Course list

In this course, you will define what FinTech is (and what it's not). You will explore the key disruptions that have led to the current FinTech industry landscape. You will then apply the lessons of disruption to a challenge facing your organization. Additionally, you will examine some of the key players in the FinTech ecosystem and perform a Porter's Five Forces analysis on a related product or service: one of your own organization's offerings, or that of another firm. Then you will do a competitive market analysis on your own organization, or someone else's, to help you anticipate potential areas for risks and opportunities.
  • May 6, 2026
  • Jul 1, 2026
  • Aug 26, 2026
  • Oct 21, 2026
  • Dec 16, 2026
  • Feb 10, 2027
  • Apr 7, 2027

Regardless of your field or industry, you have certainly been affected by the technological innovations in the financial services sector: the way we conduct financial transactions, accept payments, manage assets, and interact with financial institutions is rapidly evolving. How will the innovations in financial technology — FinTech — affect your business, and what opportunities are there for you to capitalize on change? In this course you will analyze five major financial vertical markets in the FinTech sector: robo advising, peer-to-peer lending, insurance tech, currency and payment tech, and digital banking. You will then examine how these markets came into existence, explore how they have evolved over time, and study their business models (i.e., how they generate income). Moreover, you will analyze key trends in each vertical and consider the impacts they have on banks, FinTech companies, and consumers. You will use these insights to identify potential opportunities and risks for disruption within your or another's organization.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

  • FinTech Disruptions
  • May 20, 2026
  • Jul 15, 2026
  • Sep 9, 2026
  • Nov 4, 2026
  • Dec 30, 2026
  • Feb 24, 2027
  • Apr 21, 2027

Since the advent of the internet, programmers have been trying to figure out how to create a [digital] world in which people anywhere - even complete strangers - can transact directly with one another safely and efficiently. In essence, they have been trying to recreate the bedrock of civilization: an orderly system of bookkeeping that allows people to trust each other's claims about what they own, what they owe, and what they are owed. For most of the digital age, this “trust” has been facilitated by third parties such as banks, governments, or credible companies that are willing to guarantee that a transaction is valid and secure. But transactions via third parties are slow and expensive, and they cannot be verified by just anyone, which opens the door to fraud and theft.

Today, the notion of a secure and trusted third party in a digital world isn't purely mythical. And in fact, it's exactly what blockchain technology embodies in a kind of magical way. In this course, you will explore the mechanics of blockchain technology and how the blockchain acts like a trusted third party. To do this, Professor Ari Juels will design a theoretical cryptocurrency from scratch to illustrate how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies make use of the blockchain to transfer value from person to person. Then, once you understand how the blockchain acts as a trusted ledger, you will practice articulating other transformative ways in which blockchains can change how commercial and interpersonal connections happen online.

  • Jun 3, 2026
  • Jul 15, 2026
  • Aug 26, 2026
  • Oct 7, 2026
  • Nov 18, 2026
  • Dec 30, 2026
  • Feb 10, 2027

Cryptography has been around for thousands of years and is at the heart of digital communications today. Most people rely on cryptography on a daily basis without even knowing it; most popular messaging apps use encryption to ensure the security of messaging between two people. Blockchain technology, in a similar way, relies on cryptography to protect the identity of those sending and receiving messages and ensures that all information and transactions are secure and legitimate. Thus, to really understand blockchain technology, you have to understand the core principles of cryptography.

This course will walk you through the basics of cryptography: how information has historically been disguised (encrypted) and revealed (decrypted) using mathematics. You will see how a message can be turned into a number, and how that number can be encrypted and decrypted by two complete strangers. You will practice encrypting your own message to understand the basics of what makes a good encryption scheme. Then, you will delve deeper into the specific type of cryptography used in blockchain technology -- public key cryptography - and the promises and limitations it has in carrying out the core functions of a blockchain. You will create your own theoretical gold exchange in order to more fully understand how you can send anything to anyone around the world without a middleman. Ultimately you will know exactly how information on the blockchain is secured, legitimized, and authenticated without needing a third party to verify it.

