The Center

The Center for Financial Services Innovation (FSI-HSG) was founded by the University of St.Gallen in March 2021. UBS provided initial funding of CHF 10 million to launch the center and establish several professorships. It is the founding and strategic partner of the center. Other partners are being sought for the Center.

Goals

The Center develops forward-looking expertise at the interfaces between finance, management and law. By creating corresponding professorships, it aims to advance research and teaching in the important field of financial market innovation. The goals of the Center are:

• To increase scientific excellence in the field of finance and financial innovation and to promote the positioning of the HSG in impact-oriented cutting-edge research in innovative topics from the fields of financial markets and financial services.
• Newly created professorships are affiliated with the Center and, through bundling and networking, achieve profile-forming results in current interdisciplinary issues in the thematic complex of digital ecosystems and platform economies, entrepreneurship, financial market regulation, FinTech, sustainable finance and private markets. This is also done with the inclusion of the insurance sector.
• Optimization of the education of HSG students in current topics of the financial industry and enlargement of the pool of qualified graduates as future managers in the financial industry.
• Expansion of the cooperation between university and practice on issues of particular importance to the financial industry.

Activities

• Realization of research projects in the subject areas of the newly appointed faculty members as well as in other current issues
• Cooperation with strategic partners and practice partners for the development and implementation of research projects
• Regular seminars and workshops, also with the participation of practice partners, for the discussion of research results and the development of new research topics.
• Collaboration with HSG degree programs to integrate Center topics into program curricula.
• Developing new HSG continuing education offerings for the financial industry.
• Achieve visibility through publication of working papers, white papers, media articles, as well as public events.

Freedom of research and teaching

In its partnerships, the University of St.Gallen relies on long-term agreements in groundbreaking and future-oriented research areas. The freedom of research and teaching must be preserved in all cases, as is of course also stipulated in the agreements. In doing so, the University of St.Gallen adheres to the requirements set out in the University Act and Statute, as well as to the university's internal decrees "Basic Principles for Self-Financing" and "Information and Disclosure Guidelines".

Further co-operation partners

Swiss FinTech Innovations (SFTI)