Global law firm Kennedys, through its technology arm, Kennedys IQ, has joined the prestigious US-based Centre for Research toward Advancing Financial Technologies (CRAFT).
CRAFT is the first fintech-focused industry university cooperative research centre. It brings together academic and industry partners, as well as representatives from all levels of government. CRAFT supports advanced research projects relating to the fintech challenges of the financial services industry. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds CRAFT.
CRAFT is led by Steve Yang and George Calhoun at the School of Business at Stevens Institute of Technology and Apama Gupta at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
CRAFT plans to expand its reach to include the insurance market. This is where Kennedys’ experience in developing technology solutions through Kennedys IQ will be advantageous.
Kennedys joins other industry partners including Bank of America, Capgemini, Goldman Sachs, Charles Schwab, CHUBB, IBM and Wells Fargo as well as university partners Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Stevens Institute of Technology.
CRAFT has invited Kennedys to speak at its bi-annual industry advisory board meeting.
The meeting will be held on 2-3 November in New York and will feature keynote addresses by the United Nations, UKFin+, and Imperial College as well as a panel discussion on Fintech innovation and commercialisation.
Karim Derrick, Chief Products Officer at Kennedys IQ, is presenting. Jian-bo Yang, chair in decision and system Sciences at the Alliance Manchester Business School and director of the Decision and Cognitive Sciences Research Centre at Manchester University, is also speaking.
Kennedys and the university have a long-standing partnership, during which they collaborated to develop fraud prevention software. The university is also a partner in a consortium led by Kennedys. They are developing groundbreaking software able to identify and assess ESG (environmental, social and governance) risk, following a grant from Innovate UK.