Financial technology is changing how money moves, who gets access to credit, and which rules apply — often faster than the institutions responsible for governing it can respond.
The Center for Fintech Innovation and Policy is CSUN's hub for applied fintech education, research, and policy engagement. Housed in the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics and situated between the Silicon Beach technology corridor and the downtown Los Angeles financial district, the Center connects students, faculty, regulators, and industry practitioners around a single question: how should digital finance be built, governed, and regulated?
We prepare a diverse student body to understand, navigate, and shape rapidly evolving digital financial systems — while building the research capacity and analytical frameworks needed to evaluate existing regulatory approaches and generate informed recommendations for policymakers.
Five Pillars
The Center prepares students for careers in fintech, regtech, compliance, digital assets, and product management. A structured mentorship network connects students with practitioners in fintech, compliance, and policy. Semester-based Fintech Career Days bring employers and regulators to campus for panels, networking, and targeted skills workshops. A selective Fintech Policy Fellows program supports advanced undergraduate and graduate students conducting guided research and policy brief writing.
The Center produces a recurring series of fintech and financial policy conversations — delivered as live and recorded webinars, and repurposed as podcast episodes. Programming features regulators, scholars, industry practitioners, and community voices, with topics tracking current regulatory challenges and policy debates in digital finance. Sessions are recorded, transcribed where feasible, and archived for educational use, with short-form video adapted for wider distribution.
The Center offers short, stackable, non-credit certificates for students and working professionals in areas such as regulatory sandbox navigation, applied blockchain for compliance, and AI ethics in lending and risk management. Programs are delivered in hybrid and online formats. Where high-quality instructional content exists on established platforms, the Center may provide access to participating students at no cost, under faculty oversight.
The Center advances policy-relevant research on financial technology and its legal, economic, and social implications. It provides competitive seed support for early-stage faculty projects, hosts a research colloquium where faculty and invited scholars present work in progress, and publishes short applied policy briefs that translate academic research for regulators, industry, and the public. The Center actively pursues external funding from public agencies and foundations.
The Center serves as a coordinated point of contact for fintech firms, financial institutions, and public agencies seeking to engage with CSUN on talent development, research collaboration, and policy dialogue. Engagement takes several forms: guest speakers, practitioner-in-residence roles, targeted events, and applied student projects. Partnerships are scaled to available resources and governed by CSUN guidelines.
A Message from the Director
Fintech is not only a technology story. Every product decision in digital finance is also a decision about credit access, consumer protection, market structure, and the reach of existing law — and those questions are being answered faster than regulators, courts, and universities can respond.
I founded this Center to put CSUN in that conversation, and to put our students in it with us. Many of them are the first in their families to attend college. For them, understanding digital finance is not an abstraction — it is a gateway to economic mobility. The Center exists to give them genuine fluency in digital financial systems, the skills employers in fintech, compliance, and regtech are actively seeking, and the confidence to build careers that might otherwise have been out of reach.
We are well placed to do it. CSUN is one of the largest and most diverse universities in the nation, situated between the Silicon Beach technology corridor and the downtown Los Angeles financial district — a natural crossroads of finance, technology, and policy.
We are building this in the open, in partnership with industry, regulators, and the community. If you work in fintech, financial services, or financial regulation — or you simply care about how digital finance gets governed — I would like to hear from you.
Farshad Ghodoosi
Founding Director
For Students
The Center connects CSUN students directly to the people building and regulating digital finance — through mentorship, guided research, and direct contact with employers and regulators.
Fintech Policy Fellows
A selective program for advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a demonstrated interest in financial regulation and public policy. Fellows conduct guided research, write policy briefs, and work directly with faculty and external practitioners.
Fintech Mentorship Network
Structured, one-to-one mentorship pairing students with working professionals in fintech, compliance, regtech, and policy. Organized around clear milestones in career exploration and professional skills development.
Career Days & Skills Workshops
Semester-based events bringing employers, regulators, and practitioners to campus for career panels, networking, and targeted skills workshops — focused on realistic pathways, emerging roles, and what employers actually expect.
Research & Policy
The Center produces policy-relevant research on digital finance and translates it into formats people can use — briefs for regulators and practitioners, and short certifications for students and working professionals.
Applied Research and Policy Briefs
Competitive seed support for early-stage faculty research on financial technology and its legal, economic, and social implications. A periodic colloquium gives faculty and invited scholars a venue for work in progress, and short applied policy briefs translate that research for regulators, industry, and the public.
Non-Credit Certifications
Short, stackable certificates for students and working professionals in areas such as regulatory sandbox navigation, applied blockchain for compliance, and AI ethics in lending and risk management. Delivered in hybrid and online formats under faculty oversight.
Advisory Boards
The Center is guided by two advisory bodies that serve in a consultative capacity.
Industry Advisory Board
Practitioner and policy perspective on fintech trends, regulatory developments, workforce needs, and applied research opportunities. Members are drawn from fintech firms, financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and related organizations, and help shape Center programming, student engagement, and external partnerships. The Board meets once or twice a year, with remote participation available.
Faculty Advisory Group
Faculty with expertise in business, finance, law, economics, technology, and public policy — from CSUN and from other leading business and law schools. The group advises on research priorities, policy initiatives, academic integration, and program quality.
About the Director
Farshad Ghodoosi is a tenured Associate Professor of Business Law at the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics and the founder and director of the Center for Fintech Innovation and Policy. He also established the Autonomy in Law Research Center, which focuses on AI and law, and serves as faculty advisor for the JPMorgan-sponsored Technical Bootcamp on fintech and machine learning.
His research spans corporate law, fintech, contracts, arbitration, and international economic law, using mixed methods. His scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, business journals, and major media outlets, and has been cited by state and federal courts and by leading scholars. He is also the author of a book and several book chapters, and a frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences.
His honors include the Early Career Award from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, CSUN's University Research Fellowship, and the inaugural Georgio Family Faculty Fellowship, along with grants from the National Science Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Centers for International Business Education and Research. He holds a J.S.D. and LL.M. from Yale Law School, an LL.M. from Berkeley Law, and a Ph.D. from Florida International University. He currently serves as a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitrator and is admitted to practice in California and New York.
Farshad Ghodoosi
Founding Director, Center for Fintech Innovation and Policy
David Nazarian College of Business and Economics
Bookstein Hall, Room 3105
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8245
- Phone: (818) 677-3947
For partnership inquiries, advisory board interest, student programs, media requests, or research collaboration, contact the Director directly.