MIT, Oxford and everything in between — The Best Fintech Courses to help you adapt to Disruption in Finance
[Updated for 2018/19]
As technology continues to redefine the principles of financial services, professionals working in the industry run the risk of being pushed out to sea by the forceful wave of Fintech disruption, if they don’t acquire the right skills.
In this post we’ll touch upon Fintech’s growth — examining the very best Machine Learning courses, Artificial Intelligence in Finance certifications, and foundational programmes to kickstart your Fintech career. What’s more, we’ll outline the best Fintech courses which help professionals adapt to the technology-driven disruption in finance.
What is Fintech? Well, it’s more than a buzzword.
Fintech as an industry has seen tremendous recent growth, but then again — this is representative of the rapid pace of technological disruption across many industries, in recent years.
Financial technologies like machine learning, blockchain and Big Data are giving birth to new opportunities for innovation and growth in finance. This is transforming the ways financial services are being delivered and consumed.
Fintech about to go mainstream?
From the fringes, Fintech is fast pushing into the spotlight.
Perhaps you remember Funding Circle’s TV ad? The online platform, which lends money to SMEs, is making a multi-million pound bid to establish itself as a household name and have its brand top of mind for any SME thinking about borrowing money.
This is just one example of how Fintech is transforming a core financial activity like loans. No doubt you’ve heard of the other technological innovations like blockchain, machine learning, and cryptocurrencies which are having a similar effect in verticals like payments, insurance, investment banking and capital markets.
Learning is more important than you imagine.
It points to a fundamental truth that Fintech and its comprised technologies are more than simple incremental developments. Instead, the movement is transforming the finance industry, leading to rapid digitisation of assets, operations, & (soon): the workforce.
There’s quite the startling observation in all this — As a large portion of this innovation initially occurs outside of traditional finance, most professionals in the industry are unaware of the scale and speed at which this emergent tech is transforming finance.
CFTE was founded on this premise; our fintech courses are a response to the growing knowledge gap within finance professionals.
Fintech courses on the rise!
Along with CFTE’s own offerings, there are a number of Fintech courses which seek to upskill finance professionals, helping them seize innovation in their sector.
The courses differ in their degree of complexity. From covering the basics to more advanced those that cover more advanced concepts, we’ve highlighted some of the best Fintech course available to help you learn Fintech.
List of Fintech courses:
1. Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship: Around Fintech in 8 Hours
What better place to start than CFTE’s online foundational Fintech course.
Around Fintech in 8 Hours is a foundation course designed to cover core Fintech concepts, providing professionals a solid understanding of the state of finance today.
From main technological trends to the dynamic, expanding ecosystem, participants will learn from 4 senior lecturers and 16 industry experts who are CEOs, Fintech entrepreneurs, investors and heads of innovation. The course recently achieved IBF accreditation, meaning eligible Singaporean candidates may benefit from subsidies provided by IBF Standards Training Scheme (IBF-STS).
With the end user in mind, the course has been designed to be accessible regardless of experience.
In just 8 hours, across 16 modules of 30 minutes each, participants can expect to grasp how Fintech is transforming finance.
Details
Study Method: Online
Starts: Open enrolment
Length: At your own pace
Certification: Certificate of Completion
Cost: £299
2. “Oxford Fintech Programme” from Saïd Business School.
Second on the list is a course partly developed by our own co-founder, Huy Nguyen Trieu. He oversees a module on innovation in finance along with industry-renowned experts: Peter Tufano, David Shrier, Nir Vulkan and Alex Petland.
The course covers the basics, including aforementioned technologies like Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, in addition to nascent technologies such as quantum computing. It aims to provide students with the skills and understanding to take new solutions to market and is based on group projects.
If you’re preparing new ventures and desire a deeper understanding in Fintech, this course would be a solid choice. However, be prepared! It’s intensity is not ideal for a complete novices, so some working knowledge of finance is a must.
Details
Study Method: Online
Starts: 27th February 2019 (registrations close 19th February)
Length: 10-week programme
Certification: Certificate of Attendance from Oxford University
Cost: £2,500
3. “Introduction to Fintech” from University of Hong Kong.
Another foundational Fintech course, and another CFTE board member involved in a programme. This time it’s Janos Barberis, founder of SuperCharger, who lends his hand to a course which explores Fintech fundamentals.
