Singapore, October 9, 2026 — ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and SMU Academy, the professional training arm of Singapore Management University (SMU) have launched a six-module Advanced Certificate in Finance Leadership for Technological, Sustainability and Geopolitical Disruption, aimed at equipping finance professionals to navigate changes driven by artificial intelligence (AI), sustainability requirements and geopolitical tensions.
Unveiled at the ACCA Annual Conference in Singapore, the programme will be available from January 2027. It will combine 12 days of on-campus and online learning covering emerging macro trends, AI applications in finance and accounting, intangible assets and intellectual property, environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting, sustainable finance, finance leadership and cross-border risk management.
The programme brings together three areas of disruption; Technology, Transition and Tension reflecting how developments in these areas increasingly intersect and affect business decisions. The launch follows research by ACCA and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), which points to gaps in the skills needed to generate business insights using AI. Their report, Enabling finance insight: Bridging skills and data gaps for AI-enabled finance, found that 72% of respondents had either basic generative AI proficiency (38%) or no proficiency (34%). Data quality and a lack of skills were each cited by 42% of respondents as major obstacles to producing better business insights.
Steve Lee, Portfolio Head Singapore, ANZ, & Oceania at ACCA said, “Finance professionals are being asked to answer questions the profession was never structured to answer — how a tariff reshapes a supply chain, what climate risk does to a balance sheet, whether an AI-generated number can be relied on. These are not separate problems. They arrive together, and they arrive quickly. “Our research shows the appetite to build these capabilities is there, but the structured development is not. Singapore’s competitiveness as a financial centre depends on a profession that can do more than report what happened. This programme is a practical response to that, and we are pleased to build on our long partnership with SMU Academy to deliver it.”
Jack Lim, Executive Director, SMU Academy said, “Technology, sustainability and geopolitics no longer affect businesses separately. Finance professionals need to understand how these forces interact if they are to navigate complexity and make sound, responsible decisions. “This programme combines our academic rigour and applied learning with ACCA’s global industry insights to help finance professionals continue building the capabilities they need to lead in a changing business environment. Through this partnership, we aim to develop leaders who are ready to support Singapore’s digital economy and industry transformation.”
This is the second joint programme SMUA and ACCA have rolled out, following the Advanced Certificate in Strategic Digital Transformation in Finance introduced in 2019. The new programme is continuing professional development (CPD)-accredited and is intended for a broad range of finance professionals, including accountants, finance managers, controllers, data analysts, transformation managers, risk and compliance specialists, and audit and governance professionals. Applicants should have at least two years of experience in financial services or foundational knowledge of the finance industry.
Supported by the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA), the programme is eligible for SWDA funding to make professional upskilling more accessible to Singaporeans. The full programme fee is S$15,696, inclusive of goods and services tax (GST). Fees can fall to S$1,828.80 after maximum funding, subject to eligibility. Singapore Citizens aged 25 and above may also use their SkillsFuture Credit for self-sponsored participation.
Further details and registration are available through SMU Academy.
