FinTech Center
Directing the disruption
About to make a payment? Just open an app on your phone. Balancing a budget with limited room for error? Use an API to connect and compare your existing accounts. Eager to update your portfolio? You’ll find a robo-advisor ready with a few recommendations.
This is what money management looks like in the present, courtesy of the fintech industry. Today, roughly half of all people use at least one fintech product — and investors realize this. Companies in this sector have surged from just under 6,000 in 2018 to about 14,000 in 2024, and roughly 20% of all venture capital investments by dollar go to a fintech startup of some kind.
Especially with sizable growth in our home state, University of Florida Warrington College of Business’ FinTech Center aims to drive an industry that’s been about disrupting an established institution from the start. Committing ourselves to all-encompassing influence, we strive to study and spur these developments, create new best practices, and train UF students and working professionals for these highly impactful roles.
See what we’re doing and how you can unleash a new era of innovation with us.
About the FinTech Center
In the 2010s, fintech hubs sprang up all over the globe, including in Miami and Tampa. What they’ve launched makes all aspects of money management more convenient — but they also carry concerns ranging from accuracy to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Here’s where we step in.
Our purpose
This changing landscape gives us an inroad to ignite new development through research and partner with existing enterprises to create safer, more efficient and all-around better products. At the same time, our position allows us to thoroughly train professionals to manage existing and pioneer new technologies.
Cross-disciplinary scholarship
Fintech sits at the intersection of finance and technology, so it makes sense to invite professionals from across the university to take part. Our research and initiatives attract faculty and students from Warrington, as well as UF’s computer science, engineering, statistics and law programs.
Steering progress
There’s always a new technology to implement, a new vulnerability to patch or a new solution to remedy a customer concern. We collaborate with fintech institutions, tech companies, startups, and venture capital firms to share our knowledge, tackle their challenges, and produce professionals equipped to strengthen their bottom line.
Our faculty
Coding is just the tip of the fintech iceberg. Our center’s faculty bring expertise from all specialties: the theoretical and practical sides of blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), and cryptocurrencies to modeling tools, natural language processing, and consumer behavior patterns.
Educating future disruptors
How can machine learning make stock predictions? Who’s going to debug a digital wallet? Warrington students will be ready through programs that emphasize real-world skill development through research, case studies, internships and partner-sponsored projects.
FinTech research
What features and capabilities are in demand? What’s the best way to optimize the user’s experience, and which factors sway consumer decisions? Our team investigates these and more areas not only to advance the next generation of fintech products but also to contribute to new policies, best practices and testing procedures.
Blockchain and decentralized finance
Blockchain and decentralized finance deliver multidirectional potential for payments, asset management and other transactions. Our research attempts to push the boundaries of their applications while establishing guidelines for adoption and consumer protection in the process.
AI, machine learning and big data analytics
In an industry where speed and accuracy are everything, we’re harnessing data, AI and machine learning to develop faster, more detailed predictive models for investments, trading, fraud detection, market forecasting and credit scoring.
Digital banking and financial services innovation
With fintech upending traditional banking models, our research aims to devise a more user-friendly experience for mobile apps, new payment technologies, digital wallets, and robo-advisors that also factors in privacy concerns and the needs of underserved communities.
Behavioral finance and consumer economics
Fintech apps and software are consumer products that shape financial decision-making. Our studies not only analyze their patterns for saving and investing but also examine the role of AI and algorithms in the information served to users.
Regulatory and policy analysis
New capabilities come with new concerns. To guide policy development, our center observes how regulations, compliance, and data protection influence innovation and mitigate risks among fintech ventures.
Natural language processing and generative AI
These technologies have the potential to deliver what consumers want — when they want it — including real-time market analysis, customer support, risk assessment and information resources.
Cybersecurity and risk management
Early identification is the best way to prevent a data breach. Our team continues to develop recommendations for threat detection, risk assessment frameworks, and secure coding practices that block cybercriminals from accessing customer and institutional data.
Our programs
We do more than talk about fintech — we teach it in dedicated degree programs and short-term courses.
Study the future of FinTech
Study financial theories alongside AI, data and blockchain applications through a program that introduces concepts with real-world projects and case studies.
Doctoral studies
In this research-intensive program, you’ll have the opportunity to propose best practices, new data and AI applications, and security protocols by assisting faculty and eventually structuring your own studies.
Certificates to advance your career
Let your resume speak for you when you say you know fintech. We’ll point you toward external certificates, advanced AI labs and blockchain development bootcamps for an in-depth introduction to essential competencies.
Our initiatives
We’ve thought of all the ways we can nurture visionary professionals versed in coding, financial principles and data analysis right from UF’s campus.
Curriculum
Our center has forged a direct discovery-to-classroom pipeline that influences what we teach students about AI, blockchain, DeFi and more technologies adopted by fintech companies.
Projects
Build. Troubleshoot. Upgrade. To practice these skills, students in fintech-related programs present solutions to case studies, to challenges faced by our partners, and through live research alongside faculty and industry experts.
Student activities
How quickly can you code a new product? Already have an app ready to go? Test your skills and ideas with partner-sponsored hackathons, pitch contests, data-mining competitions, coding workshops and more activities.
Internships
This way to a career in fintech — when you have the interest and the resume, we’ll connect you with internships in blockchain, digital banking, AI-powered finance and other areas of the fintech sector.
Mentorship
Hear directly about different job responsibilities, market trends, and emerging developments from our visiting scholars, corporate sponsors and alumni.
Events
The fintech industry doesn’t sit still — and neither does our event calendar. Attend a speaker series, workshop, roundtable discussion, or mini-conference to learn about DeFi, generative AI for capital markets and other topics.
FinTech news
FinTech events
Collaborate with us
We inhabit a field with tremendous, always-accelerating potential. As you stake your organization’s future, partner with Warrington to fuel internal innovation, collaboratively problem-solve and tap into a steady stream of talent.