome the crowd and even offered a little about his own history, sharing that he was the first dean of a business school to come out of IT IS. “…Technology is an integral part of what we do now,” Pirkul said. “And without taking full advantage of the latest and the greatest in IT, we are unable to compete in our business, whatever our business is.”
Dr. Ajay S. Mookerjee, a fintech venture developer and investor, gave the keynote presentation “Fintech — The Next 20 Years.” Mookerjee underlined that two drivers of fintech are regulation and consumers. He also advised that a key help for the industry is academia, which, he said, can provide unbiased analyses.
After his talk, Mookerjee said the Center for the Management of Financial and Digital Asset Technologies at the Jindal School was an apt creation to get quality discussion and change accomplished.
“It’s important to lay out for future workers which fintech opportunities have real possibility in the long term and which don’t,” he said. “I keep telling people to question and don’t just assume that buzz words equal long-term successful paths…This area is going to need unbiased analysis and you won’t get that from banks. You will get it from places like schools that can use data and bring people together from different parts of the industry to find out information that will help us all. The industry telling itself what it wants to hear won’t do anything.”
In a later panel discussion, which partly focused on blockchain, Chris Ryan, associate general counsel, crypto and fintech, at MoneyGram International, said it is feasible to combine blockchain technology with the infrastructure and agent networks already set up in companies such as MoneyGram. Mentioning that MoneyGram has customers from many parts of the world, he brought up an example of being in an active warzone and where digital assets can come in.
“When you think of giving people disbursements in the form of physical cash as opposed to additional assets that can be stored in a wallet on their phone that they can take out and cash in or cash out of when they’re in a more stable location, it’s (going) to be the future of aid disbursement,” he said.
During the Digital Assets Peripheral Overview panel, moderator Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry & Associates, asked where digital assets generally and cryptocurrencies specifically stand in the aftermath of the crypto winter where prices have fallen compared to previous highs. Scott Beck, chairman and CEO of UTB Financial Holdings, said as part of his response: “…The concept in terms of this marketplace with any new and destructive technology you’re going to have ups and downs. And then we just happen to be in a down cycle right now related to the space.”
Gautam Sircar, vice president and chief strategy officer at Jack Henry & Associates, said relating to AI during the fireside chat called “The Fintech Universe”: “We’re always looking for growth management technology people…And what they’re saying is…English majors could become the next coders.”
Angela Faust, chief operations officer at Credit Union of Texas, was enthusiastic about fintech, saying that those in it typically focus on one or two products and services and flourish. But, she warned, they need something on which to fall back.
“…It’s really important that fintechs diversify their product line so they have additional revenue sources,” she said. “Something else they can do is partner with other technology companies and other financial institutions.”
Lee Bratcher, president and founder of the Texas Blockchain Council, said the conference was a great opportunity for an area in which UT Dallas has strong talent.
“One of the special things about this event is it’s bringing in industry, students, and academic practitioners to let everyone know the future is related to value transfer…” he said. “The establishment of this center provides a launching pad, catapulting careers either through startups or a Fortune 500 company by seeing where the market is going and this university has the kind of software engineer talent which can be very valuable for the blockchain digital asset world.”
Dr. Eric Zheng, Ashbel Smith Professor in the Jindal School’s Information Systems Area and associate director of the Center for the Management of Financial and Digital Asset Technologies, and co-chair of the event, said this conference can help position the center further as a thought leader.
“The definition of operations and other areas in financial transactions will change and we need to define how value will be delivered,” he said. “There will be new ways of doing business supported by technology and finance and we can be an important part of that discussion.”
Dr. Vijay Mookerjee, Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair and Professor in the Jindal School’s Information Systems Area in the Jindal School’s Information Systems Area, said the conference was a welcome chance to bring the banking industry further into the Jindal School community.
“There is much to learn by comparing best practices and trying to figure out what’s changing in areas like these,” said Vijay Mookerjee, director of the Center for the Management of Financial and Digital Asset Technologies and co-chair of the event. “We can be a facilitator as well as a voice.”
He also said that banking will become a verb rather than a noun.
“In other words, banking services will be generated as needed and only when they are needed, e.g., when something is being financed, or a payment is being made. Banking will become a utility.”
