Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF)

This five-day advanced certificate program consists of three courses; Fundamentals of Financial Modeling, Best Practice Financial Modeling and Advanced Financial Modeling. This program is designed for professionals who wish to raise their financial modeling skills to a superior level and to structure and present fully flexible and auditable models, whilst cultivating the most efficient data analysis tools and solve other common modeling problems.

The aim of this course is to identify the early warning signals of credit deterioration. The course covers all aspects of a company’s situation, from operating environment to financial condition, to identify the patterns indicative of the likely deterioration in future operating performance. The program focuses on leading indicators, which help to identify problems early, over lagging indicators (such as financial statements) which simply confirm existing trends. What are the characteristics of a company which will run into trouble during the next recession? A good analyst can identify the warning signals during the time of economic growth.

This course allows delegates the opportunity to see how fixed income analysis works. It examines the construction of the major curves (spot, forward, swap and yield) as well as how they interact; it looks at interest rate risk and its significance in fixed income trading strategies as well as exploring credit spreads. The course is delivered through short teaching sessions and engaging exercises. For the most part though, delegates will be constructing an interest rate model in Excel through the completion of partially built worksheets. Fundamental Excel knowledge is all that is necessary.

With the pressures of working within the financial services, capturing and keeping your audience's attention is essential to success. This course will enhance your presentation skills by helping you to discover new techniques to ensure your audience is captivated. Through practical exercises and by watching yourself present via camera, your presenting ability will improve as your confidence grows by mastering your unique style to deliver impressive presentations comfortably. Whether you are presenting to educate and inform, influence or persuade, every move you make has an impact. Getting it right is a start but adding polish and impact will enable you to gain credibility, especially when under pressure from a potentially ambivalent, highly focused and knowledgeable audience.

The objective of this course is to drill down into the financial statements of banks operating globally with universal, less standard business models in order to identify and quantify the risks of more complex business lines, such as broker dealer activity.

This course provides participants with a comprehensive overview of Basel III’s capital regulations for banks. The course covers current regulations as well the finalization of Basel III (commonly referred to as ‘Basel IV’). This is an interactive course, where real-life examples, case studies and exercises are used to illustrate key learning points and to enable participants to apply the concepts delivered throughout the course.

During this two-day Intermediate course, attendees will utilise industry best practice to designing and building fully flexible and auditable forecast financial models suitable for analysis and financial structuring, including detailed analysis into key modeling areas such as forecasting, modeling revenue, operating costs, debt, and other components in more detail. The course will be hands-on and practical at every stage and focusses on developing not just practical modelling skills but the critical thinking and analysis crucial in successful financial modelling.

Communication in the workplace is increasingly done via the written word. With different perspectives, personalities and priorities it is no wonder that communicating effectively can be a challenge. Whether you write mainly emails, reports or proposals, this one-day course will provide you with tools and techniques to help ensure your writing has the impact you desire as well as leaving your audience with the impression you intended.

The overall goal of this course is to enhance the analytical skills needed when evaluating or structuring funding solutions for both new business opportunities and in the context of re-financing existing corporate debt. The focus is on recommending an appropriate capital structure and debt instruments using cash flow forecasts. Participants are expected to have a basic knowledge of Excel and a sound understanding of corporate risk analysis – from experience or after attending our Corporate Credit Analysis course.

Central Counterparties, Clearing Houses & Exchanges is a two-day course worth 16 CPD points. The goal is to offer a structured approach to the credit analysis of Financial Markets Infrastructures (FMIs), specifically central counterparties (CCPs), clearing houses, settlement agents and exchanges. The course covers markets in securities and derivatives, operating environment, risk and financial analysis, and exposure structuring. This intermediate course is aimed at risk managers, treasurers, capital markets and regulatory professionals who need to review and analyze credit exposures to different types of securities and derivatives exchange, clearing house and central counterparty.

The overall goal is to enhance the analytic skills needed in the assessment of corporate borrowers or counterparties. Participants will use a structured and systematic approach to evaluate the credit standing of companies in a variety of manufacturing and service industries.

This two-day course is an overview of the techniques for analyzing the risks in a Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO). The focus is on the key risks of investing in CLOs, as well as the motivations for issuing/managing CLOs, and the structural elements.

The aim of this three-day course is to enable attendees to identify the key categories and drivers of transaction credit risk in the main derivative products, and to apply a consistent approach to the quantification of these risks.

Covered Bonds are a core funding product for banks. The near EUR3 trillion market is very much a European product but growing in popularity globally. This two-day course provides the analytic technique for understanding how covered bonds work, the risk from an investor-view point, and the different reasons why investors, borrowers and regulators like them.

