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Learner Reviews & Feedback for FinTech Law and Policy by Duke University

4.8
stars
823 ratings

About the Course

Being a successful FinTech firm requires more than just great technology; it also requires an understanding of the laws and regulations applicable to your business. This course will provide you with that understanding. You will learn about the critical legal, regulatory, and policy issues associated with cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, online lending, new payments and wealth management technologies, and financial account aggregators. In addition, you will learn how regulatory agencies in the U.S. are continually adjusting to the emergence of new financial technologies and how one specific agency has proposed a path for FinTech firms to become regulated banks. You will also learn the basics of how banks are regulated in the U.S. If you are unfamiliar with how these new financial technologies work, fear not. We will begin each new course section with a high-level overview of the underlying technology. While the course is principally focused on the U.S. FinTech industry, we cannot possibly cover every relevant legal and regulatory issue. Therefore, this course should not be construed as legal advice. Rather, the goal of the course is to familiarize you with the key legal and regulatory challenges FinTech firms in various sectors face, as well as the critical policy debates that are occurring in Washington D.C. and state capitals across the country....

Top reviews

AM

Nov 3, 2018

I highly recommend this course especially if your are currently working in the financial services industry. I am always eager to learn and this course taught me many new topics that i was unaware of.

KA

Jun 24, 2020

Impressive! Manage to completed in 3 days, committed and dedicated studying in Fintech.

If I can, why shouldn't you?

p.s: The final exam was quite tough! Get prepare students with your notes!

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1 - 25 of 210 Reviews for FinTech Law and Policy

By ibu s g

•

Sep 14, 2021

The final quiz was tough, I enjoyed the first four weeks material although the fifth week material could have been more interesting. The course can move from a US based outlook to a more global outlook, while it may result in significant changes in the course module itself it is an increasingly important component in my opinion.

The information in the course needs to be updated more. The charts and information used still pertains to F.Y. 2018-19.

By Khairul A A

•

Jun 25, 2020

Impressive! Manage to completed in 3 days, committed and dedicated studying in Fintech.

If I can, why shouldn't you?

p.s: The final exam was quite tough! Get prepare students with your notes!

By Leonard R

•

Aug 27, 2021

Wish they would update the data as a lot has changed since 2015,2016 and 2017

By Salma A

•

Oct 14, 2021

I completed the course in one very long sitting. I took notes the entire time, which made answering the assignments easy and passing the final exam too. I may have been able to complete this course rather quickly because I already have a working knowledge of blockchains, cryptocurrencies, payments, and securities. That said, the course not only solidified what I already knew but also gave me a clearer perspective of the regulatory landscape, not only as it is in the United States but also in other jurisdictions. i appreciate the detailed attention to how payment transactions are processed and settled at the backend, because there are not easy to comprehend if we have to read all the regulations out there. I also appreciate citations of real cases and scenarios, and prospects for change. All in all, this is a great course which I recommend everyone to take, since all of us will eventually have to embrace new payment technologies in our daily lives.

By Ernesto S G

•

Jan 4, 2021

Overall the course gives all the fundamentals to understand the global FinTech situation and developments up to 2018; because of this, the course would seem a little outdated because the rapid development of the industry, but it still holds it's own quite firmly.

Additionally, it's important to note that the course focuses primarily on the US legal framework and regulation, but it does provide a great point of comparison with your own country's legal framework, as well as the international legal standings.

Score: 4.5/5

By Jason A

•

Jan 26, 2021

The rapid pace of fintech technology makes this course slightly outdated (even though it seems to be only a year or two old!), but the overwhelming majority of the information is still relevant and topical. The exposure to fintech and existing regulatory interactions is very detailed and well explained, and the exams and quizzes are quite challenging!

By Diego E

•

Oct 2, 2020

Duke University put a great spin to this course by having graphics and relevant information next to the professor while giving the lecture. I am a visual learner and this method was great!!

By Casey C

•

Mar 25, 2022

One of the better online courses I've taken. As a lawyer with little prior exposure to the technical side of Financial technologies/systems, I appreciated Professor Reiner's condensed introduction to the mechanics underlying the financial/tech systems & networks prior to investigating the applicable regulatory frameworks. I appreciated that the point of exposing us to the technical side of some topics, although challenging, was a an effective way to show us that these very challenges (i.e., fragmentation, bank-based models) situate the goals of FinTech, the hurdles innovators and regulators face, and the value successful innovation stands to create. In this regard, I appreciated the balanced discussion of FinTech's potential: to profit-oriented companies, to convenience-oriented consumers, and to a broader public interested in regulatory frameworks that steer FinTech developments towards accessible, fair, and useful outcomes.

This course also highlighted several legal and regulatory "gray areas," ripe for examining more deeply on my time (possibly without the need for continued structure in a course). I enjoyed the combination of lectures with periodic quizzes which tested applications of concepts in hypotheticals. Great for comprehension, in my opinion. And now, I have a concise, targeted outline of topics for reference in job-searching, interviews, and crafting pieces of writing that rely on FinTech concepts.

I especially appreciated that the final exam did not reuse questions from prior quizzes and did not only emphasize rote memorization of new terminology or facts/trends! Instead, Professor Reiners offered unseen fact patterns and called on us to apply multiple concepts at a time to work through the questions posed. These raised even further questions for me, particularly regarding the classification of different aspects of ICO's/ cryptocurrency exchange setups as securities (subject to SEC regulations), as derivatives subject to CFTC oversight, and corresponding impacts on taxation, entity structures, and market trends.