You are required to have completed the following course or have equivalent experience before taking this course:

  • Cryptocurrencies and Ledgers
  • May 6, 2026
  • Jun 17, 2026
  • Jul 29, 2026
  • Sep 9, 2026
  • Oct 21, 2026
  • Dec 2, 2026
  • Jan 13, 2027

Symposium sessions feature two days of live, highly interactive virtual Zoom sessions that will explore today's most pressing topics. The Leadership Symposium offers you a unique opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with peers and experts from the Cornell community and beyond. Using the context of your own experiences, you will take part in reflections and small-group discussions to build on the skills and knowledge you have gained from your courses.

Join us for the next Symposium in which we'll discuss the ways that leaders across industries have continued engaging their teams over the past two years while pivoting in strategic ways. You will support your coursework by applying your knowledge and experiences to relevant topics for leaders. Throughout this Symposium, you will examine different areas of leadership, including the psychology of leadership; women in leadership; and leading in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. By participating in relevant and engaging discussions, you will discover a variety of perspectives and build connections with your fellow participants from various industries.

All sessions are held on Zoom.

Future dates are subject to change. You may participate in as many sessions as you wish. Attending Symposium sessions is not required to successfully complete any certificate program. Once enrolled in your courses, you will receive information about upcoming events. Accessibility accommodations will be available upon request. For future reference, download our Symposium course flyer.

eCornell Online Workshops are live, interactive 3-hour learning experiences led by Cornell faculty experts. These premium short-format sessions focus on AI topics and are designed for busy professionals who want to gain immediately applicable skills and strategic perspectives. Workshops include faculty presentations, breakout discussions, and guided hands-on practice.

The AI Workshops All-Access Pass provides you with unlimited participation for 6 months from your date of purchase. Whether you choose to attend one workshop per month, or several per week, the All-Access Pass will allow you to customize your AI journey and stay on top of the latest AI trends.

Workshops cover a range of cutting-edge AI topics applicable across industries, hosted by Cornell faculty at the forefront of their fields. Whether you are just getting started with AI, seeking to build your AI skillset, or exploring advanced applications of AI, Workshops will provide you with an action-oriented learning experience for immediate application in your career. Sample Workshops include:

  • Work Smarter with AI Agents: Individual and Team Effectiveness
  • Leading AI Transformation: Bigger Than You Imagine, Harder Than You Expect
  • Using AI at Work: Practical Choices and Better Results
  • Search & Discoverability in the Era of AI
  • Don't Just Prompt AI - Govern it
  • AI-Powered Product Manager
  • Leverage AI and Human Connection to Lead through Uncertainty

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How It Works

Frequently Asked Questions

Financial services are being reshaped by new entrants, new business models, and rapidly shifting customer expectations around speed, access, transparency, and trust. Cornell’s FinTech Certificate helps you make sense of that change with clear frameworks you can use to assess what is being disrupted, why it is happening, and what it means for your organization.

In this certificate program, authored by faculty from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and Cornell Tech, you will learn how to evaluate the FinTech ecosystem and competitive dynamics using structured analysis, including Porter’s Five Forces, and you’ll explore major consumer-facing verticals such as digital banking, payments, alternative lending, wealthtech, and insurtech. You’ll also build a practical foundation in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and the cryptography concepts that make digital transactions secure and verifiable.

If you want a clear understanding of modern financial disruption, practical tools to assess opportunities and risks, and the confidence to communicate about FinTech and blockchain with credibility, you should choose Cornell's FinTech Certificate.

Many online programs rely on passive content consumption and generic quizzes. Cornell’s FinTech Certificate is built for application: You analyze real market dynamics, pressure-test business models, and translate what you learn into decisions you can defend at work.

