Financial IT Academy @SMU (FITA) was first appointed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore in May 2013 as the lead provider to deliver quality training programmes for technology and operations professionals in Singapore’s financial services industry. FITA Academic Director Amelia Ching said that most of the FITA programmes are designed to cover business domain knowledge and provide an end-to-end view of the process and technology solutions. She noted that the academy is actively collaborating with industry players to boost awareness of financial technology start-ups, adding that banks have generally welcomed FITA's work because "nobody in the industry is offering such a unique and integrated banking technology and operations programme".