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ECA – January Semester 2021
FIN383
End-of-Course Assessment – January Semester
2021
Financial Technologies and Innovations
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________
INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:
1. This End-of-Course Assessment paper comprises TEN (10)
pages (including the cover
page).
2. You are to include the following particulars in your
submission: Course Code, Title of the
ECA, SUSS PI No., Your Name, and Submission Date.
3. Late submission will be subjected to the marks deduction
scheme. Please refer to the
Student Handbook for details.

IMPORTANT NOTE
ECA Submission Deadline: 4 May 2021, 12 noon
ECA Submission Guidelines
Please follow the submission instructions stated below:
A - What Must Be Submitted
You are required to submit the following THREE (3) items for
marking and grading:
• A Report (you should submit this item first as it carries the
highest weightage).
• A Video Presentation:
o SUSS conducts Hands-on workshop on how to record ECA
video presentation for SBIZ
students every semester. Students will receive an invite to the
workshop via Student
Portal, Canvas as well as email, a month before the ECA cut-off

date.
o The ECA video recording and submission guides are also
available as an external
links/downloads in the invite.
• The set of PowerPoint slides, converted to PDF, upon which
the video presentation is
based.
Please verify your submissions after you have submitted the
above THREE (3) items.
B - Submission Deadline
• The THREE (3) items of Report, Video and Presentation
Summary are to be submitted by
12 noon on the submission deadline.
• You are allowed multiple submissions till the cut-off date for
each of the THREE (3) items.
• Late submission of any of the THREE (3) items will be
subjected to mark-deduction
scheme by the University. Please refer to Section 5.2 Para 2.4
of the Student Handbook.
C - How the (3) Items Should Be Submitted
• The Report: submit online to Canvas via TurnItIn (for

plagiarism detection)
• The Video: submit online to Canvas (refer to workshop invite
for the user guide)
• The Presentation Summary:
o submit online to Canvas via TurnItIn (PPT must be converted
to PDF and submission
is in PDF only)
o The PPT must contain at least 20 words
o Refer to workshop invite for the user guide
• Avoid using a public WiFi connection for submitting large
video files. If you are using
public wireless (WiFi) connection (e.g. SG Wireless at public
areas), you might encounter
a break in the connection when sending large files.
D - Additional guidelines on file formatting are given as
follows:
1. Report • Please ensure that your Microsoft Word document is
generated by

Microsoft Word 2007 or higher.
• The report must be saved in .docx format.
2. Video • Showing your PowerPoint projection in the
background is NOT
required.
• Time Duration: a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 6
minutes
There are two methods for ECA video assignment submission;
either
Record Media or Upload Media.
For Record Media
Video can be recorded via Canvas through desktop/laptop with
built-
in webcam and microphone or through Canvas mobile app.
For Upload Media
Video can be recorded using other recording devices and
uploaded as
a media file. Do ensure that your video file conforms to these
requirements:
a) File Format: .mp4
b) File Size: No more than 500MB
Note: You will receive an invite to the ECA Hands-On
workshop via
Student Portal, Canvas as well as email, a month before the

ECA cut-
off date. The invite will allow you to register for the workshop
as well
as download a copy of the user guide.
3. Presentation
Summary
• Your PowerPoint presentation must contain at least 20 words.
• Please ensure that your PowerPoint presentation is converted
to
PDF format before you submit.
• The maximum number of slides is fifteen (15).
• Please do NOT download and use PowerPoint slide design
templates from the Internet.
E – Please be Aware of the Following:
Submission in hardcopy or any other means not given in the
above guidelines will not be

accepted. You do not need to submit any other forms or cover
sheets (e.g. form ET3) with your
ECA.
You are reminded that electronic transmission is not immediate.
The network traffic may be
particularly heavy on the date of submission deadline and
connections to the system cannot be
guaranteed. Hence, you are advised to submit your work early.
Canvas will allow you to
submit your work late but your work will be subjected to the
mark-deduction scheme. You
should therefore not jeopardise your course result by submitting
your ECA at the last minute.
It is your responsibility to check and ensure that your files are
successfully submitted to
Canvas.
F - Plagiarism and Collusion
Plagiarism and collusion are forms of cheating and are not
acceptable in any form in a
student’s work, including this ECA. Plagiarism and collusion
are taking work done by others
or work done together with others respectively and passing it
off as your own. You can avoid
plagiarism by giving appropriate references when you use other
people’s ideas, words or
pictures (including diagrams). Refer to the APA Manual if you
need reminding about quoting
and referencing. You can avoid collusion by ensuring that your
submission is based on your
own individual effort.

