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How are banks innovating to meet customer demands? Is globalisation increasing risk in the banking and finance sector?
This course builds on your existing knowledge of finance, banking or business to prepare you for a challenging and rewarding career in any banking specialism. You follow an advanced and contemporary programme of study using industry-standard trading software.
We provide you with a broad vision and understanding of the changing nature of modern banking firms. You develop a detailed understanding of areas including:
portfolio management
modern banking methods
bank strategy and risk
regulation and the internationalisation process
This course is taught at Essex Business School. We're proud to be an internationally diverse and research intensive school, ranked 25th in the UK for research quality (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019). By embedding the latest academic and industry thinking into our teaching, you experience an education that’s at the forefront of the issues impacting today’s banking and finance sectors.
We help you understand the financial drivers of an increasingly complex banking world to give you the best foundation for your career.
Our MSc Banking and Finance is also available to study part-time and you may be eligible for scholarships and discounts provided by the University of Essex. The University of Essex is a member of the CFA Institute University Affiliation Program. CFA is a registered trademark owned by CFA Institute.
Postgraduate loans for Masters courses are now available from the Student Loans Company, worth up to £10,000, for students from the UK and EU.
Why we're great.
We are one of the UK’s largest finance groups, with academics and practitioners across the discipline
Our Bloomberg Financial Market Labs provide hands-on experience of dealing in stocks and securities
Our research is presented at institutions such as the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve
Our expert staff
Our finance group is one of the largest in the UK.
Our expert team are at the forefront of financial debate and have presented their research at the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve. They combine academic and industry experience to explore issues such as:
business ethics
corporate social responsibility
organisation studies
leadership and strategy
finance and banking
risk management
international management
Essex Finance Centre is based at the School and uses social science theories to address the important issues faced by today’s organisations in the commercial, public and third sectors.
Located on our Colchester Campus on the Knowledge Gateway and Parkside Office Village, our Essex Business School building features a unique winter garden, which gives the building its own micro-climate.
The Eden-style dome provides an innovative working environment, which includes:
Bloomberg Financial Market Labs in our virtual trading floor
modern lecture theatres
study pods and innovation booths – perfect for group working
networking opportunities with visiting businesses
Bonds café
study skills support, such as workshops and learning resources
Your future
Our course provides you with the foundations for a rewarding career in banking and finance, equipping you with the skills to lead at a global level. In 2018, 80% of our postgraduate taught students were in professional employment or further study within six months of graduating (DLHE 2017).
Many of our graduates enjoy roles in a host of occupations, including financial analysis, management, public administration and accountancy. They work for high-profile organisations and innovative SMEs such as:
National Bank of Kazakhstan
KPMG
Cerulli Associates
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Groupon
Capital Markets Intelligence, a financial publisher
Credit Data Research, a business funder
We’re also proud of our student entrepreneurs, including international business incubator 0100Ventures and entrepreneurship website SlovakSTARTUP.
We work with the University’s Employability and Careers Centre to help you enhance your CV by taking part in employability opportunities, such as work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities. There is also access to employer talks on campus.
“Studying at Essex Business School helped me to identify my key skills so I could decide on a suitable career path. I developed expertise in banking and finance and undertook an undergraduate placement in Shanghai to apply what I’d learnt, whilst studying Mandarin.”
Alina Skuba, MSc Banking and Finance and BSc Banking and Finance
Entry requirements
UK entry requirements
A 2:2 degree, or international equivalent, in a numerate discipline such as: Economics, Finance Mathematics, Statistics, Science or Engineering.
Your degree should contain at least one module relating to: Economics, Finance, Mathematics (calculus), Quantitative Finance/Methods or Econometrics (probability).
International & EU entry requirements
We accept a wide range of qualifications from applicants studying in the EU and other countries. Get in touch with any questions you may have about the qualifications we accept. Remember to tell us about the qualifications you have already completed or are currently taking.
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English language requirements
If English is not your first language, we require IELTS 6.5 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5
Additional Notes
The University uses academic selection criteria to determine an applicant’s ability to successfully complete a course at the University of Essex. Where appropriate, we may ask for specific information relating to previous modules studied or work experience.
Structure
Example structure
Most of our courses combine compulsory and optional modules, giving you freedom to pursue your own interests. All of the modules listed below provide an example of what is on offer from the current academic year. Our Programme Specification provides further details of the course structure for the current academic year.
Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore to ensure your course is as relevant and up-to-date as possible your core module structure may be subject to change.
The example structure below is representative of this course if taken full-time. If you choose to study part-time, the modules will be split across 2 years.
Explore the basics of the structure and environment of banking, and selected aspects of the applied economics of the modern banking firm. You study structure-conduct-performance, competition, bank efficiency, regulation, international banking and bank failures and crises.
Your dissertation is the culmination of your Masters programme, where you apply the knowledge gained on your course to produce an extended independent piece of work. You generate an original idea, analyse literature and current knowledge and produce a coherent argument that shows your ability to relate theory to practice. Your dissertation will help you develop vital skills for the workplace, as well as the ability to analyse real problems through an academic lens. You are assigned a supervisor for the duration of your project.
Research Methods in Finance: Empirical Methods in Finance
This module equips you with the econometric tools and necessary experience to conduct empirical research in finance. You review statistical and basic econometric models and learn to apply econometric techniques in finance by considering topics such as (G)ARCH models, unit roots and cointegration.
