Partnership for Innovative Finance (InFin)

This industry partnership focuses on innovative finance in the Luxembourgish financial services sector.

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Jul 2023
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

Banque et Caisse d'Épargne de l'État, Luxembourg (Spuerkeess)
Principal Investigator(s):

Gilbert FRIDGEN

Radu STATE

About

This industry partnership between Spuerkeess and the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (FINATRAX and SEDAN) dives deep into innovative financial technologies (FinTech). The project focuses on decentralisation technologies, decentralised finance for the end-customer, and cybersecurity in the age of artificial intelligence. First, decentralisation technologies for the cross-institutional co-ordination of workflows in the financial sector, for instance, in the computation of key figures like the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (a key metric used to track the average interest rates European banks are using to borrow funds from each other), using privacy-enhancing technologies such as multi-party computation and zero-knowledge proofs. Second, decentralisation technologies offer unprecedented flexibility in adapting the design of financial assets to end-user needs. However, they bring about design choices composed by diverse technical, economic, legal and social elements. An example is how to balance end-user privacy and data protection with AML/CFT measures. This calls for investigating how interdisciplinary trade-offs can be designed in a scientifically sound and future-oriented way. Third, we investigate how emerging AI-based technologies, such as large language models, can be used to combat cybersecurity threats, as the financial sector is a major target for cybercriminals. Studies range from identifying promising end-user-centric solutions for financial institutions to developing human-centric tools and solutions. As highest rated financial institution in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Spuerkeess aims to set new standards in the banking and finance markets. While SnT has a strong track record in the FinTech research space with more than 20 similar partnerships and nine teams that conduct research in the field, Spuerkeess has a strong track record in the digitalisation of financial services for customers and back-office operations. Hence, this project aims both to innovate customer-oriented and back-office processes, while also advancing research on FinTech, cryptography, and decentralised finance.

Organisation and Partners

Digital Financial Services and Cross-Organisational Digital Transformations Research Group (FINATRAX)
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)
National Centre of Excellence in Research (NCER) in Financial Technologies
Services and Data Management (SEDAN)