The electronic submission of your ECA will be screened by
plagiarism detection software. For
more information about plagiarism and collusion, you should
refer to the Student Handbook
(Section 5.2.1.3). You are reminded that SUSS takes a tough
stance against plagiarism or
collusion. Serious cases will normally result in the student
being referred to SUSS’s Student
Disciplinary Group. For other cases, significant mark penalties
or expulsion from the course
will be imposed.
Video Presentation Evaluation Criteria
Note: Students will be assessed on the quality of the
presentation and not the quality of the video
recording. However, the recording is expected to have video and
audio clarity. Showing
your PowerPoint projection in the background is NOT required.
Organisation of Presentation /8
• Logical flow of presentation

Posture & Body Language /5
• Posture: Standing, straight back etc…
• Body language:
– Hand gestures supporting oral arguments, etc…
Eye-Contact /5
• Looking at the video camera
• No reading of slides or notes or cue cards
Pace & Articulation /7
• Pace: Speaks neither too fast nor too slow
• Articulation: Oral expression is clear and confident in the
presentation.
TOTAL /25
Presentation Summary Evaluation Criteria
Format and Style of Slides /3
• Layout, clarity of text elements, colour blends, graphical
enhancements

Clarity and Coherence /4
• Proper flow - title page, introduction, body, results,
recommendations /
discussion points, conclusion/summary; quick to understand,
free from
grammatical errors
Creativity /3
• Ability to use creative elements to value-add to the
presentation so as to
enhance understanding and clarity of difficult concepts
TOTAL /10
SECTION A (Total 65 marks)
You are required to submit the following items for this ECA:
• A report, answering Questions 1 -- 2 of Section A
• A Jupyter Notebook (.ipynb) for Question 3 of Section A. All
documentation/comments/assumptions of Question 3 must be
made within the .ipynb
file using either Markdown or inline comments.

• A pdf version of your ipynb submission for Question 3 of
Section A for Turnitin
evaluation.
• A video for Section B
• A set of PowerPoint slides in PDF format for Section C
2020 has been an exciting year for those who have been
following fintech developments. A
few major developments have further entrenched the usage of
technology in all matters related
to finance. For example, in 2020, China begun her testing of
CBDC to further accelerate the
uptake of RMB as a world reserve currency. 2020 also
witnessed Ant, a major fintech player
in China seeking for the largest IPO listing in history. In our
local front, Singapore witnessed
the significant uptake of digital payments, driven by the fear of
infection through paper notes
in the COVID-19 pandemic and deliberate government’s efforts
for greater digitalisation
among businesses through the Fortitude Budget.
In this ECA, we seek to explore and understand the chain of
events culminating to these major
developments and how these developments will further
accelerate the adoption of technology
to deliver affordable financial services to the masses.
Question 1
Ant, the titan of fintech in China, is seeking a dual listing in
Hong Kong and Shanghai and
when it is listed, it is believed that Ant’s IPO will probably be

the biggest IPO in history. If
Ant’s listing is successful, it will have a market capitalisation
that is comparably to JP Morgan
Chase, the world’s biggest bank that begun in 1799. It took Ant
less than 20 years to achieve
what JP Morgan Chase has achieved in 221 years.
Discuss and explain the factors behind the meteoric rise of Ant
in China.
Make good uses of examples, statistics and events to augment
your discussion.
Word Limit: Less than 1,500 words
(25 marks)
Question 2
The rise of Ant has been watched closely by many in the
banking industry, not lest the CEO
and Chairman of JP Morgan Chase, Mr Jamie Dimon. They have
kept a wary and admiring eye
on the rise of Ant and have taken proactive steps to ensure their
profitability has not been
eroded by these new players.
Discuss and explain the approaches that have been taken by
incumbent banks to adapt to the

