Seminar
Dr. Jochen Biedermann
The Future of Financial Centers
29 November 2022 | 5 - 6 PM (HKT)
Academic Conference Room
11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower
The University of Hong Kong
LIVE Online and In-Person
Professor Douglas W. Arner (Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, The University of Hong Kong) will chair this seminar.
Co-chairs: Professor Tak-Wah Lam (Head of the Computer Science Department and the Executive Director of the HKU-SCF FinTech Academy) and Professor Heiwai Tang (Director of the Asia Global Institute and Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics at HKU)
This seminar is co-hosted by the Asian Institute of International Financial Law - East Asian International Economic Law and Policy (EAIEL) Programme, The HKU-SCF FinTech Academy, and the HKU Asia Global Institute.
Financial centres – and the organizations that represent them – are spearheading efforts to strengthen their jurisdictions' financial markets, business environments, and innovation ecosystems to enable sustainable global growth.
In 2030, financial centers will be green, smart, innovative, customer-focused, digital, and inclusive, and will play a critical role in attracting and retaining the best talent.
Leading the World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC), Dr. Jochen Biedermann discusses about the financial centres and the continuing collaborations and sharing of knowledge as key to supporting growth across all sectors in the future.
He particularly highlights on developments in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area from a global perspective.
The Hong Kong government's Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) is an active member of the WAIFC.
For reference, please download and read the recent WAIFC whitepaper in partnership with the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Z/Yen Group: "The Future of Financial Centres: White Paper - A collective response by financial centres on addressing the big questions facing society today and sharing a vision for 2030".
About Dr. Jochen Biedermann and the WAIFC
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Dr. Jochen Biedermann is the Managing Director of the World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC), Managing Partner of FinTech Consult, and Founder & CEO of Blockchain (Asia) Ltd. He completed his PhD in Mathematics at the Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg. He took his Diploma in Mathematics and Computer Science at The University of Göttingen. He is enthusiastic about developing young companies in the financial industry, especially FinTechs that address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. WAIFC is a non-profit association based in Belgium, comprising 28 financial centers across five continents. It facilitates cooperation between leading financial centers, the exchange of best practices, and communication with the general public. WAIFC members are city governments, associations, and similar institutions developing and promoting their financial centers. The alliance was formed in 2018 with founding members from Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Busan, Casablanca, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Moscow (currently suspended), Muscat, Nur-Sultan, Paris, and Toronto and new members from Amsterdam, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jersey, Kigali, London, Malta, Mauritius, Milan/Rome, Stuttgart, and Tokyo.
About Prof. Douglas Arner
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Douglas W. Arner is the Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, an RGC Senior Fellow, and Associate Dean (Taught Postgraduate) of the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. At HKU, he co-founded and is the Faculty Director of the LLM Compliance and Regulation, LLM Corporate and Financial Law, LITE (Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship), and EAIEL (East Asian International Economic Law and Policy) Programmes. In addition, Douglas is Associate Director of the Standard Chartered Foundation-HKU FinTech Academy, a Senior Visiting Fellow of Melbourne Law School of the University of Melbourne, a non-executive director of NASDAQ and Euronext listed Aptorum Group, an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE), and co-founder and an executive board member of the Asia Pacific Structured Finance Association. He co-founder and former Director of the Faculty’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law. Douglas has served as a consultant with, among others, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UN, APEC, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He is ranked in the top 10 law authors at SSRN (all time number of downloads of over 180,000) and the 4th most downloaded law authors in the last 12 months.
About Prof. Tak-Wah Lam
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TW Lam joined HKU after receiving his PhD in Computer Science from University of Washington in 1988. He served as an associate dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 2001 to 2006 and is currently the Head of the Computer Science Department and the Executive Director of the HKU-SCF FinTech Academy. His research ranges from theoretical analysis of algorithms to big data analytics for health informatics. He has published over 200 research articles in international conferences and journals, and the most impactful ones come from the engineering work in bioinformatics software. More recently, he has been aspiring to tackle industrial problems with intricate algorithmic techniques and has been awarded a number of ITF grants. In 2014, he together with Professor D Cheung and Dr R Luo has co-founded a startup company to advance the bioinformatics software technologies for analyzing high-throughput DNA sequencing data for clinical applications. Professor Lam loves teaching, especially in inspiring students to learn theoretical subjects. He has received several teaching awards from the Department and the Faculty, as well as a University-level research student supervisor award. Prof. Lam is on the top 1% Scholars at HKU, 2011-21.
About Prof. Heiwai Tang
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Heiwai Tang is Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics, Director of the Asia Global Institute and HKU APEC Study Center, as well as the Associate Director Institute of China Economy and the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). Prior to joining HKU, he was tenured Associate Professor of International Economics at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University. He is also affiliated with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (U.S.), the Center of Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESIfo, Germany), the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Germany) and the Globalization and Economic Policy Center (U.K.) as a research fellow. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the United Nations, and the Asian Development Bank; and held visiting positions at the IMF, Stanford, MIT, Harvard. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Comparative Economics and the China Economic Review. Since 2021, he has served on a number of public bodies, including the Currency Board Sub-Committee of the HKMA’s Exchange Fund Advisory Committee and the Minimum Wage Commission in Hong Kong.
