Why Is Chartered Financial Analyst a Good Career Option?

In recent times, Chartered Finance Analyst (CFA) is a designation which is quite revered and regarded by most as a key certification for professionals in the areas of portfolio management and research.

The chartered financial analyst program is a certification from the CFA Institute. It is a globally regarded certification. It is essentially a self-study methodology, graduate level program for professionals who want to pursue a career in investment. A person coming out of any discipline or academics can pursue the CFA program.

Applications to the program are usually from students and undergraduates to an early professional who intent to get a boost to their career. Although it is important to note that just getting a certification will not guarantee the same.

Passing all the three exams of CFA in itself is a very daunting job when compared to the efforts and commitment of the time required as against other management programs like the MBA. In fact, there are many MBA pass outs and CA’s who join CFA to get into core investment banking jobs. CFA gives a great technical grounding and offers broad-based scopes suitable for investment banking, research analyst, equity research and portfolio management.

The CFA course focuses on ethics, portfolio management, accounting, corporate finance, fixed income and equity investments, so basically if one does not have a very specific choice but needs to build their career in the field of finance then they should opt for the CFA certification as it is broad-based, opening many career opportunities.

Passing a CFA exam shows that the person pursuing the same has the ability to show commitment, tenacity, comes across as a professional with resilience, and rigour. In addition to the learnings from the course, the charter holders are also considered internationally mobile as well due to their association with the global professional network.



Some of the most common jobs taken by the CFA professionals

Portfolio Management:
Since CFA focuses on essentially training you on portfolio management skills, this job becomes a no-brainer for most pass outs. Under this profile, you are responsible for making financial/investment-based decisions for people who have given the control of their money to you or to your company.

Research Analyst:
Here the profile is responsible for analysing the financial transactions and records of the firm for its clients. Here you need to prepare your observations and reports and primarily have an insight of what the client would want to know about the financial health of the organization in such a way that nothing essential is overlooked before making any strategic decisions.

There are many other nomenclatures for this role within the organization, such as investment analyst, rating analyst, financial analyst, equity analyst, to name a few.

Consultant:
Here the person needs to provide suggestions that will benefit the firm with professional advice. The CFA course covers corporate finance which will assist the professional to make alternative decisions and suggestions to the third party or the client satisfying their requirements.

Accountant/Auditor:
Here you are required to keep a track of all financial footprints and documents of the business or company that you are associated with.

Investment Banking Analyst:
Here a person needs to check all possible pit stops, analyse, evaluate, all possibilities before any investment is made. The person usually is responsible for directing and making the firm aware of mergers and acquisitions. The task can be efficiently performed by any CFA pass out as the course has a section on corporate investment, equity investment, economics and more which prepares them to handle such requirements.

These are just a few opportunities out of the many that you can take advantage of if you wish to pursue the CFA certification.

So to conclude, it is quite obvious that in recent times many organizations and individuals alike are getting highly interested in CFA. The fact that a CFA certification will benefit the organization and the individual in revenue growth and career growth, it is perhaps why most organizations are also considering sending employees usually from the start up a level for this certification as the long-term advantages cannot be ignored.

It is then true to say that the CFA designation does distinguish the charter holders from other counterparts in the eye of professionals and investors. As a successful CFA charter holder has already proved the test of time and their ability and intention of commitment to conducting their professional life according to high professional standards.

Credit Underwriting Standards: A Challenge for Smaller Banks!

The main revenue for a bank always comes from the money they lend to different borrowers. The interest obtained on that lent money generates revenue for them. Now, this lending process exposes a bank to risks.

In this article, we will discuss various aspects of credit underwriting standards and the importance of a credit analyst course or a PG diploma in banking and finance.

What are Credit Underwriting Standards?

Underwriting standards are a set of guidelines defined by banks or lending institutes, to determine if a loan applicant is qualified for the loan or credit. Credit underwriting standards determine the loan amount, loan terms and tenures, rate of interest, etc. This credit underwriting standard works as a risk management process that helps minimize the risk factor from the lent loan.

Key factors of Credit Underwriting

There are some basic points a bank should consider before granting the loan.