Although this course was posted 4 years ago, the questions posed and issues highlighted are certainly still relevant and worth working through. There are sections which I found hard to focus on and absorb -- i.e., mechanics of payment systems, types of charters -- but as I returned to review for the final exam, I found that those concepts allowed new connections to emerge and enrich my view of the FinTech regulatory framework. The course is short enough that I was able to maintain steam, but challenging enough that I found myself electing to rewatch videos, review quizzes, and consolidate my personal notes (rather than speeding through the whole course in a few concentrated sittings). Not a bad return on 30 minutes a day for a few weeks!

By Cleide S

•

Aug 7, 2020

I thought the course was excellent, I had a little difficulty with the language due to more technical issues, but nothing that hindered my learning.

By joel r

•

Mar 7, 2021

Solid information and coming from a law background I found it very helpful. It would be great if Duke U could create more fintech lessons.

By Juan F F M

•

Sep 9, 2020

A grealty overview into Fintech Law that gives the student a tremendous landscape on the main Fintech institutions. Highly recommended.

By Luis A R

•

Sep 3, 2021

A great introduction to banking terminology and framework. Well worth the time! I would definetly recommend it!

By Amit S

•

Dec 18, 2020

Goof learning experience. But need to be updated due to recent changes in the Blockchain industry.

By Jennifer G

•

Jul 19, 2020

Biggest weakness is lack of updates in the past two years.

By Mike Y W

•

Sep 2, 2018

Course offers a top-level look into FinTech, and it is a fairly new course, which is a VERY big plus. Although the video lectures can be a bit dry and require a bit of note taking given the amount and detail covered, the course does what it intends to do. It would be nice if the questions were harder, and actually made you think to ensure you understood the topics taught. Also, it would be helpful for future course students if an additional week was added (Week #6) for international FinTech trends, including optional reading material, that don't discuss law and policy, especially given that FinTech is used quite a lot in other countries.

By James B

•

May 24, 2020

This is an excellent course on RegTech, and Lee Reiners does a good job in explaining it. It covered the regulation issues with FinTech in the US and how state and federal agencies are trying to keep up with how fast the FinTech companies are creating new areas of business. It helps to have a basic understanding of what FinTech, Blockchain and crypto currencies are before taking the course. I wish the course lasted longer or had a part II, and could be updated at periodically.

By Steve S

•

Feb 23, 2019

This course was highly informative, exploring real world examples and current events to help the course content resonate with the student. As a well tenured professional in the field of FinTech. I was pleased with the valuable information that I learned and the way it was presented. The instructor does an excellent job relating the themes presented here in great details and helping to bring them you an every day format that makes it very consumable and elearning friendly!

By Benjamin L

•

Mar 10, 2019

Really outstanding course! Coming from a background in blockchain/cryptocurrency and not one of traditional finance, this course really helped tie together a lot of the concepts I have been wanting to learn but could not find a trustworthy repository of information. This course was extremely helpful and by far the most challenging (even with my background in blockchain) that I have taken on Coursera thus far. Really great work!

By Anjali P

•

May 3, 2020

For a novice inexperienced in the field of Fintech, I was pleased with the way the course was delivered as well as the resources and quizz questions.

They really helped me to understand what Fintech is and doing the quizz questions made me grasp all the concepts in a more concise manner.

I enjoyed this course and recommend it to anyone who wished to understand what Fintech is.

Anjali ( Pupil Barrister-Mauritius)

By Srinivasan K

•

May 22, 2019

This course comprises of key components of emerging industry "FinTech" in a depth manner and the related regulations and challenges in a critical manner.

Professor is good at presentation with suitable real time cases to substantiate the topic of discussion.

Now, i gained an enormous knowledge around this new topic and able to debate. Looking forward to hear more courses from Duke.

By Tharindu H J

•

Mar 29, 2021

The course was really comprehensive and it contained an overall idea about US based FinTech related Law and Policy background. As an employee in a Financial Technology related department of a leading financial institution in my country, I find this course valuable very much. Thank you, Mr. Lee Reiners and Duke University! Thank you Coursera! Thank you for letting us study it!

By Lance J

•

Jan 14, 2020

Loved it. You don't often think you'll come away from a MOOC feeling smarter/more informed, but there were at least two chapters that changed my perspective, opinion and practices in FinTech. In addition to being a better professional, I have a couple brand new FinTech accounts to show for my experience! Thanks Duke, Lei Reiners and Coursera... I'll be back for more.

By Michael T O

•

Mar 6, 2019

The course does a nice job of providing a high-level overview of the different products and services offered in the FinTech space, the relevant regulatory considerations, and the various risks present in the space. I enjoyed it and would recommend for others looking to gain an understanding of FinTech products, services, risks, and regulatory considerations.

By Raj c

•

Jun 9, 2020

very well put together and Interesting course. Presented excellently with challenging questions at the end of each section. I feel it would great if the course was updated ( and when stated laws/regulations have changed a time stamp is presented). This would ensure the users/Students are aware of that specific legislation have changed.

By Daniel K

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Aug 12, 2019

Great course! The lectures were very understandable and thorough. I would, however, suggest something akin to a "Basics of Finance" at the beginning that covers basic transactions (e.g., securities, commodities) and the financial advising pieces. I think this would help bring the lecture to the next level.