The financial sector is the largest user of digital technologies and a major driver in the digital transformation of the economy. Financial technology (FinTech) is aims to compete with traditional financial industry methods in the delivery of financial services. Globally, more than $100 billion of venture capital and growth equity has been deployed to Fintech companies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) since 2010, still growing substantially. In early 2018, the European Commission unveiled their action plan for a more competitive and innovative financial market, and initiative on AI with the aim to harness the opportunities presented by technologyenabled innovation in financial services. Europe should become a global hub for FinTech, with EU businesses and investors able to take most of the advantages offered by the Single Market in this fastmoving sector. We want to facilitate interactions and collaborations between different groups of academics and industry working on Fintech and AI in Finance, to provide theoretic expertise to industrial partners, and to establish a large and vibrant interconnected community of excellent scientists across diverse fields. The key objectives are:

• to improve transparency of AI supported processes by developing a data-driven rating methodology for ICOs
• to address the disparity between the proliferation in AI models within the financial industry for risk assessment and decision-making, and the limited insight the public has in its consequences by developing policy papers and methods to increase transparency
• to develop methods to scrutinize the quality of rule-based “smart beta” products across the asset management, banking and insurance industry.

Sustainable Development Goals

Masaryk University is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to improve the conditions and quality of life on our planet by 2030.