Mark Cummins is Professor of Financial Technology at the Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, where he leads the FinTech Cluster at the university level. He previously held the posts of Professor of Finance at the Dublin City University (DCU) Business School and Director of the Irish Institute of Digital Business. He holds a PhD in Quantitative Finance, with specialism in the application of integral transforms and the fast Fourier transform (FFT) for derivatives valuation and risk management. Professor Cummins has research interests in the following areas: financial technology (FinTech); quantitative finance; energy and commodity finance; sustainable finance; model risk management.
Professor Cummins has produced a large collection of research studies focused on modelling issues, spanning model development, model testing, model selection and model risk, overlaid with a particular interest in statistically robust correction techniques for the multiple comparisons bias inherent in multiple hypothesis test settings.
To date, Professor Cummins has over 50 publication outputs. He has published in leading international discipline journals such as: European Journal of Operational Research; Journal of Money, Credit and Banking; Journal of Banking and Finance; Journal of Financial Markets; Journal of Empirical Finance; Quantitative Finance; Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money; International Review of Financial Analysis; and European Journal of Finance. He has additionally published in highly ranked international field journals such as: Energy Economics; Applied Energy; Energy Policy; European Review of Agricultural Economics; Resources Policy; and Land Use Policy.
Underscoring his research expertise, Professor Cummins is co-editor of the open access Palgrave title Disrupting Finance: Fintech and Strategy in the 21st Century (with Theo Lynn, John Mooney, and Pierangelo Rosati). He is also co-author of the Wiley Finance title Handbook of Multi-Commodity Markets and Products: Structuring, Trading and Risk Management (with Andrea Roncoroni and Gianluca Fusai).
Professor Cummins has an establisehd track record in building capacity, most recently in the area of FinTech in response to the changing landscape of financial services. He has publications and ongoing research projects spanning, amongst others: crowdfunding, in particular peer-to-business lending; explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) applications; online invoice trading; open banking; and the market impact of cybersecurity breaches on corporations. In terms of outreach, a successful quarterly symposium series entitled ‘Capital Markets and FinTech’ was run for a period of three years. Professor Cummins also co-led the development of DCU's first microcredential course entitled FinTech - Financial Innovation that was developed under the university's partnership with FutureLearn and delivered over its educational platform.
Prior to this, in the area of sustainable energy finance, he led the development of a new MSc in Sustainable Energy Finance offering for the DCU Business School, along with a spin off Springboard programme, the Graduate Certificate in Management (Sustainable Energy Finance), targeted at unemployed professionals seeking to skill up in the area of sustainable energy finance. He then proceeded to develop an associated seminar series to faciltate industry networking for graduates of the programmes. He additionally delivered multiple publications in the sustainable energy finance domain, completed a dedicated doctoral candidate with a focus on sentiment effects in emissions markets, and secured Irish Research Council funding under the New Horizons Interdisciplinary Award Scheme (to the value of ~€220,000) to support a research project investigating a real options analysis approach to appraising CO2 recycling technology investment.
Professor Cummins has previous industry experience working as a Quantitative Analyst (Model Validation) within the Global Risk Function for BP Oil International Ltd., based in Canary Wharf, London. As part of the Risk Quantitative Analysis team, his primary responsibilities included derivatives and price curve model validation and development, with a global remit across BP's oil, gas, power, commodities and emissions activities. Leveraging this energy market experience, he has achieved an international research reputation, evidenced through: an invitation to join a European consortium seeking H2020 funding for a European Training Network in the area of mathematical modelling and scientific computing for future energy markets; an appointment as Associate Contributor at the Energy and Commodity Finance Centre at ESSEC Business School; a previous appointment as Associate Editor (Energy Finance and Energy Markets) at Finance Research Letters; and a series of invitations to speak at international conferences and workshops on the topic of model risk.