  • A common problem faced by credit approvers is that they often don’t get sufficient financial information from the applicant.
  • An efficient cash-flow projection report can be prepared with enough historical data, balance sheet statements, and a financial analysis system. However, appropriate information needs to be obtained from borrowers regarding expected trends, upcoming capital structure and incorporated in cash-flow modeling for better prediction.
  • Rating models can be efficiently predictive and render an effective early caution against credit deterioration only when the data fed to them are quality data.
  • When the process is more manual and duplicate data is kept in multiple systems, it causes an increase in “time to cash”. The key factors that contribute to “time to cash” are the market environment, the efficiency of decision-makers, and system infrastructure.
  • To understand the key performance indicators and meet the audit requirements, extracting the right data is essential. Also, a user-friendly way of capturing data and a strict well-defined process is essential to make sure the data is correctly apprehended and managed.
  • Understanding the business model sustainability of the borrower is important. The borrower should have better alignment between business strategy and financially reliable sectors to recover the losses when one sector is underperforming.

Challenge for Smaller Banks

When it comes to smaller banks, they face few challenges while maintaining credit underwriting standards, which either cause problems for them in the present or might create in the future.

  • Major small banks face significant challenges in terms of their ability to produce, manage and maintain sufficient data. This is a clear indication that small banks suffer due to a lack of IT infrastructure and strong risk governance policies.
  • Another key trend among smaller banks is that because of the extremely competitive market, the interest rates that banks offer on loans are not calculated based on the underlying credit risk of those loans, but rather they are more intended towards capturing the market. This lack of risk-based pricing may cause a future inability to recover the money lent.
  • The banks are launching new products, offers, expanding themselves into new markets, re-adjusting risk strategies because of intense market competition. There was a drop in average lending margins which basically reduced the overall profit margin for a bank.

Conclusion

Credit risk management comes with various challenges. Proper analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, decision-making ability, and mutual relationships can help to reduce the risk and only a properly trained professional can do that.

When you are looking for a career in the banking sector, deep knowledge of credit underwriting standards is essential.

Credit risk underwriting courseA credit analyst course or PG diploma in banking and finance may help you to achieve that. Credit Risk and Underwriting Prodegree In Collaboration with Moody’s Analytics is such a tailor-made course for you.

Why a short professional program is better than an MBA?

By Reshma Krishnan
Over 50 percent of the students that come to Imarticus Learning and attend our FMVC, CIBOP, CIBIT programs are MBA students. During their counseling sessions as well as their interview prep and mock interviews, we always ask them what they learnt in their MBA and what made them attend Imarticus.

The answers are always the same – I learnt nothing in my MBA. Why is that? MBA’s are extremely popular, so why are they so futile? It’s not the MBA that is futile. The right MBA done at the right time and from the right school is useful, but the majority of MBA’s are not well designed. Here are our top reasons for why short professional programs are better than an MBA.

What is an MBA? An MBA is a multi disciplinary course of study that helps you understand the various facets of running a business, ergo the name, a master of business administration. An MBA assumes that you have come far enough in your career to put the theories you learn during the course– marketing, finance, and operations, into some sort of context. A context that cannot be built without some understanding of how a business functions.

MBA’s are useful but only to those who come in with 5-6 years of relevant work experience. Having already worked on a shop floor of a store or coded for a company, they do an MBA to understand the other facets, which they can then apply to their experience.

This is what generally happens abroad. In India however, the stress on academics and degrees mean that most people do an MBA right after college without any experience leading to a two-year course of study that adds no value, not even to the resume.

But then, you ask, how do we stand out against others during a job hunt? You stand out by doing a course that is tailor-made where the curriculum has been designed in conjunction with specialists and endorsed by companies. A short course does not expect you to have work experience and it’s sole purpose is to help you find a job, and it does that by training you specifically for a role which makes you more employable as you are able to add value to a company from day one.

1. Short professional programs are job-specific – all our programs have been designed by industry experts and tailor made to job requirements. For instance the CIBOP program is designed for Investment Banking Operations roles. For three months, you will be taught by domain specialists, who have worked in these roles giving you real life examples.

2. Professional programs are shorter – Because you spend only three months, you start working sooner and spend less time in the classroom and more time gaining valuable work experience that you can then use to apply to a more prestigious and useful MBA program

3. Short programs focus on getting you a job– our short programs are tailored to a job, which attracts companies because they know our candidates are job-ready.

