LAW4546 Fintech and the law
Faculty of Law
LAW4546 Fintech and the law is a level 4, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Law, offered in 2026 in Semester 1 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2026
- Semester 1
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 3 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2026 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before LAW4546
Prohibitions
You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.
After LAW4546
No unit lists LAW4546 as a prerequisite in the 2026 handbook.
Enrolment rules
You must have completed at least 60 credit points of law study.
Overview
The phenomenal global growth of financial technology, or ‘Fintech’, presents a range of complex legal and regulatory challenges. In particular, policymakers and regulators must decide whether to manage these developments within existing regulatory frameworks, or develop something completely new. This unit will examine the role of law and regulation at the intersection of finance and emerging technologies, such as: contactless payments, digital banks, open banking, ICO/STO, stablecoins, DeFi, CBDC, RegTech and BigTech. Furthermore, the unit will explore conventional, as well as novel regulatory mechanisms, such as regulatory sandbox, digital regulatory reporting, cross-sector regulatory coordination, and data empowerment enabled by digital identity solutions.
Offerings in 2026
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| First semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Class participationDemonstration15%
- Group presentationPresentation35%
- Written assignmentWritten50%
Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Demonstrate understanding of the role of law and regulation in the age of fintech, including key regulators in major fintech ecosystems around the world;
- 2
Identify primary fintech innovations and their possible applications;
- 3
Evaluate principal legal and regulatory issues concerning fintech, either domestically or globally;
- 4
Conduct analysis of regulatory developments in major fintech ecosystems;
- 5
Collaborate with peers in order to communicate on fintech regulatory issues to a range of audiences.
Workload and teaching
- Seminars36 hours
- Teaching approachActive learning
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
Learning resources
Required resources
See the Moodle unit page for prescribed and recommended resources. Prescribed texts are usually available for purchase through the University Bookstore and are sometimes available for short-term loan or as eBooks through the library.
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Dr Cheng-Yun Tsang
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for LAW4546?
LAW4546 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is LAW4546 offered?
In 2026, LAW4546 runs in Semester 1 at Clayton.
How much work is LAW4546?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does LAW4546 have an exam?
No. LAW4546 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.