Instead of learning FinTech as a set of buzzwords, you use concrete frameworks to evaluate competition and profitability, then compare how disruption plays out across major verticals like digital banking, payments, lending, wealth management, and insurance. You also go deeper than most nontechnical surveys by studying how blockchains create trusted ledgers, how digital signatures authorize transactions, and how to evaluate whether a blockchain rests on sound cryptographic fundamentals.

You learn in a small cohort with expert facilitation, graded project work, and opportunities for live interaction that strengthen understanding and accountability.

Enrolling in Cornell’s FinTech Certificate also provides you with a 6-month All-Access Pass to eCornell's live online AI Workshops, interactive sessions led by world-class Cornell faculty that combine Ivy League insight with practical applications for busy professionals. Each 3-hour Workshop features structured instruction, guided practice, and real tools to build competitive AI capabilities, plus the opportunity to connect with a global cohort of growth-oriented peers. While AI Workshops are not required, they enhance certificate programs through:

  • Integrating AI perspectives across most curricula
  • Responding to emerging AI developments and trends
  • Offering direct engagement with Cornell faculty at the forefront of AI research

Cornell’s FinTech Certificate is designed for professionals who need a practical, current view of how technology is changing consumer financial services and what that means for strategy, product design, risk, and competition.

The FinTech Certificate is a strong fit if you want to:

  • Understand how FinTech disruptions affect banks, fintech firms, and consumers
  • Evaluate competitive threats and opportunities using established strategy tools
  • Build credible literacy in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and cryptography so you can participate in technical and business discussions

Professionals who commonly benefit include financial services and banking professionals, consultants, entrepreneurs, venture capital professionals, and IT, security, and regulatory professionals who support financial products and platforms.

Your work in Cornell’s FinTech Certificate centers on applied, multi-part projects that turn concepts into concrete analyses and proposals you can use in professional conversations.

Projects you complete include:

  • Defining FinTech in your context and assessing how specific consumer offerings affect your work and day-to-day financial life
  • Conducting a Porter’s Five Forces analysis to evaluate the competitive market position of a FinTech product, service, or firm
  • Analyzing key trends and business models across multiple FinTech verticals, then identifying an opportunity or risk for disruption in an organization you choose
  • Designing a theoretical cryptocurrency to understand what blockchains do and why they can function as a trusted ledger
  • Using a mobile cryptocurrency wallet in a guided exercise to better understand how transactions work in practice
  • Evaluating the strength of encryption approaches and key management concepts, then applying digital signatures to design a simple ledger-based exchange for transferring assets
  • Proposing a blockchain application beyond digital currency by connecting a real use case to specific blockchain properties like ordering and indelible records

Across the FinTech Certificate, facilitator feedback and peer discussion help you strengthen your reasoning, clarify assumptions, and communicate findings in a disciplined way.

Cornell’s FinTech Certificate helps you build practical, credible FinTech and blockchain literacy so you can analyze disruption, evaluate business models and risks, and communicate recommendations with more confidence in finance, consulting, technology, and compliance contexts.

After completing the FinTech Certificate, you will be prepared to:

  • Identify key disruptions in the FinTech landscape
  • Analyze opportunities for disruption within financial verticals
  • Examine the design of cryptocurrencies to understand the function of blockchain
  • Use a Bitcoin wallet to better understand the mechanics of cryptocurrencies

Students who complete the program frequently describe it as timely, career-relevant, and practical. Common longer-term benefits they report include a clearer framework for understanding how the FinTech industry evolved and where it is heading, stronger ability to think critically about emerging tools and use cases, and more confidence discussing blockchain, cryptocurrencies, distributed ledgers, and foundational cryptography concepts such as public and private keys, encryption, and digital signatures. Learners also highlight that the coursework connects big-picture shifts to workplace application through well-scaffolded modules, hands-on assignments, and facilitator guidance, while peer discussion broadens perspective across roles and industries.

What truly sets eCornell apart is how our programs unlock genuine career transformation. Learners earn promotions to senior positions, enjoy meaningful salary growth, build valuable professional networks, and navigate successful career transitions.