Imarticus Learning offers the internationally-accredited CIBOP program, designed for careers in Investment Banking. This program provides you an in-depth understanding of complex financial products and their Trade Lifecycles, along with Operational Risk and Regulations.


How investment banks operate in DCM markets?

How investment banks operate in DCM markets?

DCM or Debt Capital Markets is the link that connects the corporate issuers and bankers. DCM groups provide advisory services to corporate issuers for debt-raising required for acquisitions, restructuring of debts existing-debt refinancing, and old-debt refinancing. The investment banker is the vital link in the entire process and acts as a broker between the intermediaries. Such investment banking teams need to be agile, flexible and abreast a fluctuating market.

One will need proficiency in markets with fixed income, treasuries, bonds, instruments in the money market, and much more. The investment banker receives a fee from the contracting parties for his mediation and making of financial arrangements, advice on financial issues like mergers, acquisitions, and services in trading of bonds, shares etc.

Let us understand the Debt Capital Market operations to explore the role of the investment banker in DCM operations.

DCM Teams and ECM Teams
DCM teams focus on operating the fast-paced short-term side of financial investments. ECM-Equity Capital Markets teams focus on the long-term investments which move slower. The risk factors keep these two teams in different environs. Obviously, the ECM teams bear more risk with longer termed investments. DCM teams work with debt securities and ECM teams with equity securities. The differences between the teams are due to the risk capabilities and types of investments they focus on.

Debt Capital Markets explained.
DCM or Debt capital markets are capital markets that generate fixed-income and have low-risk. The investors receive debt securities for money lent to the company invested in. The DCM is popular with companies who look for finance through debt. Investors also prefer them as it ensures their capital remains intact while they earn profits and a fixed-income.

Investors are comfortable with low-risk income providing instruments in the DCM like bonds, debt securities, and others. This helps them preserve the capital amount while earning profits when trading in the securities. The investment bankers advice customers for a fee on the risks involved in investing in such money investments.

Debt Securities:
Companies that raise funds make debt securities to the lenders in the form of money market instruments, bonds, treasuries and such. The creditworthiness of the debtor is assessed and sets the interest rate. Higher the creditworthiness lower will be the interest rates.

Debt securities can be obtained from both the primary and secondary markets. The primary market is one where companies issue their bonds. The secondary market is one where persons holding bonds sell them at market prices which may be higher or lower.

Bonds:
Bonds are securities dealt in by the DCM teams. They have different values, characteristics and return profiles. The most often mentioned bonds are: 

  1. Investment bonds
  2. Bonds with high-yield
  3. Bonds from the government
  4. Emerging markets based bonds
  5. Bonds by the municipality

    Learn all about the DCM team, investment banking roles, and job opportunities, payouts expected and more by doing investment banking courses in India. These courses offer a good grasp of fundamentals, concepts, theoretical knowledge, practical skills and certifications that could help enhance your resume and career. They also offer boot camps, short term workshops, and basic knowledge of technical skills in Java, Python etc.

    For investment bankers. While certification definitely helps, you need to be an excellent communicator and work diligently to acquire the best analytical, technical and business skills crucial to your job role. Another advantage in such courses is of mentoring by certified and experienced industry aces that helps garner the latest best practices, techniques, skills, and practice on the latest trending technologies in the field of investment banking, financial courses and more.

Are Investment Bankers Able to Run Commercial Banking Operations?

 

The answer to this question lies in understanding why commercial banking and investment banking have different roles to play in the banking sector. Commercial banking is customer-facing and deposit oriented. Investment banking, on the other hand, is similar to brokering deals between willing investors and companies that need investments and offer good growth. Your skill sets for each operation are different and may require different technological enablement.

Commercial banks:
In a commercial bank, the deposit accepted from retail customers and the general public offer the banks a good investment capacity. Rather than hold on to the funds, banks invest in growing companies with guaranteed returns, government bonds and loans etc. When the income they earn from such investments is greater than what they pay their depositors as interest is higher the bank is successful.

