1 fulltime PhD research position at Erasmus School of Law in Financial Technology and LawOpens external

Your research project will fit in the research agenda of the Chair in Financial Technology and Law. More specifically your research should be into (i) the ‘Legal aspects of the Use of Big Data in the Financial Industry’ and/or (ii) the ‘Legal Implications and Challenges of Open Finance’.

For the research project ‘Legal aspects of the Use of Big Data in the Financial Industry’ the meaning of Big Data will be that more diverse information from more diverse sources becomes available to financial institutions on which they can base their decisions.

The other potential research subject ‘Legal Implications and Challenges of Open Finance’ concerns the development that both financial as well as non-financial institutions will have to provide access to the data they gather from and about their customers to be used and further built upon by other financial and non-financial institutions. A first step in this direction has been the introduction of PSD2 enabling account information services providers and payment initiation service providers to gain access to the customers’ bank accounts held with other financial institutions.

It is expected that your research will be performed in the context of banking services (lending, deposit taking and payments), insurance markets or retail investment services.

Because of the changing landscape and increasing relevance of the use of Big Data and the introduction of Open Finance in the financial industry, we are calling on young aspiring researchers to submit creative research proposals to help shape legal thinking in this area. Possible research angles are:

·       The impact of these developments on the clients of financial institutions (conduct angle);

·       The impact thereof on financial institutions themselves (micro prudential angle); or

·       The impact thereof on the structure of financial markets in general (macro prudential, systemic          angle or competition angle).

The overarching purpose would be to evaluate to what extent the current legal and regulatory framework would need to be adapted to adequately meet the new way financial services are provided.

The research proposal should be written from a European perspective, i.e. should predominantly be based on EU law sources. National law could be used to illustrate how EU law is implemented/understood by the various member states.  Laws of non-EU countries can also be used as a comparator.

Even though the research project sits within the faculty of law, a cross-disciplinary approach (for instance using insights of economics or data science) is encouraged.