Emilios Avgouleas, one of Edinburgh Law School's professors, engages with senior UK financial regulators to discuss the impact of technology on economic growth and financial crime detection
Mon 1 April 2024
Professor Emilios Avgouleas was honoured to be invited by the CEO of Fintech Scotland to participate in a roundtable with senior economists of the Bank of England Financial Policy Committee (tasked with preserving the stability of the UK financial system), the Monetary Policy Committee (tasked with setting interest rates in the UK), and with the CEOs of some Edinburgh-based financial technology firms. The discussion focused on the potential impact of such innovations like AI and Blockchain to the growth of the UK and Scottish economies.
The following week, responding to a relevant invitation from the London office of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Professor Avgouleas participated in an in-person fireside chat with the FCA, which was moderated by the director of the FCA's Edinburgh office. The chat was also attended in person by the FCA UK directors of enforcement and policy while other senior FCA staff participated remotely in the Q&A session. The overall theme of the chat was how to restore the social contract for finance, whereby Professor Avgouleas was asked to explain the concept of a social contract for finance. Eventually, the discussion also veered into possible ways to regulate cryptocurrencies and the use of AI in financial services.
Professor Avgouleas coined the concept of a social contract for finance in the course of a public lecture in 2017 at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. His lecture was part of the ‘Capitalism on the Edge’ series where other speakers included the CEO of Unilever and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, also a leading expert on market ethics. The concept of a social contract for finance is the key theme of Professor Avgouleas research with Leverhulme Trust funding that was awarded to him last year.
The summary and video of Professor Avgouleas Cambridge lecture can be found via this link: Capitalism on the Edge | Murray Edwards College - University of Cambridge