On 9 April 2016, an agreement signing ceremony was held to commemorate the cooperation between the Open Institute of City University of Macau (OI-CityU) and Macau Institute of Financial Services (IFS). The Agreement Signing Ceremony was held in the Auditorium of the Monetary Authority of Macau. The ceremony began with a welcome speech by Mr. António Félix Pontes, Chairman of Executive Board of IFS; and Professor Shu Guang Zhang, Rector of CityU; and the Agreement was thereafter signed by Mr Félix Pontes and Mr Robert Chan, Director of OI-CityU cum Secretary General of the Council of CityU, in the presence of witnesses Mr Anselmo Teng (AMCM), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Monetary Authority of Macau, and Professor Zhang.

Guests of honour attending were Mr Benjamin Chan, Executive Director of the Board of Directors of AMCM cum Executive Board Member of IFS; Ms Luisa Man, Executive Director of the Board of Directors of AMCM; Mr Roger Chan, Executive Board Member of IFS; Mr Pierre Choi, Executive Board Member of IFS; Ms Alex Foo, Director of the Operations & Corporate Clients Department of AIA International Limited, on behalf of Mr Chris Ma, Executive Board Member of IFS; Professor Sean Li, Registrar of CityU; Dr Gavin Chau, Executive Associate Dean of OI-CityU; Dr Rui Rocha, Director of Department of Portuguese Language and Culture of Portuguese-speaking Countries of CityU; and Ms Chen Fen, Director of Banking Business Development Department of Bank of China Macau Branch.

The scope of the agreement is to jointly design and provide Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme for the insurance intermediaries in Macau. The Programme aims to enhance the technical knowledge and professional skills of professionals in the insurance sector, and to equip them with new skills required for today's dynamic business environment. The CPD is a systematic and ongoing training that focuses on vocational and practical learning through a combination of lectures, workshops and seminars, allowing individuals and organisations to keep skills and knowledge up to date.

Following the signing of the Agreement, two seminars titled ‘Financial Big Data and Internet Finance’ and ‘The Wealth Management at the Internet Era – On-line Financial Supermarket’ were delivered, respectively, by Dr James Zhibin Lei, Program Director of Cloud Computing, Security and Data Science at Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute, and Professor Jerome Yen, Director of Internet Finance at Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute.

The IFS was established in March 2002 as a non-profit organisation. Its founding members are the Monetary Authority of Macau, the Macau Association of Banks, the Macau Insurers’ Association and the Macau Insurance Agents and Brokers Association.

The OI-CityU is one of the constituent faculties of the university with the aim of developing open education. OI-CityU offers a variety of short courses, professional certificate courses, overseas study tours and corporate training courses. OI-CityU provides a variety of customised services for students and enterprises to meet the needs of the society for "lifelong continuing education".