SNAPSHOTS

IMS Program on Quantitative Finance Workshop 2 and 3

August 2019

During 5 to 8 August, and 26 to 30 August 2019, NUS Institute for Mathematical Sciences (IMS) in collaboration with RMI hosted two workshops Finance on “Fintech and Machine Learning”, and, “Asset Pricing and Risk Management”, respectively. These two workshops completed the series of Quantitative Finance programs which started in March 2019.

Researchers from various universities such as Boston University, Columbia University, Dublin City University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, NUS, Nanjing University, Princeton University, Renmin University of China, Soochow University, Tsinghua University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Oxford, among others, contributed talks in these two workshops. Workshop 2 discussed topics such as, model sophistication and operational risk, crypto volatility forecasting, econometrics with privacy preservation, robo-advising, pitfalls of bitcoin's proof-of-work, and bitcoin mining among others. Whereas workshop 3 dealt with topics such as proxy CDS curves, quantile forecasting, market making regulation, fundamental theorems of quantitative risk management, asset pricing models, pricing and hedging crypto options, model-uncertain value-at-risk, and convex duality in portfolio theory among others.

The workshop was intended for researchers and practitioners working in the specific areas to congregate, share ideas, exchange knowledge, and together make progress in new research directions.

IBF Standards Certificate in Operational Risk Management

12 October to 18 November 2019

From 12 October to 18 November 2019, RMI conducted the IBF Standards Certificate in Operational Risk Management Level 1 for banking professionals in Singapore. Inherent in all banking products, activities, processes, and systems, operational risk is a fundamental element of a bank’s risk management programme. This course featured a highly focused and specialized curriculum, teaching materials and courseware developed around the IBF Standards which is cutting-edge, forward looking and developed by the financial industry and benchmarked against the best standards and practices in the world.

The IBF Standards consists of four Competency Units (CU) – Governance, Analytics, Technology and Functional with the different learning objectives. CU 1 to 3 will create a foundational understanding of the functional services industry as well as awareness of regulatory and industry trends, understanding of financial products and markets, financial mathematics and corporate finance, as well as understanding of data management and the use of risk information technology. Meanwhile, CU 4 will focus on demonstrating an understanding of operational risk and its inter-relationship with other risk categories, an understanding of operational risk strategy and how it supports the achievement of organizations strategies and objectives, and how to work with colleagues to support the implementation of various approaches for identifying, measuring, analyzing, controlling, mitigating, monitoring and reporting operational risks as well as to support the data and management information systems required to support the ORM framework, methodologies and processes.

MFE Career Development Events

October & November 2019

In October and November 2019, NUS RMI organized three different career development events for its MFE students. The first was a Bloomberg training session at the Bloomberg office in Singapore where students learned to navigate the Bloomberg terminal as well as a market overview and find information on various products using the terminal.

On 11 October 2019, RMI organized an Interview Skills Workshop for the MFE students. The workshop, delivered by a seasoned investment banker, focused on equipping students with the right interview skill to ace interviews for jobs in the banking and finance industry. The workshop covered interview FAQ’s, two practice sessions and a live demonstration of an interview. The workshop also delved into preparing the students on the steps after the interview.

Lastly, on 1 November 2019, RMI hosted a seminar on “Data & Analytics at SGX” for its MFE students. Dr. Sigrid Rouam, Vice President and Head of Data Science and Li Chen, Senior Data Scientist, a NUS MFE alumnus, at SGX gave the talk about the Data & Analytics unit, one of the key innovation drivers of the SGX. According to them, it is not only involved in new and exciting emerging technologies such as AI, Machine Learning and Big Data, but also has the responsibility to design the data architecture and infrastructure, manage the integrity of the data, develop data dictionaries and models to govern the data, and finally to build advanced analytics and visualization that will transform and imbue a data-driven culture. They also gave the students a deeper look into real applications and an overview of SGX’s internship program.