[Anonymous]

Hi All,

This summer I’ll be taking the following class:

“Mgmt of Financial Instituions

Finance theory is used to study the specific management problems facing financial intermediaries such as banks, insurance companies, savings institutions, and pension funds. Topics include asset and liability management, the pricing of services, the management of risk, capital adequacy, and regulation.”

I haven’t taken a real finance class in almost four years, so I was wondering if anyone has taken a similar class. And if so, what finance concepts should I be brushing up on?

Thanks!

[How many letters do you need]

Hopeful- I took a class like this in my undergrad Finance program and it was crazy difficult. Don't confuse this with a “money and banking” type of class.

From what I can recall, most of the concepts were sort of an island of their own. The asset/liability management piece was especially difficult. Don't get me wrong, it was an incredibly interesting class, and the theory parts are pretty straight forward but the calculations can be insane. Especially around the A/L management concepts.

Not sure if there is much you can brush up on, really, but I would have PV concepts down solid and a firm understanding of bonds and fixed income assets because if I recall correctly a big part of A/L management was around managing the risks of having liabilities that have different liquidity and maturity dates than your assets. With that, like I said, it really is an interesting class…

MBA,CMA,CPA, CFF?, ABV?

[How many letters do you need]

Hopeful- I took a class like this in my undergrad Finance program and it was crazy difficult. Don't confuse this with a “money and banking” type of class.

From what I can recall, most of the concepts were sort of an island of their own. The asset/liability management piece was especially difficult. Don't get me wrong, it was an incredibly interesting class, and the theory parts are pretty straight forward but the calculations can be insane. Especially around the A/L management concepts.

Not sure if there is much you can brush up on, really, but I would have PV concepts down solid and a firm understanding of bonds and fixed income assets because if I recall correctly a big part of A/L management was around managing the risks of having liabilities that have different liquidity and maturity dates than your assets. With that, like I said, it really is an interesting class…

MBA,CMA,CPA, CFF?, ABV?

[Anonymous]

If it's that difficult I may forgo taking the class… your description is what I was afraid of. The reason I was taking it was to have at least one class this summer, as sections of other classes are full. But if it's that level of difficult, and condensed into four weeks, I'd rather skip it altogether and keep my 4.0 earned thus far intact for my recruiting season resume.

I think I'll take Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management in the fall, as I can take that instead. Stacking on five classes while working full time won't be fun but I'd rather not potentially destroy my GPA with a finance class that I don't actually need.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

If it's that difficult I may forgo taking the class… your description is what I was afraid of. The reason I was taking it was to have at least one class this summer, as sections of other classes are full. But if it's that level of difficult, and condensed into four weeks, I'd rather skip it altogether and keep my 4.0 earned thus far intact for my recruiting season resume.

I think I'll take Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management in the fall, as I can take that instead. Stacking on five classes while working full time won't be fun but I'd rather not potentially destroy my GPA with a finance class that I don't actually need.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I'm a financial analyst working in asset/liability mgmt. I love it!! It keeps my interest! Big part of ALM is interest rate risk. We produce interest rate risk reports for over 100 banks ranging in size from 100 million to 1.5 billion. We create dynamic forecasting models used to simulate future B/S and I/S activities in order to measure interest rate risk exposure under multiple rate environments. We also provide consulting for financial projections, budgeting and rate sensitivity. Not sure what to tell you as far as things to brush up on. We work in Excel and an ALM database all day. Big part of ALM is understanding how the inputs (different assumptions) affect the outputs (reports). Feel free to ask me any questions you have.

[Anonymous]

I'm a financial analyst working in asset/liability mgmt. I love it!! It keeps my interest! Big part of ALM is interest rate risk. We produce interest rate risk reports for over 100 banks ranging in size from 100 million to 1.5 billion. We create dynamic forecasting models used to simulate future B/S and I/S activities in order to measure interest rate risk exposure under multiple rate environments. We also provide consulting for financial projections, budgeting and rate sensitivity. Not sure what to tell you as far as things to brush up on. We work in Excel and an ALM database all day. Big part of ALM is understanding how the inputs (different assumptions) affect the outputs (reports). Feel free to ask me any questions you have.

[Author]

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