EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/K012304/1
Title: 3rd Party Dematerialisation and Rematerialisation of Capital
Principal Investigator: Perry, Professor MJ
Other Investigators:
Subramanian, Professor S Hulme, Professor m K
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Bristol Pound Community Interest Company Zopa Ltd
Department: Computer Science
Organisation: Brunel University London
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 10 June 2013 Ends: 13 April 2015 Value (£): 257,941
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Human-Computer Interactions Information & Knowledge Mgmt
Management & Business Studies
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Financial Services
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
07 Sep 2012 EPSRC : Research in the Wild Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
New forms of digital connectivity give rise to opportunities in doing financial transactions in different ways and with radically different business models that offer the possibility of transforming the marketplace. One area in the digital economy that has had such an effect is in the ways that users access and use digital banking and payment services. This move can be seen in the suggestion that highly digitally connected societies might even abandon the use of cash (e.g. Sweden), but has also resulted in the emergence of wholly mobile currencies (e.g. M-Pesa), mixed media currencies (e.g. Bristol and Brixton Pounds), and peer-to-peer moneylending (e.g. Zopa, prosper.com). These financial services dealing with money transfers bypass the traditional banking sector, and new players acting as financial intermediaries have begun to provide financial exchange services without directly acting as banks, i.e. as 'financial holding services'. A variety of different models to achieve this have emerged, often to meet the particularities of different market conditions and sectors. Understandably, these different services-and the different platforms they are built on-may be perceived by their users as offering different kinds of risk and utility to their traditional counterparts. The socio-digital systems that underlie these services form the focus of our enquiry. This research will explore how service presentation (comprising of the business model, information content and structure, and interaction design and data representation to users) impacts on their value, use and interpretation. This will involve data collection and participatory design exercises with two such financial services to understand the issues and difficulties that they and their users face in accessing and using these services. We will also work with these stakeholders to design and evaluate novel approaches and solutions that would be potentially useful to them. We will explore new opportunities to examine how their business models and technological solutions could be used to extend their services outside of their current product range. Finally, we will package our research findings in a form that is available and useful to other players wishing to enter this new and emerging economic environment.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.brunel.ac.uk