After the establishment of the College of Management of Jiao Tong University in 1931, it set up disciplines including financial management, which focused on corporate finance and financial banking and began to train relevant professionals. Since then, a large number of graduates have gradually grown into the mainstay of China's economic and financial sector, playing an important role in various financial institutions such as banks, securities, funds and insurance, as well as government administration departments. After the College of Management was resumed in 1984, the Department of Finance and Insurance was established in 1998. The Department of Economics and Finance was established in 2001. In 2006, it was officially named as the Department of Finance, dedicated to training financial talents who have a solid financial theoretical foundation, are familiar with the Chinese financial system and culture, understand global financial markets and systems, and have good quantitative analysis and research capabilities.
By June 2022, there had been 26 in-service teachers, including 7 professors, 16 associate professors (associate researchers) and 3 lecturers. Among the faculty, there are 11 who received their doctoral degrees overseas, 1 recipient of the National Science Fund for Outstanding Youth, 1 recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Youth, 1 recipient of Changjiang Distinguished Young Scholars of Ministry of Education, 1 recipient of Cross-Century Excellent Talents Program of Ministry of Education, 1 recipient of New Century Excellent Talents Program of Ministry of Education, 1 recipient of Leading Talents of Shanghai, 1 recipient of Twilight Scholars of Shanghai, 7 recipients of Pujiang Talents Program of Shanghai.
The current head of the Department is Professor Feng Yun.