School of Professional Finance

Introduction

The School of Professional Finance came into existence as a result of a strategic alliance between University College Dublin and the Institute of Bankers. This alliance builds on a long- term collaboration between the Institute of Bankers and UCD that dates back to 1990 with the launch of the Bachelor of Financial Services degree. The School of Professional Finance is the first external entity to become a recognised School of UCD. It was formally launched by the Minister for Finance Mr Brian Cowen in May 2006 and is located in the Institute of Bankers premises at No 1 North Wall Quay.

Rationale for the School of Professional Finance

The School builds on the strengths of both institutions in providing high- end quality educational programmes to the financial services industry.

Founded in 1898 the Institute of Bankers is one of the world’s oldest banking institutes with an established expertise in the provision of professional courses. Its course offerings combine academic rigour and practical application, and its student body are currently employed in the financial services industry and must combine work with study. The range and depth of the Institute’s programme offerings has played a key role in enriching the skills portfolio of those employed in the financial services industry and has fuelled the continued success and growth of the industry. In contrast, the UCD student body is largely full time and the courses, whilst formulated taking the needs of industry into account, are academic in focus, concentrating on the dissemination of high end specialist knowledge and the development of critical reasoning skills. The School of Professional Finance offers the banking and financial services industry an effective one- stop solution for all its post experience , part-time educational needs, including academic qualifications at all levels, professional certification and executive short courses.

The alliance allows the School of Professional Finance to draw on the expertise of both UCD and the Institute of Bankers. This is a doubly rich resource. UCD School of Business is ranked among the top European Business Schools and the Institute (with an individual membership of 29000 and more than 50 financial institutions) is one of the world’s largest and most respected banking institutes. In addition the School of Professional Finance draws on the expertise of national and international educational and professional partners of the Institute of Bankers and UCD.

Environmental Context

The strategic alliance comes at an opportune time for the Irish economy. The financial services industry is a central and increasingly important component of Ireland’s national economic development strategy and it accounts for approximately 5% of GDP.

In the Government report, Building on Success, published in September 2006, it was explicitly recognised that notwithstanding the successful expansion of the financial services industry in recent times the factors that drove the successful expansion of the industry in the past need to be reexamined in the context of, inter alia, the range of financial services now available, and unprecedented levels of change driven by trends which include, intense global international competition in financial services, higher levels of regulation, greater complexity in products and delivery channels and, international consolidations in financial services providers.

In addition, a key plank of Government policy is to move certain sectors of industry up the value chain (e.g. by increasing the proportion of front office jobs in asset management).

It is the explicit intention of the School of Professional Finance to continue to address these high-end skills needs through both its existing programmes and the development of further taught masters programmes and research programmes that will respond to, and indeed anticipate industry needs. As the competitive environment in which banks operate is constantly evolving, both in terms of competitive pressures, and in terms of the increasingly complex regulatory framework, the range and depth of skills required to thrive in this environment are also changing. The School of Professional Finance seeks to ensure that its suite of programme offerings provide the necessary knowledge levels, competences and decision making skills to course participants to ensure that the industry is in the vanguard of international best practice.

Programmes under the auspices of the School of Professional Finance

The School of Professional Finance currently has four programme offferings:

• Bachelor of Financial Services
• Executive Masters in Risk Management
• Executive MBA in Financial Services *
• Executive MBA in Regulation and Compliance*

(* offered in partnership with the UCD Michael Smurfit School of Business)

The Bachelor of Financial Services degree is an undergraduate degree and aims to address the needs of those who aspire to management and senior management careers in financial services for rigorous and relevant education and development. It allows members to combine study for a University degree and professional examinations in an educationally effective way.

The Executive Masters in Risk Management is a postgraduate degree designed for practicing risk management professionals in the banking and financial services industry. The degree seeks to balance practical skills and awareness of regulatory requirements with a solid understanding of the conceptual and quantitative foundations of risk management. In banking and financial services, the nature of risk is constantly evolving and becoming progressively more complex to quantify and manage. Such risk can take many forms. The programme curriculum is designed to systematically examine the evolving nature of the risks prevalent in financial services and equip participants with the required skills to provide a key input into the identification, quantification and management of these risks. Such risks include credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk, liquidity risk, operational risk, legal risk and settlement risk.

The MBA qualification is regarded internationally as the hallmark of successful managers- a prerequisite for individuals and organisations who seek to gain competitive advantage. It equips motivated individuals with an exceptional portfolio of academic and practical skills.

The Executive MBA in Financial Services is designed specifically to develop the knowledge, skills and perspective required for leaders and senior professionals in financial services and the Executive MBA in Regulation and Compliance fulfills a similar role in relation to those in leadership and senior managerial roles in regulation and compliance functions.

The financial services industry is exposed to unprecedented competitive pressures resulting in a constant drive towards implementing cost efficiencies on the one hand whilst at the same time being subject to ever constant consumer demand for innovations in service provision and sophisticated new product development. In parallel the industry is subject to an ever expanding regulatory oversight that permeates the entire spectrum of activities financial services firms engage in. As a consequence the range of specialist and generalist managerial skills required to provide effective strategic leadership in such an environment are many and multifaceted. The MBA curriculum is designed to develop the specialist knowledge as well as to cultivate the more generalist managerial, problem solving, and decision making and communication skills required to play an effective leadership role in a modern dynamic financial services firm. In the case of the Executive MBA in Regulation and Compliance the specialist knowledge component of the programme is concentrated on strategic and operational issues in the compliance function whereas in the case of the Executive MBA in Financial Services the specialist curriculum covers a more eclectic subject grouping.

In addition to the aforementioned programmes it is envisaged that a suite of new part- time, post- experience programmes will also be introduced:

• In consultation with industry, new executive masters programmes in financial services
• Masters and PhD’s by research in financial services
• Premium, executive short courses in financial services
• In- company programmes for individual banks and financial institutions

The research activity of the School of Professional Finance will primarily focus on the facilitation of UCD- Institute of Bankers industry research in financial services, including commercial research and development, and the supervision of the employees of financial services companies undertaking research degrees.