Singapore Management University (SMU) is partnering the venture capital arm of Citi to offer courses in financial technology to undergraduates from January next year. The courses will be conducted through the Citi University Partnerships in Innovation & Discovery (Cupid) programme.

SMU is the first partner university in Asia for the programme, which lets students apply their classroom knowledge to real-world challenges faced by financial institutions.

Students taking the Financial Technology Project Experience module will be able to participate. It is part of SMU's financial technology track in the Bachelor of Science (Information Systems) degree programme.

Undergraduates will be matched with mentors from Citi Ventures, Citi's venture capital arm, and SMU faculty. They will work in teams on realistic projects leveraging blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence, among other technologies.

The projects may include developing new product ideas, reducing transaction cycle times and error rates, and increasing product marketing yields through real-time customer analytics.

Cupid was launched in the United States in January last year to build a talent pipeline to foster innovation and accelerate financial services solutions within the bank.

SMU president Lily Kong said: "As the burgeoning fintech sector continues to expand in Singapore and across the world, it is set to become a significant employer of talent in the future.

"Besides fintech start-ups, established financial institutions have also been looking to recruit more talent with skills in Web development and data analytics."

Mr Vikram Subrahmanyam, Citi's head of operations and technology for Asia-Pacific, said: "We look forward to tapping some of the brightest minds of these students to help us build better solutions that meet our clients' rapidly evolving needs."