The course is designed to employ learners with necessary tools to understand the complex interaction of finance, technology and regulation. It dives deep into the Fintech wave across China and Asia, explaining why the movement has such strength in the region.
At just 6-weeks long and an average 3 hour syllabus per week, the programme is rather accessible for those who want a breezy introduction into the infrastructure of finance.
Details
Study Method: Online
Starts: Open enrollment.
Length: 6-week programme.
Certification: Verified Certificate from University of Hong Kong.
Cost: Free, with certification costing $99 USD.
4. Imperial College Business School: “Innovative Banking”
A course led by Prof Andrei Kirilenko (also an academic board member of CFTE), partly designed by our co-founder Huy Nguyen Trieu.
Unlike the previous two courses, this one is more focused on how bankers can apply key financial technologies like distributed ledgers, digital money and payments, and digital identity to their business models.
In other words, it’s less Fintech 101 and more real-world applications for bankers working in financial institutions who might be interested in exploring how to integrate Fintech into their product, services and organisational process.
Also, unlike the previous online offerings, this is a 2-day course held at Imperial College in London.
Details
Study Method: In-class attendance
Starts: 2nd & 3rd May 2019
Length: 2 days
Cost: £2,950
Location: London, UK.
5. Singapore Management University: Certificate in Fintech and Innovation
Similar to the Imperial course, the certificate in Fintech innovation is only available in-class and is taught by Daniel Liebau, who used to be IT Head for HSBC. The focus here is on innovation within finance and takes a close look at how the process has changed with the proliferation of Fintech.
Students can expect to get a firm grasp on the impact of innovative technologies on traditional business models and how they can replicate similar feats. Interesting point about this course is the emphasis on design thinking, a big trend in Fintech where the enhanced user experience is a key USP for new startups.
Details
Study Method: In-class attendance
Starts: 23rd January 2019
Length: 3 days
Certification: SMU Certificate in Fintech & Innovation
Cost: SGD 3,210
Location: Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore
6. “Wake-up France” from L’Ecole de La Fintech
French Fintech School was launched by Anaïs Raoux, with the purpose to help French finance professionals build their dream careers in today’s Finance. They have a bootcamp programme of 6 Saturdays in Paris that covers an overview of Fintech, Insurtech markets and an introduction to coding. They assembled a pretty impressive teaching team with some of the best representatives of the Fintech French scenes.
Details
Study Method: In-class attendance
Starts: Applications open for 2019
Length: 6 weeks, once every Saturday
Cost: EUR €2,790
Location: Paris
7. San Francisco’s “Fintech School”.
Based in San Francisco, the Fintech School offer a number of blended learning courses aimed at introducing professionals to key Fintech topics such Blockchain, Crowdfunding and Robo-Advisors.
The courses are delivered by experienced instructors who are active members of the Fintech community through being Co-founders, CEOs and senior executives of Fintech companies.
They will walk you through a number of ‘101’ styled Fintech courses with an intended purpose of giving students a soft introduction to Fintech. In addition to their online Fintech courses, they hold a number of workshops across North America if you’re interested in a more immersive programme — they even let you pay in Ethereum!
Details
Study Method: In-class and online
Starts: Dates dependent on course selection.
Length: Course dates vary
Cost: Prices start from $99! (Worth a look if you’re on a budget!)
Location: San Francisco, United States.
8. MIT Fintech Certificate
Although this one has been discontinued, it was the most popular one last year so we thought it deserved a mention. Who knows, it may be reborn once again!
Decision time! Which FinTech should I choose?
A difficult question. We’d be biased (of course!) to say: choose those with CFTE involvement. Indeed, there is so much to learn in Fintech that, if you can, perhaps you should take all of them! From Paris to London it would be a great journey through hyperspace! Joke aside, bear this in mind, if it takes hundreds of hours — and a very large amount of money — for a student to learn the basics of finance, learning Fintech is not an short-term action!
[ARTICLE UPDATED 10/12/19 ]
About CFTE
CFTE is an education platform supported by senior leaders from the largest institutions, startups and universities. It addresses the needs of professionals in finance and technologists to up-skill in a rapidly changing industry being transformed by emerging technologies.
Originally published at http://www.cfte.education/blog/best-places-to-learn-fintech/ on 8th September 2017
