Columbia Business School Professor Slated to Outline FinTech's Potential at USU in March

Charles Calomiris, the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School, will present the George S. Eccles Distinguished Lecture at Utah State University on March 14. The lecture will be at 10:30 a.m. in the Eccles Conference Center Auditorium on the campus of Utah State University in Logan. All members of the public are invited.

Calomiris’s lecture, titled “How FinTech will transform banking, if politics permits it,” focuses on the evolution of banking and payments. FinTech, or financial technology, is sweeping the finance industry, as new companies with a foundation in technology transform centuries-old banking processes. These firms provide banking services that look very different from traditional banks. FinTech firms, according to Calomiris, “tend to specialize either in payments or credit and they may be more efficient and profitable than existing banks. The next generation of these intermediaries could prove even more effective at delivering beneficial services.”

Calomiris also serves as the Director of Columbia Business School’s Program for Financial Studies Initiative on Finance and Growth in Emerging Markets, and as a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. His research spans the areas of banking, corporate finance, financial history, and monetary economics. He also served as the Senior Deputy Comptroller of the Currency for Economics and Chief Economist in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Calomiris received a B.A. in economics from Yale University and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. He is the recipient of numerous awards and research grants. His book, “Fragile By Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit,” received the American Publishers 2015 Award for the best book in Business, Finance and Management, was named one of the Best Economics Books of 2014 by the Financial Times, and one of the best books of 2014 by both The Times Higher Education Supplement and Bloomberg Businessweek.

“We are delighted that Professor Calomiris will present the Eccles Lecture this year, especially given that George Eccles, a native of Logan, himself graduated from Columbia Business School. Professor Calomiris is a renowned expert in banking and finance, and I look forward to learning more about the impact of fintech on banking,” noted Douglas D. Anderson, dean of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University.

The George S. Eccles Distinguished Lecture in Economics is an annual lecture which began in 1974. The Huntsman School of Business, with support from the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Center for Growth and Opportunity, invites a top expert in the fields of finance, banking and economics to present relevant information to the northern Utah community.