Congratulations to all our graduates!

For those people considering going to university this year at MSc level, this financial crisis will be the first they have experienced. Yet financial crises happen every ten or twenty years. What is different this time is the severity of the crisis ? the likes of which no trader in the City has ever seen before. This article first outlines the causes of the crisis and then asks whether students should steer clear of finance, accounting and economics as subject disciplines and potential careers, until the crisis has receded? I argue that the clear answer is ?no".

The ICMA Centre is now providing professional and academic programmes that specialise in Financial Risk Management. The new MSc in Financial Risk Management has been developed in close consultation with leading industry players to help meet the growing demand for properly qualified professional risk managers in banks, asset managers, corporates and regulatory bodies. Download Brochure.

Munich, 16 October 2013 – There is currently a high level of uncertainty on the international financial markets, due to the budget dispute in the USA surrounding the proposed raising of the borrowing limit. The markets are waiting with bated breath to see whether the Democrats and the Republicans will be able to agree on raising the debt ceiling, which currently stands at just under 17 trillion US dollars. The key question for investors is whether the USA and other countries will be able to pay back the debts they have taken on or whether, as in the case of the debt cut in Greece, they can expect to see losses on their investments. A recent study based on sustainability rating agency oekom research’s country ratings shows that sustainability ratings are a reliable indicator of countries’ solvency and that taking sustainability ratings into account allows investors to make a better assessment of the overall risks.