The SMU School of Information Systems is launching its Master of IT in Business Financial Technology (FinTech) programme in August 2017 with applications opening from Jan 2017. MITB (FinTech) is the first of its kind in Singapore, and probably the world, that blends traditional and emerging disruptive financial technology together with business knowledge and innovation. Students of the course will gain skills and knowledge in areas such as Digital Banking & Fintech, Assets Management & Digital Advisory, as well as Big Data Analytics in Financial Services.

Started in 2007 the MITB programme has evolved as financial technology has changed over the years. Now we see a quantum leap in FinTech with disruptive technologies driving new business models. These changes are being reflected in the track name change from “Financial Services” to “Financial Technology”. The course content also contains more technical depth in FinTech technologies such as A.I. and blockchain and FinTech business models such as invoice trading and robo-advisors to name a few.

The MITB FinTech courses not only includes the latest FinTech technologies but also places them alongside traditional financial technology aligned to banking domains. There are 12 courses available for study: two Foundation courses to teach essential banking process and enterprise architecture, six courses focusing on the technology for banking domains including retail, financial markets and asset management and four courses covering infrastructure and operations with risk, products and financial analytics. All the courses have FinTech baked in with gamification, AI, crypto-currencies, blockchain and smart contracts, big data and DevOps. Students can also take other courses on innovation, IT and general management.

The courses are designed and delivered by industry experts with more than combined 150 years of finance experience across the business domains working as regulators, quantitative analysts and service providers at large corporates, exchanges and in start-ups as CIOs, CTO, traders and fund managers.

Each course has hands-on components using leading industry tools such as Ethereum for Smart Contracts and blockchain, Hadoop and SAS for big data analysis and visualisation, Apama for financial data analysis, Serena for DevOps. New technologies are introduced such as Mobi swipe for mobile POS along with Flexcube and BizAgri for banking processes and SAS eGRC for risk. A trade simulator, Epi trade, is used and our own built teaching bank, tBank, for core banking.

Exciting collaborations, internships and projects with large companies including OCBC and UOB in areas such as Big Data and Blockchain provide students with exposure to finance companies leading to many good job placements. Collaborations also include Pinnacle for “Big Data” research, application and technology transfer (https://pinnacle.smu.edu.sg/) and PayPal for KYC blockchain (/initiatives/financial-services-tops)

Supporting the MITB programme, SMU has an excellent FinTech eco-system with applied and fundamental research from the LCKSB and SKBI, innovation and entrepreneurship from the IIE, short professional courses and an enthusiastic FinTech student club.

With a rapidly growing number of new job opportunities in FinTech the MITB FinTech programme provides the opportunity to learn the depth and breadth of financial technology leveraging strong industry connections and experts with deep financial experience. Everyone interested to learn and practice FinTech will find the programme applicable to their professional goals.