Investment Banking:
The investment banker is essentially a broker between the bank, the investors and finance-seeking clients, of investment services like IPO’s, asset management, mergers, underwriting, acquisitions, shares, trading, securities, and bonds. The brokerage earned from such financial transactions made on such advice is pure profit. There is no depositing of funds by the investors in the investment banking section. Investment banking is popular today to the large group of investors who have surplus cash and wish to earn well from it. Angel investors also seek the advice of investment bankers to study the markets, inform them of good investments and compute future gains and insights of ROI and many such advisory activities.

The two are completely different though they are a part of the same banking division. Can an arm be used in place of a leg? Well, that should let you infer how these two divisions function and are not interchangeable. A certain degree of compatibility will still exist from a career point of view. However, retraining is the only solution.

To learn more about such differences you could do courses recommended below when your goal is to make a career in banking and financial institutions and the services they can offer.

• Investment banking courses
• Financial modelling training
• Equity Research Courses
• Venture capital and private equity training
• Hedge funds training
• IFRS certification
• CFA certification
• Credit Risk modeling
• Trading in cryptos training
• VBA, Excel and Macros Courses
• Data Analytics Courses

Doing analytics or financial courses offer a good grasp of fundamentals, concepts, theoretical knowledge, practical skills and certifications that could help enhance your resume and career. They also offer boot camps, short term workshops, and basic knowledge of the technological skills like Excel, Macros, SAS, R, Java and so on. While certification definitely helps you need to be an excellent communicator and work diligently to acquire the best analytical and business skills. Another advantage in such courses is of mentoring by certified and experienced industry aces that helps garner the latest best practices, techniques, skills, and practice on the latest trending technologies in the fields of analytics and banking.

The payouts for investment bankers are far higher than in the commercial banking division. This having been said, do remember that it involves great interpersonal skills, a very specific set of technological skills, financial acumen and tireless work to be successful. A certified course on Investment Banking can definitely help enhance both your resume and career while allowing you to build that set of skills so essential to your job choices, career path, and payouts.

Even bankers can retrain themselves to broaden their fields and job opportunities considering the scope and high earnings of investment bankers. An ideal course for investment banker can equip you for the future. As long as money exists the scope for investment banking never dies down. Act on your choices today.

Also Read: How to Become an Investment Banker

Top Talent Rushes to Join Domestic Investment Banks

In the last few months, a multitude of high ranking professionals has left their high paying jobs at international Investment banks to join domestic ones. Some prime example of this include Vikas Khattar, who after working with international firms like HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Jeffries, Merrill Lynch and Citi for over 20 years joined domestic banking firm Ambit Capital and Anjani Kumar who took the job of managing director at O3 Capital after 20 years of working at international banks like RBS, ABN Amro and CIMB Securities. Industry experts say that in total, over three dozen such professionals have joined domestic firms in the last one year.
There are various reasons why this has been happening. Of late, with domestic firms offering a lot of growth opportunities, the appeal of having a great job at international firms has gone down among executives. Clients nowadays are more inclined to work with Indian firms considering all the time and effort that they have put in recent years to understand the Indian market and construct meaningful relationships with Indian companies. Domestic Investment banks are now also building ties with international companies so that customers do not lose out on any services which until now they could have only gained from international companies.
When it comes to fees and incoming revenue, the amount of Investment banking courses done in India has grown substantially in the last three years. Indian firms have scaled up massively in terms of operations and deals being struck. As such, the scope for growth is much more in Indian banks when compared to international ones. This attracts a lot of executives from international outfits to join Indian ones instead.
The fact that international banks have significantly scaled down their operations in India over the last few years have also contributed to these migrations. On the other hand, many domestic firms are now a part of large conglomerates which offer a multitude of services to their customers. Stock prices and its related benefits have also been a big factor. Executives working at international firms often have a harder time reaping the benefits of their shares when compared to ones working for domestic firms despite international ones having a higher cash component. As such, domestic banks offer much better wealth creation opportunities to their employees. As operations by domestic firms continue to grow, so will the wealth creation opportunities for these executives.

What is the Big Challenge of Shadow Banking in India today?

Any investor with a semblance of market awareness would know by now about the hits that the Banking Sector has received. The NPAs truly brought to light some deep fractures in the banking practices currently, and it resulted in a reduction in the value of the stocks of many prominent banks.

However, owing to some corrective measures taken by the Reserve Bank and a change in the overarching structure, the banking sector has since been recovering from this fall.

