Finance is divided into three directions: money banking, insurance and international finance. Financial engineering originates from finance, and has different names in different institutions: financial engineering, financial mathematics, mathematical finance or computational finance, but its essence is the same, that is, using mathematical tools to establish financial market models and solve financial problems.

Financial engineering is an interdisciplinary subject of comprehensive finance, mathematics and computer science, and its courses are usually taught jointly by business schools, mathematics departments and engineering colleges of various universities. Because the course focuses on the financial field, the depth far exceeds the MBA financial course.

From the key point of view, financial engineering pays more attention to mathematical technology, while finance pays more attention to economic knowledge. It should be noted that modern finance adopts quantitative analysis method. If students have good knowledge of mathematics, they will have an advantage in professional study.