PayPal FNR-PEARL Chair in Digital Financial Services

The appointment of Prof Fridgen (3rd from right) was made at a press conference on 7 October. 2nd left: Claude Meisch (Minister for Higher Education and Research); 3rd: left Dan Schulman (CEO Paypal); 4th left: Pierre Gramegna (Minister of Finance); middle: Véronique Hoffeld (Chair of FNR Board); 1st right: Stéphane Pallage (Rector, University of Luxembourg); 3rd right: Björn Ottersten (Director, SnT).

Project Description:

With the PEARL programme, the FNR offers Luxembourg research institutions attractive funding to enable them to draw established and internationally recognised researchers from abroad to Luxembourg. Through the recruitment of outstanding scientists in strategically important areas, the FNR aims to accelerate the development and strengthening of Luxembourg’s national research priorities.

The PayPal-FNR PEARL Chair in Digital Financial Services supports the Luxembourg government's goal of making the country a global leader in innovative financial services in the environment of the SnT. The FINATRAX Team and Professor Fridgen explore the future of those services in a data driven environment, considering a broad range of angles, from usability, onboarding and operational efficiency to regulatory supervision.

Areas of expertise include developing new opportunities for Blockchain/DLT, AI and IoT in the private and public sectors but also understanding financial implications, manage systemic risk and improve the efficiency. Another topic is the investigation of trusted autonomous payment methods. Further, the group is looking at how digital transformation in fintech and regulatory technology should look like to create generalizable principles that describe "what makes a good design."

The special funding from PayPal and FNR has an initial duration of 5 years and is hosted at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust.