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Digital Banking: What are Neo-banks and how are they changing the banking industry?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Digital Banking is promptly growing as it provides rapid and safe money transactions. It stepped foot in India during the late 90s. Since then it has taken an enormous shape in the banking sector.

When the actions or works of traditional banks are executed through a modern electronic device then that is termed digital banking. It can be executed through a computer, laptop, or smartphone. Both bankers and customers prefer digital banking because it eliminates all the lengthy procedures.

The services of a digital bank can be used at any time as it is open 24/7. This branch of the banking sector has developed so much that many sub-fields have emerged from it. Neo-banks are one of the well-known sub-field of digital banking. 

To learn more about neo-banks, dive into this article!

What are Neo-banks?

Neo-banks are those banks that are operated completely online. This means no work is executed physically and they have no physical existence ie physical subsidiaries. It is mostly used by those people who are tech-savvy and do not carry traditional money with them. 

From money transfers to trading, everything can be executed through neo-banks. Currently, in India, the RBI has not yet directed the complete digitalisation of traditional banks. Hence neo-banks are still in their initial phase in India. However, traditional banks are collaborating with various finance providers so that they can provide their customers with the facilities of a neo-bank.

What are the various features of Neo-banks?

Neo-banks have multiple features that enhance the experience of their customers. Their smart features attract the young tech-savvy population as these actions can be performed through various electronic devices. These features have been elucidated below:

Loans

Neo-banks are well-known for providing both personal as well as business loans. Apart from this, certain underbanked communities also receive services and benefits from the neo-banks. This is done to reduce the gap between neo-banks and traditional banks. Loans from neo-banks are also helping growing ventures and individuals. 

Credit Cards

Credit cards of neo-banks are performing better than those of traditional banks. As they are providing new start-ups with alluring offers. Unlike the traditional banks, they are generally reluctant to do the same. 

There are instances when neo-banks have provided high-limit credit cards with no security to businesses. This is usually done by analysing the performance of that particular company. 

Savings Account

Opening a savings account at a traditional bank is a tedious procedure. People need to stand in queues and fill up various important papers and documents. However, neo-banks offer easy methods through which customers can easily open a savings account and can also issue a debit card for themselves. 

Types of Neo-banks

Furthermore, there are different kinds of neo-banks in the fintech industry. More about these banks have been vividly discussed below:

Full-stack digital banks

Licensed digital banks or full-stack digital banks have received all the requisite approval from traditional banks. They also set up boards for service selections. Full-stack digital banks perform works like issuing cheques and granting loans. 

Full-stack digital banks are economical and do not act as a burden for some traditional banks. However, in India, these banks are still not legal and no one can use them yet. 

Front-end banks

The next kind of neo-bank is the front-end bank. These banks do not possess any banking licenses and depend upon institutions that mainly deal with financial functions. The neo-banks acts like a partner of these institutions so that they can render various financial facilities to their customers. 

As these neo-banks do not have any banking licenses they have to rely on traditional physical banks for generating their balance sheets. 

Standalone digital banks

The next type of neo-bank is the standalone digital bank. These banks are also known as independent digital banks. In reality, these banks are just the digital version of any established traditional banks. 

Although the established traditional banks have their licenses they still need to create a digital license for their digital standalone banks. Licenses are given to those banks that have collected enough deposits. One of the most famous standalone digital banks is the YONO which has been established by the State Bank of India (SBI).

What are the benefits of the Neo-banks?

People are switching to neo-banks as it is providing them with various feasible benefits. These benefits are:

  • One of the biggest benefits of a neo-bank is that it can work on a low operating budget. As these banks’ existence is entirely digital therefore they do not require any infrastructure and maintenance expenses. Therefore, customers do not have to pay certain service charges and have to pay a low amount of interest. 
  • Unlike traditional banks, neo-banks function rapidly. They are accessible 24/7 hence money transactions can be executed at any time by the customers. Customer service of any neo-bank works rapidly and instantaneously as they are driven by AI.
  • A traditional bank might still use outdated technologies but neo-banks do not use them. These banks always use the latest technologies so they have high security. Therefore, neo-banks can easily safeguard the data of their customers.  

Conclusion

The future of neo-banks is quite bright as they are only going to grow rapidly. This will create more job opportunities for the younger population. Therefore, a career in fintech is quite alluring as it will offer high remuneration and other facilities. 

Imartcus Learning’s Advanced Management Programme in Financial Services and Capital Markets will boost your fintech career with IIT Lucknow. This course will help you acquire skills in financial management, FinTech, capital markets, financial valuation etc. Experienced faculty members of IIT Lucknow will assist you through the entire course. 

So, without any further delay, enrol yourself in this course.

From Accountant to CFO: A Career Path Guide

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Do you aspire to work as a CFO someday? You are in the right direction already if you’re an accountant! Many accounting professionals aim to make the logical career progression from accountant to CFO. You need more than just strong financial knowledge to succeed as a CFO. 

In this blog, we’ll examine the route from accountant to CFO more closely and the abilities, backgrounds, and credentials required to get there. Regardless of your experience level or where your accounting career is developing, this guide will offer you insightful information and helpful suggestions to help you advance your career in CFO. 

Let’s begin the path from accountant to CFO transition!

What is a CFO?

Today’s CFOs have a lot to handle. What duties does a CFO have each day? They are responsible for managing a company’s cash flow, financial planning, hiring and directing their team of financial specialists, and working with internal and external partners to solve issues affecting the business’s bottom line. 

They are also usually viewed as the CEO’s go-to strategic advisor, guiding everything from the budget to utilizing human resources and technology.

Therefore, it should not be surprising that companies look for candidates with various skills when hiring for the CFO role. The majority of those who hold the role have advanced degrees.

What are the responsibilities of the CFO?

 A CFO is responsible for the following:

  • Managing the organization’s financial planning, budgeting, reporting, and analysis 
  • Ensuring adherence to regulatory regulations, accounting standards, and tax laws
  • Leading and developing the finance team and fostering an environment of excellence and integrity are also important. 
  • Identifying and mitigating financial risks and opportunities is another.
  •  Finally, driving innovation and efficiency in the financial processes and systems

The Average Salary of CFO

In the United States, a chief financial officer typically earns $148,062 annually, plus $22,500 in profit-sharing. The salary of a CFO might vary based on the size, location, and sector of the firm they work for. Earning potential may also be impacted by a candidate’s degree of education, experience, and pertinent certification.

How to Become a CFO from an Accountant?

Some common steps that most successful CFOs have taken in their career journey. 

Here are some of the tips for Accountants aspiring to be CFOs:

  • Education

Many employers require candidates to have at least a bachelor’s degree. A Bachelor of Science in finance or accounting is popular for prospective CFOs, while economics or other business areas may also be useful. As you acquire experience, consider enrolling in online short courses in strategic business management, compliance management, import and export management, and business risk management. A greater grasp of analysis, budgeting, compliance, and risk management may be provided via these alternatives.

  • Start as an accountant

Most chief financial officers (CFOs) have worked in public accounting firms or corporate accounting divisions. Accounting is the cornerstone of finance and provides the technical know-how and information required to comprehend a business’s financial performance and health.

  • Learn the required technical skills

Ensuring that the board and CEO’s actions are financially sound is a significant portion of the CFO’s work. Hence the finance director must be an expert in accounting concepts such as budgeting, analysis, compliance, etc. 

  • Gain experience. 

To become a chief financial officer, you must have a broad range of experience in different aspects of finance, such as financial reporting, analysis, planning, forecasting, auditing, taxation, treasury, risk management, mergers, and acquisitions. You must also have experience leading and managing teams, projects, and initiatives. You can gain experience by working in different roles and functions or switching to different organizations or industries.

  • Develop your corporate knowledge across all departments.

The CFO must often work with managers and executives from many organizational departments. Additionally, the finance director frequently makes choices that impact the whole company. Therefore, the CFO needs to know the company’s structure, its most and least lucrative business segments, and the threats and competitors it confronts.

  • Prepare for the role. 

Finally, you need to prepare yourself for the role of a CFO by developing the skills and qualities expected from a CFO. Consider taking a position as a staff accountant, financial analyst, or auditor to obtain first-hand knowledge of how your business manages its finances, responds to reporting requirements, and determines what to buy and spend money on. 

 The Final Words

The transition from accountant to CFO is not simple but achievable with hard work, commitment, and a desire for advancement. You already have a solid base of abilities and knowledge as an accountant, which you may expand upon to advance to the C-suite position. You may create a route to success in the financial business by taking on new challenges, looking for possibilities for advancement, and continuing to study and hone your abilities.

When building a successful CFO career in India, it’s important to remember that the journey to the top is not just about climbing the corporate ladder. Accept the possibilities and challenges that come your way, and don’t be hesitant to take calculated risks.

Imarticus Learning and IIM Indore have partnered to offer you an exclusive Postgraduate Certificate Programme. This intensive 12-month finance program will give you a thorough grasp of financial services and management under the direction of renowned academics. 

This curriculum heavily emphasizes tech-focused skills and is meant to position you for success in the constantly changing financial environment. Don’t pass up this exceptional chance to develop the strategic, analytical, and creative abilities required to become a new-generation CFO. 

Join us on this trip to develop your financial knowledge and reveal your full potential!

Cloud Computing in Financial Technologies and Banking Services

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Cloud computing often entails a network of distant computers hosted in data centres and managed by third-party companies like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and more. These service providers provide a number of services like SaaS (Software as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), and PaaS (Platform as a Service) which enable users to scale computing resources up or down according to what they require without requiring any physical infrastructure investment.

Cloud computing has gained a significant amount of traction in the financial industry in recent years owing to its potential benefits like cost optimisations, scalability, efficiency, and agility. It is frequently used in FinTech to build and provide novel financial services to customers like data analysis, fraud detection, risk assessment, CRM, and handling payments. 

Importance of Cloud Computing in the Fintech Industry

Cloud computing enables FinTech organisations to deploy and expand their applications quickly, employ machine learning and data analytics, as well as provide cost-effective services to clients.

It is utilised for a variety of applications in the banking sector. Cloud-based solutions are frequently used by banks and financial organisations for back-end activities. Cloud computing is also utilised for customer-facing services like mobile and internet banking applications, which provide users with more simplified access to banking services over the Internet. 

Challenges of Integrating Cloud Cloud Computing in the Fintech Industry

Financial data is generally subject to regulations and security standards that demand high compliance, and cloud computing adoption in the financial industry is susceptible to legal and safety constraints. To secure consumer data and preserve confidence, financial institutions must verify that their cloud-based solutions comply with applicable rules and industry standards. 

To guarantee data safety and regulatory compliance, cloud computing in FinTech and financial services is often integrated with rigorous security features such as end-to-end encryption, frequent audits and access restrictions.

Benefits of Cloud Computing in Fintech

Overall, cloud computing offers significant advantages to FinTech firms, allowing them to be flexible, inventive, and competitive in the quickly expanding financial market. In general, cloud computing provides the following advantages to FinTech firms:

Cost-saving

Cost reductions are one of the key benefits of cloud computing. FinTech firms may avoid the upfront expenditures involved with the construction and maintenance of physical infrastructure like data centres, servers, and networking equipment. 

They can instead use cloud-based services and purchase resources on a subscription basis, which offers both affordability and scalability. This can lead to decreased expenditures, enabling FinTech businesses to manage resources effectively and invest in other facets of their business.

Scalability and agility

Cloud computing allows you to swiftly scale computer resources as per your business requirements. During instances of heavy demand (introducing new goods or peak processing hours), FinTech firms may readily provide additional resources. 

It also helps limit resources during low demand, thereby cutting down on needless expenses. This scalability and agility enable FinTech firms to respond more swiftly to market developments and client needs, as well as swiftly grow and develop in a competitive sector.

Faster speed-to-market

Cloud computing allows FinTech enterprises to reduce the time it takes to launch novel services and products. FinTech organisations may bypass the lengthy procedure of creating and configuring physical structures by using cloud-based services and infrastructure. 

This allows them to solely concentrate on creating and evaluating their apps or services instead. This can lead to speedier installation and time-to-market, giving FinTech businesses a competitive advantage and allowing them to capitalise on market possibilities.

Better collaboration and inventiveness

Cloud computing makes it easier for FinTech teams to collaborate and innovate. Cloud-based applications provide a centralised framework for teams to work together on projects, exchange data, and access resources from any internet-connected device, at any time. 

This allows distant teams to collaborate smoothly, boosting creativity and efficiency. Furthermore, cloud computing provides a wide ecosystem of tools, services, and APIs that FinTech firms may use to develop novel applications and services like machine learning, data analytics, and artificial intelligence, which can assist drive corporate development.

Enhanced security and data management 

Cloud computing provides sophisticated data management and security capabilities that might be beneficial to FinTech firms. Cloud-based solutions frequently include data backup, redundancy, disaster management, safeguarding essential financial data, and guaranteeing business continuity. To prevent data breaches and unauthorised access to data, cloud companies spend extensively on security measures (encryption, monitoring, and access limits). 

Furthermore, cloud computing enables FinTech firms to readily comply with legal requirements, since cloud providers frequently offer certifications of compliance and controls that can assist FinTech firms in meeting their regulatory duties.

Conclusion

To conclude, cloud computing provides substantial benefits to fintech organizations, allowing them to grow, invent, and deliver solutions to their clients in an efficient and secure manner. However, while implementing cloud computing, fintech organisations ought to think about appropriate security measures, legal requirements, and risk management practices to guarantee data protection and regulatory compliance.

Fintech is a fast-changing sector with an increasing demand for talented workers with knowledge in technology, finance, and business. To recruit and keep top people, fintech businesses frequently offer competitive salaries and perks. Therefore, a career in fintech can be rewarding, since the industry is recognised for providing excellent remuneration packages and prospects for professional advancement.

To take your first step into this field, you can consider signing up for a reliable Fintech certification course. If you are looking for one, you can check out the course offered by Imarticus Learning.

What are the different types of Cyber Attacks?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Our life has become more comfortable with the usage of various digital devices and the internet. The Internet has come to us with a boon for this fast pacing world. However, there is also a flip side to this. 

Even though the internet is responsible for bringing positive changes in our lives, it also comes with the huge challenge of information security. Hence, cyber-attacks become more frequent. Therefore, it becomes important to understand the nature of those cyber attacks. 

cybersecurity courses

In this article, let’s learn about the nature and types of cyber attacks that might threaten our data and how these attacks can be prevented. You can also learn about a career in cybersecurity by learning the basis of cyber attacks. 

What is a cyber attack? 

To put it in simple words, cyber-attacks are unauthorised network access that harms information security. When an outsider tries to enter your private data, it is called a cyber attack. The person who attacks is called an attacker or a hacker. 

Cyber attacks cause data tampering that result in data manipulation and data loss. On a commercial level, organisations incur several financial losses with customer trust being hampered alongside immense reputational damage. 

This is when the need for implementing cybersecurity comes in. Cyber security helps in safeguarding these networks in the computers and other different components from any unauthorised access. 

Cyber attacks: Why and how do they take place 

Cyber attacks are generally criminally and politically motivated to leak information security. Cyber attacks sometimes are also targeted to bring a feeling of achievement or thrill among the hackers. 

When politically motivated, cyber attacks happen to harm the image of a particular state of government in front of the public. Other pretentious intentions are why cyber attacks take place. Here are some of the reasons why: 

Financial Gain: Cybercriminals launch a maximum of cyber attacks on commercial entities for financial gains. They steal sensitive data like employee personal information and credit card numbers to blackmail the companies and gain money in return. 

Disruption and Revenge: This occurs specifically to show chaos, confusion and mistrust among individuals or commercial entities. Cybercriminals take such actions as an act of revenge against them. They want to publicly embarrass these entities and damage the reputation of the organisation. 

Cyber Warfare: This occurs as a basis of international threats by different government entities around the world. Cyber Warfare is a tactic that executes attacks against other countries based on ongoing political, economical and social scenarios. 

Types of cyber attacks

With the evolving technology, cyber-attacks are now not that simple. There are now different types of cyber-attacks that have evolved through time that can threaten your data. Let’s read those.

Malware attacks: These are one of the most common types of cyberattacks. Malware is conferred to malicious viruses like ransomware, trojans, worms and spyware. Malware disguises itself as legitimate software and breaches the network by breaking its weak firewall. 

Phishing attacks: This is one of the most popular types of cyber attacks in this decade. This is a special attack done by social engineers where hacker impersonates themselves as a trusted contract and sends fake emails. Through these attacks, the attackers access some or all confidential data and other account details and even install malware. 

Password attack: In this type of attack, the hacker tends to crack the victim’s password by incorporating various tools like Hashcat, John the Ripper and Cain. Password attacks are mainly characterised by brute force attacks, dictionary attacks and keylogger attacks. 

Man-in-the-middle attack: A man-in-the-middle attack or MITM is an eavesdropping attack. The attack takes place when the attacker attacks among two-party communications where the attacker hijacks the session between the host and the client. 

SQL injection attack: An SQL attack or a Structured Query Language injection cyber attack occurs on a website specifically a data-driven website when the attacker modulates a query of the SQL. Malicious code is injected through a vulnerable website search box, enclosing private and crucial information on the server. 

Denial of service attack: This is a significant threat to commercial entities. In this scenario, the attackers target different systems and servers and often flood them with traffic. It tends to exhaust the resource of the system as well as its bandwidth. This results in overburdening the servers with several requests making the websites slow or shit down. 

Insider threat attacks: In this case, the individual within an organisation hacks the server. These threats are subjected to tremendous damage. These threats are very rampant in small businesses. 

Cryptojacking: This is closely related to cryptocurrency. These take place when attackers access the victim’s computer to mine cryptocurrency. They infect the website or manipulate the victim to click on a malicious link. Hackers tend to use JavaScript code for this. 

Zero-day exploit: This happens during the announcement of network vulnerability and there is no solution to vulnerability in certain instances. The vendors notify the victims of the vulnerabilities making the user aware. 

Watering hole attack: In this case, a particular group of an organisation is attacked via the targeted websites used in this targeted group. They are either identified closely by group or via guessing. The malware then spreads by the hackers infecting the systems and thereby targeting the attacker’s personal information. 

How to curb cyber-attacks? 

Cyber attacks are now very common not only in commercial entities but also in individuals. Hence, cyber security specialists are constantly developing new methods to curb these threats to ensure user safety. Here are some ways one can curb cyber attacks if they are seeking a career in cyber security: 

  • Changing the passwords regularly and using passwords with strong alphanumeric values. Try not to keep the same password twice. 
  • Updating the operating systems and applications regularly to ensure primary prevention from cyber attacks. This would help in eliminating vulnerabilities that hackers often tend to exploit. 
  • Use different types of firewalls and other network security tools with intrusion prevention systems.
  • Use a VPN frequently to ensure data safety. VPN helps to encrypt the traffic between the server and the device.
  • Securing the WiFi networks and avoiding using WiFi networks without a secure VPN. 

Conclusion

The concept of cybersecurity is not brand new. It has been evolving for quite some time. Hence, cyber security experts are now coming up with new ways to curb cyber attacks. 

If you are interested in pursuing a career in cyber security, check out Imarticus Learning’s Advanced Cyber Security Course from IIT Roorkee. IIT cyber security courses offer extensive courses and change the path of learning. IIT cyber security course is a hybrid learning course which is easier for even working professionals to pursue this course without any issues. 

To know more, check out their website right away! 

Python in Data Science: Real World Applications (Spotify, Netflix, Uber etc.)

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Talk of the leading global tech companies and you will see they use Python programming as an integral part of their technology stack. Created in 1991, Python has become one of the most popular programming languages worldwide. The simplicity, shorter learning curve, reduced development time and effortless coding experience has made Python a coveted choice with many developers. 

Let us see how Python is used in Data Science projects and web development along with some real-world applications. 

Using Python in Data Science projects and web development

The universal, high-level programming language, Python is used extensively in various web development and Data Science projects. 

  • Web development

Flask and Django are Python frameworks, which are famous for web development. Python also has extensive modules and libraries, which speed up development time considerably. 

  • Web scraping applications 

Python facilitates extracting huge volumes of data quickly from sources for price comparisons, research and development and email address gathering. With the logistic regression classification technique, Python solves classification problems. The simple-to-code programming language has a lucid syntax and a great collection of useful libraries like Pandas, Numpy and Matlplotlib. 

  • Data Science

Python helps in quickly analysing and manipulating data. The programming language has graphing libraries which support data visualisation. Moreover, you will find a vibrant and active Python Data Science community. 

  • Game development

Python libraries like Pygame are great for building games and prototypes. Popular games like Battlefield 2, EVE Online and World of Tanks are built with Python. 

  • Python application development

Since Python is a general-purpose language, it is used for developing desktop GUIs, file directories and APIs. 

Real-world applications of Python programming

There are thousands of Python websites and apps running on the internet successfully. Let us take a look at some of the real-world applications using Python. 

Uber

Uber, the well-known mobility-as-a-service company, had doubts about choosing between Ruby and Python while selecting a programming language. They chose Python for the backend and frontend functions. 

The Uber platform needs to make many calculations. Uber’s backend predicts traffic, demand and supply, arrival times, approximate reaching time to the destination, etc. Python is also great for mathematical calculations at big data levels. 

Reddit

Do you know the internet’s popular source of cat videos or dank memes? You guessed it right – Reddit. Self-acclaimed ‘internet’s front page’, Reddit is also a great source of community interactions. 

Reddit uses Python as the programming language because of its easy readability and writeability. Moreover, Python has diverse arrays of ready-to-use libraries. Along with Python, Reddit also uses Javascript and Go. 

Spotify

As a music enthusiast, you do not need to go anywhere else other than Spotify to listen to the kind of music that you love. Spotify has developed as a huge podcast and music streaming platform with more than 489 million active users monthly worldwide. 

You don’t need to look for MP3s, torrent links, or other websites to listen to your favourite music. Spotify developers have used Python for building infrastructure to run user forecasts. 

Instagram

Python is the main programming language used in Instagram. There have been many changes in Instagram’s tech stack, but the app wouldn’t be born without Python. Instagram was built using Django, which is a Python web framework. The viral video and image-sharing platform has almost 1.35 billion users globally in 2023, which is expected to reach 1.44 billion by 2025.  

With an increasing number of users, Instagram developers are creating static sort checkers using Python for server investigation. The server has millions of lines of Python code. 

Netflix

Netflix began its business as a DVD-by-mail service. Today it has become a leading video streaming platform with millions of paid subscribers globally. One of the reasons for the popularity of Netflix is its powerful analytics and recommendation engine. The company offers suggestions to users by understanding the kind of content that they watch. The recommendation and analytics engine is based on Python. 

Extremely intuitive, Python programming language helps in solving complicated networking problems. The content lifecycle of Netflix uses Python including security tools and Machine Learning recommendation algorithms. For statistical analysis, developers use Python libraries. Python is also used for automation tasks, data cleaning and exploration and data visualisation. 

YouTube

YouTube is not only a video-streaming platform on the internet, but it is also the second-largest search engine after Google. YouTube has billions of logged-in users monthly. Along with being a search engine, YouTube is also a popular social media platform. 

YouTube is written exclusively in Python. The interactive experience that users enjoy is due to the various libraries and features of the Python language. The coding of the platform is done in a manner so that the process of downloading, uploading and sharing videos becomes easy. 

Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer platform mainly targeted at professionals who seek answers to various queries on different subjects. Quora has almost 300 million users. Along with sharing answers, professionals also share their experiences on various subjects on Quora. 

Developers of Quora tried using various programming languages for the development of the platform. Python suited them best more so because of the amazing development speed of the programming language. 

Conclusion

Python programming language is a favourite among all leading global technology leaders for its robust, reliable and engineering enterprise-level applications. The majority of websites and apps use Python for their development as the coding is simple and easy. Becoming a Python developer will help in making a great career with a lucrative pay package. 

Imarticus Education offers a Postgraduate Programme in Data Science and Analytics through classroom teaching and live online training modes. You can build your career with this Data Science course with placements. Enhance business outcomes with real-world application of Data Science. 

The course curriculum includes fundamentals and complex concepts of Data Science and Analytics. Certain subjects that the module covers include the basics of Excel for Data Science, SQL programming, Python programming, Statistics for Data Science, Machine Learning, Data Visualization with Power BI and Tableau and many more. 

Enrol for the course right away!

Tips to Make a Career in Investment Banking

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Investment banks provide financial services to individuals, large corporations, and public sector enterprises. Some of the services include the issuance of IPO, underwriting functions, securing loans, business prediction and correction, fund management, and helping in capital raising, merger and acquisition processes. Currently, more than 300 investment banks are operating in India.

 

Investment Banking course with placement

High growth trajectory and financial gratification make a career in investment banking a lucrative option. An investment banker helps clients raise capital to fund their ventures, offers investment-related advice, and ensures financial stability. Good mathematical, analytical, interpersonal, and communication skills are necessary for aspirants wishing to make it big in this financial sector. 

Read on to learn how to make a successful career in investment banking.

Tips to Make a Career in Investment Banking

To be an investment banker, a prospective candidate needs to be focused and methodical. Listed below are a few tips to make a successful career as an investment banker – 

Selecting the right subject combination

Considering the qualities desired in an investment banker, a prospective candidate must choose the right combination of subjects from the beginning. Having subjects like mathematics, computer science, statistics, economics, and accountancy in high school is desirable.

In undergraduate courses, they may continue with a similar combination. A bachelor’s in commerce with accountancy as the core subject and/or a bachelor’s in science with economics make the base for a perfect candidate. Besides, an MBA in financial management can open multiple avenues in investment banking. 

Derivatives markets, corporate finance, trade life cycle, economics, foreign exchange, equity investment, financial reporting, and analysis are some of the core areas an investment banker must be proficient in. 

Pursue a relevant internship

Consider joining internship programmes in investment banks after graduation. It gives exposure and hands-on experience to build the requisite skill set. Exemplary performance as an intern can lead to a permanent position in the organisation. Aspirants can avail these opportunities through well-reputed job portals and campus placement.  

Networking

It is a great way to secure meaningful interviews. It could benefit your professional life later on. A few time-tested modes of networking are as follows – 

  • Attending recruitment events is one of the easiest ways to build your network. 
  • Leveraging LinkedIn contacts can connect you to professionals who can guide you on industry-related topics and interview-related queries.
  • Consulting a career centre can help connect a prospective investment banker to recruiters. 
  • Connect with a member of the local CFA society, who may support with relevant contacts.

Understanding interview sequence

Limited vacancies and a huge number of aspirants give rise to fierce competition in the finance industry. Investment banking interviews are systematically structured into multiple rounds differing from bank to bank. The first round tests the candidate’s problem-solving skills, technical aptitude and overall personality. 

The final round of interviews is more intense and demands the best use of one’s analytical prowess. Young recruiters are more prone to ask technical questions, while senior ones test the behavioural aptitude of aspirants. Renowned study centres help the candidates tackle probable or model questions typically asked in these interviews. 

Commanding soft skills

Attributes like analytical, interpersonal communication and behavioural skills are essential to become a good investment banker as they have to deal with a wide range of clients of varying sensibilities.

Good CV

A well-written CV gives a peek into the candidate and highlights his/her skills. The resume should be compact and concise. It saves time for the recruiter and creates a positive impression.

Acts of active social engagement and involvement in sports, athletics, co-curricular activities etc., are also appreciated as they reflect a prospective candidate’s overall personality.

Commanding technical skills

Technical skills form the backbone of the banking industry. In-depth knowledge of mathematics, statistics, accountancy, valuation, financial modelling, and Excel are a must for those seeking to build a career in investment banking. Keeping up with emerging technologies and trends is a prerequisite to standing out. Fundamental knowledge of APIs and blockchain is also highly appreciated.

Conclusion

The role of an investment banker demands a lot of hard work besides technical and soft skills. A thirst for learning new skills and expertise would help boost your career in finance. Fierce competition rules this professional domain. 

Enrolling in the Certified Investment Banking Operations Professional course at Imarticus can give your dream the right direction. With guaranteed job interviews support, hands-on training, real-world projects and an internationally-recognised certificate, you are bound to make a mark in investment banking.

A Definite Guide to Data-driven Marketing

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The world of marketing has changed its way of functioning over time. Marketing has seen different phases where the old ways of marketing are very different from the new approaches. In today’s sphere of marketing, there is no space for walking on assumptions as everything is based on data and statistics. 

Important aspects of marketing are carried out based on thorough marketing research by the marketing professionals in every company. The most famous marketing approaches in recent years are driven by data. Unfortunately, there remains some gap to fill when working with the data-driven marketing approach. 

chief marketing officers course

Marketing professionals sometimes struggle to find the relevant data, make forecasts based on those data, preserve and extract data and so on. An online CMO programme with good insights can help one understand the approach of data-driven marketing and how to work with it. Read on to understand the concept of data-driven marketing and its importance in making precise marketing decisions.

What is Data-driven Marketing?

Data-driven marketing may at first seem scary and confusing. But if one does away with all the technical jargon, many of its tactics and methods ought to be instantly recognisable. Data-driven marketing is a marketing approach where the marketing unit of a company comes up with new strategies and methods on the basis of big data analysis. The thorough analysis helps in identifying customer preferences and recent trends that can result in the success of a marketing campaign.

A data-driven marketing approach is completely based on the large pool of information that businesses have access to. The marketing units of organisations use multiple applications and websites to collect data and understand the taste and preferences of customers which helps in planning better marketing campaigns. In this way, it is easier for marketing teams to determine which marketing step has generated more engagement and which method fetched the most return on investments. On the basis of the evaluations, companies can fine-tune their efforts to guarantee the best client experiences and the highest return on marketing expenditures.

Benefits of Data-driven Marketing

The modern approach of data-driven marketing is completely based on recent trends and customer tastes. Intriguing marketing campaigns are more likely to achieve success as potential customers tend to click on those ads and make purchases. Data-driven strategies help to identify the target audience and enhance customer experience with brand perception. 

Data-driven marketing approach provides numerous advantages to companies that are enumerated as follows:

Improve customer experience

Better customer experience is the driving force of digital marketing and it is done by marketing professionals with in-depth customer profiles. It is essential as customers tend to leave a website if they do not like the brand’s response. 

Data-driven marketing approach provides enhanced personalisation that fosters a pleasant customer experience and also establishes the trust of the consumers in the brand. It has been seen that personalising customer experience is a great way of increasing the return on investments. The better the brand’s response will be, the more customers it can attract.

Enhance attribution for spend optimisation

A very common hindrance for companies is to identify the area where the marketing investments are going to waste. With the help of data-driven marketing and the various analytical tools it offers, it is easier for marketing units to identify the fraction of the marketing spend that is not yielding desired results. The analytical tools allow marketing professionals to determine what is creating brand awareness and increasing engagement rates and what is not working in their favour.

Evaluating the journey of customers by using multiple attribution models is the best way of doing it. It generates a comprehensive list of the purchases made by consumers and designs marketing campaigns accordingly.

Generate relevant information

The marketing team can gain insights into the taste in preferences of the customers, what they frequently purchase, what areas they like to explore and so on by analysing consumer data. Once the relevant information and data are analysed by the marketing teams, it is easier for them to send relevant messages and ads to the consumers at the right time. This is a value-added method of converting one-time customers into frequent buyers. 

Unfortunately, not all marketers are equipped with the ability to collect the relevant information only. Hence, some marketers face a lot of trouble in matching their content with that of the interest of the potential buyers. In such a scenario, it is best to select only the information that can align with the interest of the buyers.

Better decision making

The data-driven approach of marketing allows marketing professionals to make more informed decisions that are not based on assumptions but on facts and information. The approach is not based on theories and works based on real-world use cases. 

However, data-driven marketing also takes into consideration the emotional factors that influence the choices and preferences of the buyers when making a purchase. That is why marketing professionals build strategies that value both the rational and emotional aspects of marketing by evaluating multiple frameworks.

Creating a Data-based Marketing Strategy

Marketing professionals can design a marketing strategy that is based on data by following the below-mentioned steps:

  • Step 1- Setting clear objectives for the data: before collecting data, the marketing team must be clear about what the focus point of the data should be. Identifying clear goals for the data helps in retrieving better insights. 
  • Step 2- Gathering relevant data: The data must be collected in accordance with the objectives. Only that data should be gathered that helps in forming better strategies for marketing campaigns. 
  • Step 3- Organising the collected data: The gathered data is to be organised on a compatible data platform. It also helps to determine the sources of data. 
  • Step 4- Building a dedicated team: For the purpose of analysing the data, a company has to prepare a dedicated team of marketing individuals. 
  • Step 5- Getting specific permissions: Designing campaign-specific marketing strategies may require seeking the permissions of the stakeholders. 
  • Step 6- Monitoring and tracking progress: A marketing team must come up with a strategy to constantly measure and track the progress of the campaign. It improves the analysis and helps to regulate day-to-day reports to the stakeholders

Conclusion

As the marketing world is constantly changing, obsolete marketing strategies will not yield suitable results. If you are a marketing professional and want to make it big, the Executive Marketing Programme for Strategic Chief Marketing Officers by Imarticus can assist you in achieving your target. Become a CMO of the future with the best knowledge and abilities to make marketing decisions.

Today data-driven marketing is a necessity to meet consumer expectations and make prudent marketing decisions. As there are numerous applications, websites and channels of promotions, analytical tools function better when coupled with data. Increase your chances of becoming a CMO by learning all about the data-driven marketing approach.

Angular Vs. React for Frontend Development

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Front-end development has revolutionised the way we approach web development, causing a paradigm shift in the dynamic of this field. By leveraging cutting-edge web technologies, front-end development has become much more than just a method to design web pages. It now encompasses a wide range of disciplines, from user experience design to performance optimization, accessibility, and responsive design.

The shift to client-side processing is one of the most major changes front-end development has made to web development. With each page request in the early days of the web, the entire page would refresh since server-side processing was the norm.

However, with the emergence of front-end frameworks like React, Vue.js, and Angular, a full stack developer can now build highly interactive web applications that function like desktop applications. This, in turn, has led to a marked improvement in the user experience of web applications.

Angular and React are the two most widely used UI frameworks in the domain of front-end development. Read on to know more about what these frameworks are and how they differ.

What is Angular?

Angular is a TypeScript-based open-source front-end web application framework developed by Google. Angular offers a variety of tools and features that make it uncomplicated to write scalable, manageable, and testable code, enabling developers to construct sophisticated online apps.

Features of Angular

  • TypeScript: Angular is built with TypeScript. TypeScript adds features like static typing, classes, and interfaces, making it easier to build deployable applications. 
  • Two-way data binding: Two-way data binding is a programming concept that allows changes made to a data model to automatically update the view or user interface, and vice versa. In other words, when a user modifies a value in the user interface (UI), the associated data in the model is changed, and the UI is updated to reflect the changes in the model data. 
  • Templating: Angular’s templating capability enables developers to specify the structure and content of the user interface of a web application using HTML and Angular-specific syntax. 

Features of React

  • Virtual DOM: React controls the state of a web application via a virtual DOM (Document Object Model). The virtual DOM is a lightweight approximation of the actual DOM that effectively changes the view without compromising application performance. 
  • JSX: React makes use of JSX, a JavaScript syntax extension that allows developers to write HTML-like code within their JavaScript files, making it easier to construct and maintain UI components. 
  • Unidirectional Data Flow: The unidirectional data flow design pattern in React stresses the movement of data in just one way, from parent to child components. In other words, data in a React application flows from top to bottom of the component hierarchy. In this pattern, the top-level component, or “parent,” sends data to its child components via “props” (short for “properties”). This data is sent to child components via properties and may be used to render their own UI.

Angular vs React

Although both Angular and React are used for front-end development, there are unique features to both these frameworks that make use in different scenarios. Down below are listed the aforementioned:

Architecture

Angular follows a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. An Angular application is divided into three interrelated components: the model, the view, and the controller.

The model component is in charge of the application’s data, which is carried out via services that deliver data to components. Services may be injected into other components, allowing for scalable and maintainable systems that keep data and business logic separate from the user interface.

The view component is in charge of user interface rendering, which is accomplished using components, which are reusable building pieces that encapsulate a portion of the user interface.

The component class, sometimes known as the controller component, processes user input and supports communication with other components and services. It is in charge of creating the component’s logic, which includes event handlers, data retrieval, and manipulation.

React, on the other hand, follows a component-based architecture. This makes it easy to create reusable building blocks for the user interface. Each component has its unique set of properties and a state that can be used to render the output.

React uses a syntax extension called JSX as mentioned before, which enables developers to write HTML-like code in their JavaScript files. This property of React makes it easy to create and manage user interfaces using familiar syntax.

Despite the fact that it is not part of the React design, many React apps employ the Flux architectural pattern to handle data. The Flux pattern divides data into stores and modifies the data using actions. Components can monitor store changes and adjust the user interface accordingly. This pattern helps to organise the flow of data through an application and makes complicated data structures less difficult to maintain.

Learning Curve

Angular’s learning curve is higher than React’s. Because of its complexity, Angular is a full-fledged framework with a high learning curve, whereas React is a library that is easy to learn and use.

Performance

React is quicker and more effective than Angular thanks to its virtual DOM. Because Angular uses a real DOM, performance issues might arise when working with huge apps.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the choice between Angular and React is determined by project needs, development team expertise, and personal preference. While each framework has benefits and drawbacks, they are both viable solutions for front-end development. Developers may select the framework that best meets their needs to construct dynamic and interactive online apps, thanks to Angular’s extensive set of tools and capabilities and React’s simplicity and scalability.

If you are contemplating becoming a full-stack developer, you have to master an array of skills, front-end development, back-end development, DevOps development, test-driven development and more. The materials to develop these skills are vast and the learning path might seem overwhelming. This is why Imarticus Learning is offering the Full Stack Developer Pro programme.

This all-in-one programme will teach you everything you need to excel in the field of full stack development. 

And that’s not all, Imarticus Learning offers you a guaranteed job assurance upon completing this programme. So what are you waiting for? Click here and enrol now! 

Capital Markets and Globalization: Trends and Insights

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Globalization has significantly impacted the landscape of capital markets, which is continually changing. Global market interconnection has created new opportunities and challenges in adopting capital markets technology for enterprises and investors.

This blog will examine some of the most recent trends in capital market and globalization thoughts. We’ll explore various subjects influencing business, from geopolitical events’ effects to the importance of capital markets technology.

Exploring Recent Trends in Capital Market

This post will provide global investment trends and insights, whether you’re an experienced investor or brand new to the world of financial markets. Along with learning about the most recent trends in capital market and advances in the market, you’ll also have a deeper knowledge of the opportunities and threats that globalization presents.

So sit back and join us as we examine the trends and ideas influencing the future of globalization and the intriguing world of financial markets.

What are capital markets, and why do they matter?

Savings and investments are transferred between providers and those needing capital markets. Suppliers, who can lend money or make investments, often comprise banks and investors. Corporations, governments, and people are looking for funds in this market. 

Capital markets are made up of primary and secondary markets. 

The two most well-liked capital markets are the stock and bond markets. They hope to improve transactional efficiency by bringing buyers and sellers together and providing a platform where they may exchange securities.

The phrase “capital market” generally refers to physical and virtual locations where diverse entities exchange various financial products. 

Financial items like stocks and debt securities are sold on the capital markets. “Stocks,” or “equities,” are ownership interests in a firm. Bonds and other debt securities are interest-bearing IOUs.

There are distinct groups into which these marketplaces fall:

  • Primary marketplaces where investors may purchase fresh equity stock and bond offerings
  • Secondary marketplaces for existing securities trading

Analyzing the relationship between globalization and financial markets

The process of increased interconnection and integration across nations, regions, and populations is known as globalization. 

It has a variety of effects on capital markets, including:

Expanding the scope and range of the capital markets. The recent trends in capital market also enable more people to access international capital markets; there are greater options to raise and invest funds. Additionally, it broadens the range of financial products and services readily available on the market, meeting various demands and preferences. 

Improving the capital markets’ efficiency and liquidity. The financial markets have become more effective and liquid due to improved information flow and lower transaction costs brought about by globalization. Additionally, recent trends in capital market make hedging and risk diversification tactics possible, which can lower volatility and boost profits.  

Introducing further dangers and difficulties for the capital markets. Additionally, due to globalization, capital markets are exposed to other sources of unpredictability and volatility, including changes in exchange rates, financial crises, regulatory inconsistencies, geopolitical conflicts, and challenges in adopting capital markets technology. These elements may impact the efficiency and stability of the capital markets, necessitating greater coordination and collaboration between regulators and market players.

investment banking and capital markets course

What are some recent trends in capital market and insights?

In the area of financial markets and globalization, we find the following patterns and findings to be particularly fascinating in the top capital market trends:

The expansion of developing markets. Emerging markets are nations with both tremendous potential for growth and considerable risk. They now command greater attention from investors and issuers due to their increased prominence in the global economy and recent trends in capital market. Urbanization, technical advancement, institutional reforms, and demographic changes are a few of the reasons that contribute to their rise. 

The effects of the digital revolution. The use of digital technology to develop new or improve already existing corporate processes, goods, or services is known as “digital transformation.” It significantly influences capital markets and globalization by allowing new methods of generating and investing money like crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, robo-advisors, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain. It also questions current banking industry business structures, rules, and conventions. 

Sustainability’s Role. The ability to satisfy current demands without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their wants is known as sustainable finance. Given how it influences financial activity’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) facets, it has emerged as a major problem for capital markets and globalization. More investors and issuers are including ESG considerations. 

Geopolitics: Global commerce, especially supply chains and financial networks, will continue to be impacted by the world’s growing multipolarity and the ascendance of new actors. This might alter the present international system and, more broadly, globalization. Resolutions to these adjustments must be mutually agreeable. A new set of difficulties for policymakers in various sectors, including taxes, regulation, the supply of services, and market power, is anticipated to arise due to the progress in the number of major international firms. 

Structural transformation: The epidemic has sparked technical advancement, automation, and supply-chain reallocation. This shift presents both possibilities and significant problems. Disruptions to supply and chaotic labor displacement are key dangers.

The Final words

The recent trends in capital market are transforming and adjusting continually to the shifting global environment. The observations covered in this blog post emphasize how crucial it is to comprehend top capital market trends, how globalization has affected capital markets, and how crucial it is for companies to adapt to these changes to stay competitive. 

