The UC Berkeley Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership has just announced a new concentration for IEOR Master of Engineering students focused on Financial Technology (FinTech). The concentration will help meet the large and growing demand for FinTech workers in banking, consulting, and technology companies. The FinTech concentration equips students with skills in machine learning and data analytics with an emphasis on financial time-series analysis.

The FinTech concentration is similar to the Decision Analytics concentration in that it equips students with a broad set of widely-applicable skills in data analytics, but different because it places special emphasis on emerging technologies in the financial industry.

Originally, FinTech described the behind-the-scenes technology applied in banks, trading firms, and financial businesses. However, today FinTech describes a variety of technological advances made in personal and commercial finance. Tech innovations have transformed trading and banking for banks, businesses, and consumers. For example, the mobile app Robinhood is attempting to bring a larger millennial market to the stock exchange by offering no-fee trades. Companies like Prosper and Lending club are democratizing finance by offering competitive peer-to-peer loans. Mobile banking and trading on commodities exchanges are expected to reach the market by 2020, and technologies like Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Ethereum are changing the way people exchange currency.

Technology is transforming the way consumers utilize money, and the new FinTech concentration will help students learn the skills to innovate and build the financial technology of the future.

For more information, visit the IEOR Master of Engineering FinTech concentration page.