Participants will be equipped to: ▪ Identify the key elements of credit risk: probability of default, loss given default and exposure at default ▪ Evaluate the inter-action of credit risk within a portfolio exposure (especially default correlation), and how these can be measured and quantified ▪ Review how the main drivers of credit risk are modelled and sensitized ▪ Understand how credit portfolio modelling is used within firm-wide risk management and regulatory and economic capital process

This is a one-day introduction to everything to do with credit risk. The course defines the different types of credit risk: How to measure the amount of credit risk; the credit analysis process (which identifies whether a client can cope with the credit risk), and how regulators view the need for an equity cushion to protect depositors and other investors from a credit loss. Being a workshop, the course uses exercises and discussion to truly understand the technical details, in a realistic context.

This intensive course will provide a structured approach for identifying early warning signals in financial institutions.

The overall goal of this course is to give a structured approach to the credit analysis of banks in emerging markets.

Responsible investing has seen a growth in interest from investors in recent years. Investors are increasingly looking for funds that offer environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, which enhance the value of a fund’s performance. This introductory course reviews the key motivations behind the increased awareness of ESG investing and the risks and challenges this presents.

Excel is powerful financial analysis tool and this intensive, trainer-led course is hands-on at all points to ensure participants can harness Excel’s array of sophisticated features to create solutions to a wide variety of financial and organisational tasks.

This interactive course provides participants with an understanding of the key performance indicators and main balance sheet and income statement accounts for banks.

This course is designed to explain how financial measures of corporate performance are calculated and used to assess credit worthiness of a business. The course covers the basics of financial statement analysis and enables participants to confidently use financial ratios and financial terminology. This is an introductory level course designed for users of financial reports and accounts who have no prior or limited knowledge of corporate financial information; it focuses on the numbers behind the risks rather than the risks themselves.

This course provides an assessment of the current economic scenarios of the G7 nations and the implications on the financial markets, for policy makers and investors alike.

This course will provide participants with the skills to analyse the financial statements of companies to effectively appraise the current position and future prospects of the business. Several annual reports are used to analyse and compare the balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements and supporting notes of these companies. This is a highly interactive course where case studies and exercises are used to illustrate key learning points, allowing participants to apply the concepts acquired during the course to real-life scenarios.

Fundamentals of Financial Modeling is a one-day introductory course designed for professionals in corporates and financial institutions who need to create useful and robust financial models. Key learning outcomes include, • How to design and construct useful and robust financial modeling applications • Learn financial forecasting • Use several of the support tools and techniques in spreadsheet programs, and utilize sensitivity and scenario analysis. Participants should be able to use the basic facilities of Microsoft Excel and have basic accounting knowledge. Fundamentals of Financial Modeling can also be run in-house.

The focus of this course is fixed income securities which are used by governments and corporates to raise finance. Features of these instruments are studied along with pricing principles. The course is practical in nature and uses example securities from the markets throughout. Participants will work in Excel to construct pricing models. Risk from fixed income transactions is studied along with an overview of yield curve transactions.

The overall goal of this course is to provide a basic technical background to the insurance industry as a precursor to attending our intermediate Insurance Company Analysis workshop. Participants will learn to understand the key components of an insurance company’s financial statements to appreciate how these might vary according to the accounting standard used, and to learn to use a few key ratios to analyze financial strength.

The course starts by placing the professional investment management role within the broader financial services industry. Key clients are discussed and the services they require from investment management firms are isolated. The process of investment management is studied using a case study before the course turns to the asset classes and instrument that are used to construct investment portfolios. Risk and return, along with common industry measures of each, are the final technical topic of the day. During the final session, participants experience the role of the investment management professional during a simulation, where they invest client money against a backdrop of a changing macroeconomic climate.

The course provides a comprehensive understanding of private equity investment funds and leveraged buyout (LBO) transactions. This instructor-led program ensures hands-on experience, enabling participants to grasp LBO value creation and deal structuring principles. This learning is achieved through practical exercises and detailed case studies. As participants advance in the program, they will be guided to construct a robust LBO model using real-world company data, reinforcing their learning through practical application.

The goal of this course is to equip participants with an overview of project finance by taking them through all stages of a project finance transaction, with an emphasis on risk analysis, risk mitigation and capital structuring issues, so they can apply the techniques in reviewing project finance transactions.

The overall goal of this course is to provide participants with a structured analytic framework for the credit analysis of retail funds, alternative / hedge funds and asset managers.

This course will concentrate on accounting for derivatives and hedge accounting. It encompasses an analysis of the fair value of derivatives on corporate financial statements and the application of hedge accounting under IFRS 9. Additionally, the course offers an overview of the main differences between IFRS 9 and IAS 39 hedge accounting, noting that preparers can choose to continue using IAS 39 hedge accounting until the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) completes its project on dynamic risk management (macro-hedging). Participants are expected to have a basic understanding of financial statements.