A few major factors influencing the future of capital markets are the expansion of developing economies, the importance of capital markets technology, and more regulation. Businesses may position themselves for success in the global economy by being educated and adopting a proactive attitude towards these recent trends in capital market.

Imarticus Learning Executive Programme in Investment Banking and Capital Markets was created with the esteemed IIM Calcutta. Students will graduate from this extensive one-year investment banking course and capital market certification course with a fundamental and advanced grasp of global capital markets and investment banking.

PowerBI for CFOs and Stakeholders

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CFOs are endowed with the responsibility of taking critical financial as well as business decisions. Most of them invest their trust in analytics and consolidated data for taking better decisions. However, accomplishing the daunting task of forecasting, data reporting and data-driven financial decision-making is quite challenging. 

For leveraging real-time data and streamlining the workload, CFOs are working towards developing their technical skills by utilising AI and automation. Along with learning new-generation technology for growth and financial leadership, almost all CFOs now use one software platform – Power BI. 

chief financial officer training

With Microsoft Power BI, CFOs and stakeholders can improve their data reporting and facilitate suitable integration with other Microsoft products. Before making the final call to switch, CFOs must know the importance of Power BI for data analytics. Read on to know how Power BI is beneficial for CFOs and stakeholders. 

What Is Power BI?

Microsoft Power Business Intelligence (BI) is a comprehensive and robust business analytics tool. The tool provides business intelligence capabilities and interactive data visualisations. The user-friendly interface of the software is great for creating dashboards and reports.

Finance professionals including stakeholders use this business intelligence platform for aggregating, analysing, visualising and sharing data within the business organisation. The Power BI interface has great similarities with MS Excel and offers a great user experience. 

Power BI offers excellent insights from the business data for creating clear data models with charts and graphs for presentations and visual representations. This helps key stakeholders and CFOs in setting actionable goals for the business. 

Benefits That CFOs Reap from Power BI And Similar Tools

Along with data-driven financial decision-making and honing skills for financial leadership, there are many other benefits of Power BI and similar tools for CFOs and stakeholders. Let us look at some of the benefits:

  • Helps in assimilating data into a single system

CFOs can gather a huge range and volume of data into one system with the help of any business intelligent platform like Power BI. Power BI provides useful insights into non-financial and financial data. With a robust data system in place, CFOs can implement various forward-thinking strategies in real time. They can also provide real-time reactions to events.

  • Plays a role in impartial information collection

Business intelligence platforms including Power BI collect and analyse data impartially. Generally, finance professionals are biased towards any set of data. By using Power BI, CFOs ensure that the information is completely impartial and only fact-based before it is imputed into the BI ecosystem. 

  • Helps in supporting informed decision making

Authentic CFO courses mention that data is mandatory for CFOs for making any kind of business decision. Business intelligence has developed as a prerequisite for data-focused work culture, where every decision should be backed up with substantial and valuable data. 

Power BI provides data context for CFOs for informed decision-making. It also helps in making more accurate data analyses for CEOs. business strategies without foolproof data can bring dire financial consequences. 

  • Helps in defining data clearly

It is a general tendency for data to become complicated and puzzling when it goes through various technological systems. Business intelligence makes sure that all data is documented and quantified so that it can be used effectively and accurately throughout different departments in the business organisation. 

Power BI helps in positively impacting decision-making among the various departments as there is a single database to be defined and gathered. 

  • Helps in predicting consumer and market trends

CFOs not only get a deep look into their business organisation with Power BI but the analytics tool also provides ways of monitoring consumer behaviour and market developments. 

Business intelligence like Power BI uses data and complex methodologies for understanding potential market conditions and predicting trends. With this tool, CFOs can identify opportunities for boosting market share. They can also bring changes to their business strategies for exploring more profitable options. 

  • Helps in identifying the weak links in the business organisation

Every business organisation has some weak links which should be fixed as soon as possible. With business intelligence, CFOs can have a new approach to a problem. The tool provides better ideas and insights on how problems can be solved successfully. 

Power BI sheds light on these potential problems and weak links and also brings to notice incomplete and inconsistent data. Once the weak links and errors are identified, CFOs can suggest implementing mitigating strategies for overcoming the issues. 

Reasons Why Power BI Has Become Popular with CFOs

Extremely user-friendly with low technology skill threshold, Power BI has become a coveted business intelligence platform. The platform offers integration with the Microsoft ecosystem and other applications which the majority of financial professionals use. 

Implementing Power BI in the company’s workflow helps CFOs in developing a suite of analytical tools for monitoring business success, sharing valuable insights, analysing data in real time and getting instant answers to various business-related queries. 

Here are some reasons why Power BI has become so popular with CFOs:

  • Offers holistic data analysis, which is flexible and accurate along with offering access to practically all data sources. 
  • Power BI develops engaging and interesting visuals for elevating presentations to showcase data. 
  • All Microsoft applications, including Power BI, offer 24/7 access from all corners of the world. CFOs can access information from different devices in real time, including at off-site locations. 
  • One of the most fascinating features of Power BI is the interactive dashboard, where you will find the most relevant data about the business, thus helping in accelerating the decision-making process. 
  • Power BI comes with excellent customisation scopes with different features so that CFOs can import new tools, change the appearance and choose reporting tools that are most useful. 
  • Power BI has the Cortana integration feature along with easy mobile and app integration facilities. 

Conclusion

CFOs are using Power BI extensively for value addition to their business organisation by leveraging real-time data for understanding the exact market and financial position. Along with offering financial leadership, the analytics tool also plays a pivotal role in data-driven financial decision-making in the business organisation. 

Emerging CFOs need to be well-trained and well-informed to become successful in their careers. Imarticus Learning offers a CFO course in the form of a Postgraduate Certificate Programme for Emerging CFOs in collaboration with IIM Indore. 

The 12-month course is a specialised finance programme offering a comprehensive understanding of financial management and financial services. The course helps in developing analytical, strategic and tech-focussed skills. The main subjects in the course include financial technology, business valuation, risk management, strategic thinking, etc. 

Visiting Imarticus Learning to know more about similar courses and study programmes. 

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