Fintech has evolved exponentially over the past few years and has been incorporated in many business activities such as retail banking, insurance, cybersecurity, blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore, we want to keep you informed to remain competitive in the current changing environment. We have compiled a short list of top fintech books that are worth every minute of reading. Let’s dive into the fintech space and discover how the fintech game has transformed and disrupted the traditional industry!
Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies by Nik Bhatia (2021)
This book dives deep into the evolution of the monetary system around the globe. Nick Bhatia explains how the history of money evolved from the past to the present, starting from raw minced material as the ancient currency, to gold, coins and issued papers. As central banks around the world prepare to launch their own crypto-competitors, the book illustrates how the invention of Bitcoin created a seismic shift in money and merged the monetary and cryptography sciences. After reading this book, you should be able to understand the mechanism of the financial system, why the dollar is deeply entrenched despite its state of disrepair, and how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies will interact in our new monetary future.
Blockchain Bubble or Revolution: The Future of Bitcoin, Blockchains, and Cryptocurrencies by Neel, Aditya Agashe and Parth Detroja (2019)
Written by Silicon Valley leaders from Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, Bubble or Revolution, this book has become the #1 Best seller in Cross-platform Software Development on Amazon. To address the question whether bitcoin is a scam or the greatest innovation since the internet, the book presents Bitcoin’s strengths and weaknesses from real-world case studies which assess cryptocurrencies from multiple perspectives, ranging from private property to regulation and policy. Want to gain insights about the world of digital currency? Then take a deep dive into the reading.
The Journey of REGTECH by Viviek Dubey, Dr Awadhesh Paratap Singh, Rakesh Sonar (2020)
This book covers a wide range of topics such as AI, Data Protection, Blockchain, and Fintech in the environment of compliance. Through “The Journey of RegTech,” readers will be able to identify the critical pillars of RegTech in the finance sector and its relation to new-age technologies. Furthermore, the authors gave explanation for the role of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain in RegTech, how fintech innovation has tied all the new-age technologies and has re-defined RegTech possibilities and what all of this will look like in the period after the 2020 crisis.
Machine Learning in Finance: From Theory to Practice by Matthew F.Dixon, Igor Halperin, Paul Bilokon (2020)
This book presents the role of machine learning in finance with an emphasis on how theory and hypothesis tests inform the choice of algorithm for financial data modeling and decision making. The book consists of three parts. The first part covers cross-sectional data from frequentist perspective including deep learning, investment management and derivative modeling. The second part encompasses the most common data used in finance with examples in trading and fixed income modeling. Lastly, the third part illustrates applications for trading, investment and wealth management. Discover the trend and the skillset of machine learning in the finance industry today!
Risk & Reward: An Inside View of the Property/Casualty Insurance Business by Stephen Catlin (2017)
If you are outside the insurance industry and want to capture a picture of how things have been and continue to change, this book will cover all the aspects you need to know about the insurance industry. Stephen Catlin pinpointed how the industry has matured significantly in the course of his career and how insurance serves a real good in society in spreading the cost of risk. Topics discussed in this book are: basic insurance industry practices, major challenges facing the insurance industry today, and key management principles including leadership, corporate management, and brand building.
The Anatomy of the Swipe: Making Money Move by Ahmed Siddiqui, Nicholas Straight (2020)
This book is designed for anyone who wants to know how payment systems work in the US. The authors explained all theoretical and practical aspects for fintech regarding cards, merchants, acquirers, processors, payment networks, issuers, card types, payments rails. What makes this book special is the real-life journey of the author on how he managed to grasp a profound understanding about the payment ecosystems. If you want to join the author on his journey into the payment space in America, read this book right away!
Fintech Founders: Inspiring Tales from the Entrepreneurs that are Changing Finance by Agustin Rubini and Susanne Chishti (2019)
The rapid growth of fintech is largely attributed to the professionals who started new businesses in this field. This book is designed to help people without an entrepreneurial background understand how fintech looks from an entrepreneur’s perspective and what strategic approaches are used by successful key players. Instead of focusing on the fintech landscape in only one country, this book looks at fintech from all continents with the most valuable insights from top-of-the-line experts who make impactful disruption in reality. The aspects covered in this book are strategy, leadership, investment, insurance, funding, operations and marketing, data and analytics.
INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan (2017)
This book discloses the secret of today’s most successful tech companies – Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla in designing and developing products that earned the love of billions of people around the world. If you are about to attend a workshop or lecture on how to improve your business, you may want to consider this book as an alternative. This book serves as a masterclass which teaches you how to take your organization and product to a next level no matter what stages your businesses are at. Reading this book, you will learn from real case studies from top technology-powered product companies and get inspired by the author’s own personal stories on how to achieve product-market fit and build great products/services.
Everything transaction by Chiel Liezenberg, Douwe Lycklama and Shikko Nijland (2019)
Nowadays, organizations increasingly use technology to engage with clients, partners and stakeholders, every interaction is two-way value exchange and is built on mutual interest. Digital transaction is believed to be the number one enabler in the digital economy where businesses embed new forms of trust, safety and credibility. This book serves as an eye opener when it comes to the benefits that digitalization and the IoT (Internet of Things) offers to the payment space. Being called as the “Management book of the year” in 2019, this book helps leaders to better navigate the digital world from the unique perspective of transactions.
Banking the Cloud by Chris Zadeh, Matthijs Aler, Mary Curran-Hackett (2020)
One of the author of this book, Chris Zadeh and his team saw the potential of cloud banking but their revolutionary idea was rejected right at the start. Not giving up, they opened the first software company in the world called Ohpen to put a bank on the cloud. The business is taking off and their exciting story was told in this book, which is promised to take readers on an epic journey from thrill of discovery, to the devastation of defeat, and to an exhilarating and last-minute rally. Read this book to find out how their ideas were innovated, survived and eventually reached the winning state!
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Note from the Holland FinTech team:
Technology is accelerating quickly and digitalization in the financial services industry has developed at unprecedented speed and scale. For many, it has prompted a rethink of people, property and technology to support a future world of digital businesses. The ultimate mission of Holland Fintech is to foster the growth and further facilitate the fintech revolution by connecting all relevant parties to an efficient and sustainable financial technology ecosystem. More than 400 members have been using our knowledge network to work, to collaborate and to support each other.
Learn more about Holland Fintech and our resources here.