However, these NPAs which are being addressed are only those that have been in possession of banks – the NBFCs are not included, in most cases. NBFC or Non-Banking Financial Companies are also in the same business of lending and borrowing, akin to banks in that respect. The NPAs in possession of these NBFCs also tend to have deep implications on market health and the economy.

Recently, the debt default by the IL&FS brought forth the depth of the financial risk that India’s NBFCs pose to the economy. IL&FS, or Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services is actually a conglomerate which deals with financing and developing various infrastructure projects in the nation. This mini-crisis has worsened the capital adequacy and has contributed to the credit crunch happening today in India.

Many growing sectors were heavily dependent on NBFCs for credit, and these even include established sectors like Real Estate and the likes. Recently, a report by the Investment Banking Company Credit Suisse stated that the exposure of the NBFCs to an assortment of real estate companies could be as much as Rs. 20,000 Crores. This led to a downfall of the shares of Real Estate companies, and the economy was affected too.

The issue is that Banks is still reeling from the NPA issue that hit them head on, and are currently unable to neither increase the interest rates on their loans nor lend more to those real-estate companies that are looking for credit. This led to NBFCs taking the mantle, and this phenomenon is known as ‘shadow banking’. In India, the shadow banking sector of the lending agenies appears to be larger than that of the banks, which can have dire consequences in the economy of the nation too.

If you are interested in understanding more about the issue and about investment in general, take a look at the investment banking courses available on Imarticus Learning!

Industry Report: Investments and Developments Part – II

[Read Part 1]
This report analysis would be mainly dealing with all the key investments and developments in Indian banking sector.
Starting from the basic, central level, the RBL Bank Limited, a private sector bank in India, has reportedly raised about Rs. 330 crore as a result of their association with CDC Group Plc. This is a UK based financial development institution and will be helping the RBL bank, to strengthen their capital base, in order to meet their future needs.
The World Bank has reportedly signed an agreement with The State Bank of India, which is worth Rs. 4200 crore. This agreement basically deals with connecting all the solar rooftop projects in India, which are also known as GRPV, and will be receiving financing as a part of this agreement.
JP Morgan Chase, which is considered to be the largest bank in America, has been in talks of expanding their operations in India. They have gotten a head start on the same, with three new branches in, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai which will be an addition to the current branch in Mumbai.
An investment management company, known as the Canada Pension Plan, has reportedly bought a large stake, which it bought away from a Japan based, banking corporation called Sumitro Mitsui. These said stakes were in Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.
India’s very first small finance bank, began its operations by launching about ten branches in the state of Punjab. The Capital Small Finance Bank as it is officially known aims at increasing the number of its branches to about twenty nine, in the current financial year of 2016-17.
Taking a step towards making India, as cashless economy, an e-wallet company, Freecharge, has partnered with Yes Bank and Mastercard. This partnership is in order to launch a new concept of Freecharge Go. This would be a virtual card, with the help of which consumers can pay for goods and services, at online shops as well as offline retailers.
This year, the economy of India would be majorly targeting at being self-sufficient and in the lieu of the same, te government of Andhra Pradesh has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Exim Bank of India, in order to promote exports within this state.
Moody’s, a Global Rating Agency, seems to have upgraded its outlook towards the Indian Banking System. This move is to stabilize its negative based on the assessments of about five drivers, which include improvement in operating environment, stable asset risk and capital scenario.
Rockefeller Foundation, a non-profit organization based out of America, has backed a private Equity Investor known as Lok Capital. This investor has a plan of investing up to USD 15 million in a couple of proposed small finance banks in India, over the period of next year.
The RBI, has reportedly given in principal approval, to about 11 applications, which were in favour of establishing payment banks. These banks may accept deposits, but they are to refrain from extending any loans.
With the chances of the economy and the cash inflow looking bright, the banking and investment industry shows great promise for aspirants.