rising competition.
Conclude, in your opinion, what would be the future of banking
and finance.
your discussion and conclusion.
(25 marks)
Question 3
With increasing use of technology in finance, regulators are
also showing keenness in the usage
of technology in regulatory matters. To quote the words of Mr.
Andrew G Haldane, Chief
Economist of the Bank of England, in a speech he made in 2014,
he said1
I have a dream. It is futuristic, but realistic. It involves a Star
Trek chair and
a bank of monitors. It would involve tracking the global flow of
funds in close
to real time, in much the same way as happens with global
weather systems
and global internet traffic. Its center piece would be a global
map of financial
flows, charting spillovers, and correlations.
There might be a start-up trying to achieve the dreams of Mr.

Haldane. However, for this dream
to be possible, one of the most important, but mundane, task
ahead is to standardise all
regulatory reporting forms and formats. Only with a
standardised reporting format, the
collected data can be aggregated effortlessly for subsequent
dissemination, comparison, and
decision-making. More importantly, by standardising the
reporting format and providing a
clear definition of the data to report, contributors will ensure
that the reported data is the
intended data to be collected with sufficient depth and clarity
for decision-making.
In this question, we will look at the regulations governing robo-
advisors and their reporting
requirements.
Robo-advisors are governed under the Securities and Futures
Act in Singapore and these digital
advisors act on behalf of their clients to perform periodic
portfolio rebalancing to address
portfolio drift. Under the Act, robo-advisors are required to
provide their clients with details of
their portfolios regularly. Let assume that the Authority
stipulate that details of the client’
portfolio be presented in the format specified in Appendix A.
1 Manuscript to the Maxwell Fry Annual Global Finance
lecture, given by Andrew G Haldane, October 2014.
https://www.bis.org/review/r141030f.pdf

Given the following inputs:
Figure 1: query_date refers to the date that the portfolio’s
holding is queried from the portfolio
and prices databases. selected_pf refers to the portfolio that was
selected to generate the holding
report. pf_file and price_file are the databases recording all the
clients’ portfolios and the
historical stock prices, respectively. Details of the data format
of the databases are given in
Appendix B.
Design and create a Python script that allows you to provide the
details of the portfolio’s
holding in accordance with the format specified in Appendix A.
You can assume that query
date is always on the last trading day of a year.
Use your script to generate the report for the inputs given in
Figure 1.
(15 marks)
SECTION B (Total 25 marks)
Prepare a video presentation of at least 3 minutes, but not
exceeding 6 minutes that can be used

to help prospective investors in Ant to understand the strengths
and risks of the business.
either Record Media or Upload
Media. For Upload Media, please note that your file size should
be no more than 500MB and
the format is in .mp4.
(25 marks)
SECTION C (Total 10 marks)
Prepare a set of PowerPoint presentation upon which the video
presentation is based. Please
note that the PowerPoint must be converted to PDF before
submission to Canvas.
(10 marks)
Appendix A
The historical stock holding of a client’s portfolio must be

reported in the following format:
Figure A1: Reporting format of a selected portfolio. The units
of stocks held must be held in
accordance with the stock allocation in the portfolio. You can
assume fractional holding of
stocks in the portfolio.
The report in Figure A1 was generated using the following
inputs:
Figure A2: Inputs to Python script
Appendix B
When you on-board a new client to your platform, you will
recommend a combination of stocks
to form a portfolio that is suitable for your client’s risk-return
preferences. With the portfolio
formed, the specifics of the portfolio are created in the portfolio
database with the following
details:
• Portfolio id (id), which is a unique identifier to the portfolio
• Portfolio construction date, (PC Date) which refers to the date
when the portfolio is set
up

