Emerging Geographies of Financial Technology in Europe: Mapping Organizational, Institutional, and Strategic Financial Center Change in the Benelux

Witnessing the rapid digitization of finance, this project investigates financial center change through a comparative case study of Amsterdam, Brussels, and Luxembourg. A main question this project seeks to answer is how the traditional intermediating role of financial centers is changing in light of the increased use of Financial Technologies (FinTech) such as digital currencies, blockchain,
robotic advice, etc. Is there still a need for financial centers in the age of digital financial applications? And if so, which organizations will be the key intermediaries: big banks, or rather tech giants such as the American Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook, or the Chinese Alibaba? Although constituting pressing issues in terms of economy, society and even geo-politics, FinTech-induced transformations in financial centers remain poorly understood. Further, while a geographical research agenda on FinTech is emerging, the focus has thus far been mostly on small start-ups and less on how banks and large tech companies use FinTech. This project seeks to fill these research gaps by focusing on shifts in the Benelux where established financial institutions and large tech firms are beginning to collaborate. It focuses on how organizations change, how local and regional institutions shift, and how these transformations relate to wider regulatory and strategic changes enacted at national and European scales