The Most Bizarre Questions That Investment Banks Asked This Year

We are all aware about the road to a great career in Investment Banking isn’t complete without the biggest roadblock, which is the interviews. For any freshly minted candidate, there always is a string of common run of the mill questions revolving mainly around their weaknesses, the 5 year plans that they intend to work on and so on. But, what usually catches the candidate off guard, is the list of weird questions. While these questions may be weird and a tad bit scary, they are the absolute crucial determinants, of whether you get that coveted position, or not.
Here’s a list of freakishly weird questions, which some of the top-notch banks asked in the year of 2016:
1. “How would you value a cow using a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis?”
The above question, as out of the blue as they come, was asked to a potential candidate in an interview round, in London Based Firm last year. While any DCF question, is extremely inevitable in corporate finance interviews, there are those Bovine DCF questions, which are not.
2. “How many pairs of shoes do you expect to wear over your lifetime?”
An interview is absolutely incomplete, without any brain teaser questions, which ensure that your analytical skills undergo a rigorous jog. This was most expectantly one of them. While the internet service engine, Google, might deem such questions as a tad bit irrelevant, all the to banks out there just cannot get enough of these. The above question was reportedly asked in an interview for risk management at Nomura.
3. “What would you do if we gave you 10,000 Euros now?”
If you are a finance aspirant looking to get into the field of investment banking, you would surely be expected to know all there is about Investments. Any bank, regardless of its position, expects the candidates to have some very solid investment ideas in response to questions like these. The above question was asked during an interview wit ICAP.
4. “Who is your best friend?”
This question was asked during the final round of an interview, conducted by Credit Suisse. In their attempt to go beyond the technicalities and mundane aspects, many HR managers try to ask unconventional questions. The above question was asked in a similar vein, in order to know about the candidate, through the eyes of someone, who is close to them.
5. “How would you manage the portfolio of an astronaut that will be isolated from earth for the next 10 years?”
This is another question, in the line of most out-of-the-context yet, relevant questions. This one in particular was asked during an interview about securities at Goldman Sachs and the student who was asked all of these questions said it was the best interview of all times.
As the popularity of Investment Banking, as a field grows, the number of professionals wanting to be a part of this field also multiplies. In order to look for the perfect candidates, these top banks usually end up asking very out of the box questions. To become thoroughly industry endorsed, professionals usually pursue certification training programs, Join Imarticus Learning, here we offer proper training to crack such interviews.

Industry Report: Banking Sector in India Part – I

This article will be principally dealing with the basic understanding about the banking sector, specifically in India and all the aspects and components of the size of the market. According to the Reserve Bank of India, the banking sector in India is believed to be sufficiently capitalized and well regulated. Recent reports state that the financial and economic conditions in our country, are way better in comparison to the other countries, in the present times. This basically puts the Indian economy, which is considerably stable, against the other alarmingly unstable and equally dysfunctional economies, all over the globe. Studies conducted in various fields like Credit, market and liquidity risk conclude that the banks in India have shown a general tendency, of being resilient and have been able to withstand the global economic turmoil really well.
This may have been a result of the various innovative banking models, for instance, the payments and small finance banks, which have had a positive impact on the Indian banking industry in the recent times. In the financial year of 2015-2016, about 10 small finance banks and around 11 payment banks, have received the principle approval from the central bank. This is a part of the new measures put in place by the Reserve Bank of India, which show great signs of going a long way, in terms of helping in the restructuring of the domestic banking industry. Let’s talk facts and numbers now, in keeping with the same we need to focus on the numeric aspects of the banking units across the country.
Primarily, the Indian banking system is made up of around 26 public sector banks, 25 private sector banks, 43 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1589 urban cooperative banks and around 93550 rural cooperative banks, in addition to the existing cooperative credit institutions. 80% of the entire market, is supposedly controlled by the public sector banks, thereby evidently a very small share of the market is left in control of the private counterparts. While on the other hand, every bank out there has begun to encourage their customers, in order to manage all of their finances using mobiles phones.
While there have been a number of predictions and assumptions in terms of credit growth, especially with the current banking situation, as well as the Union Budget almost being right around the corner. There are various estimates made, among which the Standard and Poor, have gone on to make the estimates, that the credit growth in the Indian banking sector, is likely to improve to 11-13 per cent in this financial year, that is 2017. This is a great news in terms of growth and progress, from the past three years, when the second half of the year, 2014, showed less than 10 per cent credit growth. As the future prospects of the Indian banking sector seem extremely bright and by extension, so do the job prospects in terms of Corporate Finance, Investment Banking and so on. This is why many finance enthusiasts have begun to turn to professional training institutes like, Imarticus Learning, that help them achieve the perfect career roles.