• The composition of the portfolio, which will include the
names of the stocks and their
respective composition. It is assumed that a maximum of 7
stocks is allowed in the
portfolios and the names of the stocks are obtained in the
columns denoted by x_1, x_2,
…, x_7. The weight of each stock is obtained from the columns
denoted by w_1, w_2,
…, w_7.
• The initial investment amount (initial_invt) is the amount of
wealth used to create the
portfolio
• The monthly investment amount (monthly_invt) is the sum of
money which the client
will pay every month to acquire the portfolio
The details of all the portfolios that is managed by your robo-
advisor are recorded in the
portfolios.csv file.
The portfolio is set up on the last trading date of the month
specified by PC Date and the initial
investment amount is used to buy stocks with their allocation
specified in w_1, … w_7. The
monthly investment amount is used to acquire stock on the
subsequent trading dates.
For example, for portfolio with id = 1, it is a 5-underlyings
portfolio with the portfolio
construction date specified to be 14-April-2008. The first
acquisition of the stocks in the
portfolio will happened on the last trading date of April -2008,

i.e. 30-April-2008. A sum of
$2100 is used to acquire the appropriate integer units of stocks.
For all subsequent month-end
dates, the portfolio will be set up with a sum of $410.
The file raw_price_data.csv provides the observed closing
prices of stocks at different trading
dates. The historical prices span from 1-Jan-2007 till 31-Jan-
2017. As the name suggests, the
price data has not been pre-processed, so there will be
incomplete price information for stocks
which did not begin trading before 1-Jan-2007. An example is
NYSEARC: MENU which did
not have any price information earlier than 7-Nov-2016.
For some stocks, there might not be any price information at all,
either due to a data query
malfunction or human errors. An example is NYSEARCA:
TPYP where you will see an empty
column.
There are some stocks where there are holes in the price data.
An example is NYSEARCA:
PFM where price data between 7-Dec-2016 to 20-Dec-2016 is
missing.
The remaining columns denotes the observed closing prices of
stocks. The column headers
specify the names of stocks.
----- END OF ECA PAPER -----
pages (including the cover page).IMPORTANT NOTE

IMPORTANT NOTE
highest weightage).
date.

based.

for the user guide)
is in PDF only)
follows:
generated by

background is NOT
required.
minutes
either
For Record Media
built-
For Upload Media
uploaded as
requirements:
workshop via
ECA cut-

as well
3. Presentation
Summary
to

ECA.
Canvas.
student’s work, including this ECA. Plagiarism and collusi on

will be imposed.

• Body language:
Eye-Contact /5
presentation.
TOTAL /25
enhancements

recommendations /
free from
grammatical errors
Creativity /3
TOTAL /10

evaluation.
Question 1

in China.
your discussion.
(25 marks)
Question 2
rising competition.

and finance.
(25 marks)
Question 3
he said1
Trek chair and
funds in close
weather systems
map of financial

collected data can be aggregated effortlessly for subsequent
intended data to be collected with sufficient depth and clar ity
requirements.

Appendix B.
Figure 1.
(15 marks)

(25 marks)
(10 marks)
Appendix A

inputs:
Appendix B
details:
up

…, w_7.
portfolio

column.
missing.

IMPORTANT NOTE
highest weightage).
date.

based.
for the user guide)

is in PDF only)
follows:
generated by

background is NOT
required.
minutes
either
For Record Media
built-
For Upload Media
uploaded as
requirements:
workshop via
ECA cut-
as well

3. Presentation
Summary
to
ECA.

Canvas.
student’s work, including this ECA. Plagiarism and collusion

will be imposed.

• Body language:
Eye-Contact /5
presentation.
TOTAL /25
enhancements
recommendations /

free from
grammatical errors
Creativity /3
TOTAL /10
evaluation.

Question 1

in China.
your discussion.
(25 marks)
Question 2
rising competition.
and finance.

(25 marks)
Question 3
he said1
Trek chair and
funds in close
weather systems
map of financial

collected data can be aggregate d effortlessly for subsequent
intended data to be collected with sufficient depth and clarity
requirements.

Appendix B.
Figure 1.
(15 marks)

(25 marks)
(10 marks)
Appendix A

inputs:
Appendix B
details:
up

…, w_7.
portfolio

column.
missing.

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