Cornell’s FinTech Certificate, which consists of 4 short courses, is designed to be completed in 2 months. Each course runs for 2 weeks, with a typical weekly time commitment of 3 to 5 hours.

Flexibility comes from the fact that most learning activities are asynchronous, so you can complete videos, readings, discussions, and project work around your schedule. At the same time, the experience stays interactive through facilitated discussions and opportunities for live sessions that deepen learning and let you workshop questions with your cohort.

Students in Cornell's FinTech Certificate frequently describe the experience as timely, career-relevant, and practical, helping them build a clear understanding of today’s financial technology landscape while strengthening their ability to think critically about emerging tools, risks, and use cases. They often highlight how the program connects big-picture industry shifts to real workplace application through well-scaffolded modules, hands-on assignments, and facilitator guidance.

Common themes students mention include:

  • Clear framework for understanding FinTech trends, verticals, and how the industry evolved pre and post 2008
  • Practical insight into emerging risks and the changing dynamics of banking and financial services
  • Strong introductions to blockchain, cryptocurrency, distributed ledgers, and real-world applications beyond digital currency
  • Confidence-building foundations in cryptography concepts like public and private keys, encryption, and digital signatures
  • Use-case driven projects that help translate concepts into business and compliance contexts
  • Engaging mix of short videos, readings, and opportunities for live sessions that reinforce complex topics
  • Knowledgeable facilitators who provide prompt, detailed feedback and ask thoughtful questions
  • Well-organized course design with clear expectations and manageable workload for working professionals
  • Flexible, mobile-friendly platform that makes it easy to stay on track and participate from anywhere
  • Peer interaction and discussions that broaden perspective across roles and industries

Many students also note that the program helps them organize their thinking and communicate more effectively about FinTech, whether they are new to the space or looking to formalize and deepen existing experience.

Blockchain projects and cryptocurrency headlines can be hard to evaluate without understanding what is actually happening under the hood. Cornell’s FinTech Certificate gives you a structured way to learn how trusted digital ledgers work, why digital signatures matter, and where blockchain fits well and where it does not.

You will explore how a blockchain can function like a trusted third party for record-keeping, study how Bitcoin uses a ledger to record value and transactions, and practice using a wallet to better understand transaction mechanics. You’ll also build foundational cryptography literacy by learning what makes encryption strong, how public-key cryptography enables secure exchange among strangers, and how digital signatures authenticate the origin and integrity of messages.

By the end of Cornell’s FinTech Certificate program, you will be better equipped to assess blockchain-based proposals with sharper questions about security assumptions, key management, privacy limits, and business fit.

FinTech is not one market. Cornell’s FinTech Certificate helps you break the space into major verticals and evaluate each one through the lens of customers, incumbents, new entrants, and business models.

You will analyze trends, evolution, and revenue drivers in verticals that commonly include:

  • Wealthtech (including robo-advising)
  • Alternative and peer-to-peer lending
  • Insurtech
  • Currency and payment technology
  • Digital banking

That vertical-by-vertical perspective makes it easier to compare where disruption tends to come from, what creates defensible advantage, and what questions to ask when a new product, partner, or platform emerges.

New financial products can create value quickly, but they also introduce risk in areas like fraud exposure, privacy, compliance expectations, and customer trust. Cornell’s FinTech Certificate helps you evaluate these trade-offs by connecting the history of disruption in financial services with practical analysis tools and the technical foundations of secure digital transactions.

You will examine how shifts in technology adoption and post-crisis consumer mistrust created openings for new entrants, then apply that understanding to your own organizational context. You’ll also build a stronger basis for assessing security claims by learning how encryption, public and private keys, and digital signatures work in real systems, and by examining privacy limits in cryptocurrencies that are often described as anonymous.

The result is a more disciplined way to ask and answer the questions that matter in real decisions: What problem is being solved, where are the incentives, what could fail, and what controls would reduce exposure?