Analyse the key strategic developments in banking and the main aspects of risk management in modern banks. You are introduced to the concept of shareholder value in banking, the main banking strategies to create shareholder value, the key risks in banking, and the most important tools required to manage bank risks.
Understand the process of portfolio management. You cover the main concepts such as efficient diversification, managing risk exposures, and the valuation of financial assets that are at the core of managing investment portfolios, and pay special attention to the practicalities of the implementation of these concepts.
This module covers topics in mathematics that are required in Masters-level finance courses at the University of Essex. You focus on the basics of linear algebra, differential calculus including optimisation and dynamics.
Gain theoretical knowledge and a practical understanding of financial markets, trading strategies, risk and money management and trader analytics at the highest level. You study a mix of classroom-based instruction, case studies and practical trading exercises where you trade on real-time simulated global markets through the use of industry-strength proprietary trading software in the trading lab.
This module offers you a standard introduction of the field of corporate finance at postgraduate level. You consider the classical areas of Modigliani-Miller irrelevance, Taxes and capital structure, Trade-off theory and Pecking order theory of capital structure, before exploring the more modern areas, which are essentially based on contract theory.
Master the pricing of financial derivatives and their use for hedging financial risks. You study the basics of futures and options, analyse the Black-Scholes and binomial option pricing models, and consider various numerical techniques for pricing financial derivatives. Futures and options are then utilised in the context of hedging financial risks, and you are introduced to the concept of volatility trading and the treatment of volatility as an asset class.
Gain a formal introduction to asset pricing theories and empirical findings. You review the fundamental theories of the expected utility, asset pricing kernels, and risk-neutral valuation, covering the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), and linear factor models arising from the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT). You also discuss empirical asset pricing studies.
Consider the use of modern econometric techniques in the analysis of financial time series. You cover multivariate models for stationary and non-stationary processes, such as Vector Autoregressive models, consider appropriate models for volatility, and study Markov processes and simulation methods used for financial modelling.
Behavioural finance rejects crucial tenets of mainstream finance such as the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) on the basis that agents are less than fully rational, and that arbitrage fails to eliminate mispricing. Instead it identifies market anomalies or regularities such as holiday effects that are at odds with the EMH. You learn to use ideas from cognitive psychology, such as overconfidence, and aspects of imperfect arbitrage to explain these.
The recent financial crisis and credit crunch have demonstrated that risk management was too narrowly defined. In this course you examine the Value at Risk (VAR) measure of financial risk developed in the 1990s, before discussing the new post-crisis Regulatory environment.
Discover the concepts and tools that are useful to asset managers who want to use fixed income securities for investing, market-making or speculating. You first study fixed income markets and instruments, before going on to explore basic concepts of bond portfolio management and investigating the quantitative tools used to value bonds and manage bonds' portfolios.
Finance Research Techniques Using Matlab (optional)
This module introduces Matlab, software commonly used in financial organisations and academia to model portfolio construction and solve banking and finance challenges. You learn how to use Matlab programming language to solve financial problems. These may include finding optimal portfolio weights, calculating and simulating derivative prices and implied volatilities, and estimating and simulating GARCH models, amongst others.
Taught exclusively by leading industry experts, this module offers you a unique opportunity to appreciate the latest developments and issues faced by leading practitioners in the areas of quantitative finance and risk management.
Tailor the content of your course to more closely fit your interests and aspirations
Courses focus on practical applications and links with industry
We run an open seminar series
Assessment
Regular assessment is by coursework, presentations, case studies, group work, tests and examinations
Dissertation
You submit a 15,000 word dissertation
Fees and funding
Home/EU fee
£11,820
International fee
£18,460
Fees will increase for each academic year of study.
What's next
Open Days
We hold Open Days for all our applicants throughout the year. Our Colchester Campus events are a great way to find out more about studying at Essex, and give you the chance to:
tour our campus and accommodation
find out answers to your questions about our courses, student finance, graduate employability, student support and more
meet our students and staff
If the dates of our organised events aren’t suitable for you, feel free to get in touch by emailing tours@essex.ac.uk and we’ll arrange an individual campus tour for you.
We aim to respond to applications within two weeks. If we are able to offer you a place, you will be contacted via email.
For information on our deadline to apply for this course, please see our ‘how to apply’ information.
Visit Colchester Campus
Home to 15,000 students from more than 130 countries, our Colchester Campus is the largest of our three sites, making us one of the most internationally diverse campuses on the planet - we like to think of ourselves as the world in one place.
The Campus is set within 200 acres of beautiful parkland, located two miles from the historic town centre of Colchester – England's oldest recorded town. Our Colchester Campus is also easily reached from London and Stansted Airport in under one hour.
If you live too far away to come to Essex (or have a busy lifestyle), no problem. Our 360 degree virtual tour allows you to explore the Colchester Campus from the comfort of your home. Check out our accommodation options, facilities and social spaces.
Exhibitions
Our staff travel the world to speak to people about the courses on offer at Essex. Take a look at our list of exhibition dates to see if we’ll be near you in the future.
At Essex we pride ourselves on being a welcoming and inclusive student community. We offer a wide range of support to individuals and groups of student members who may have specific requirements, interests or responsibilities.
The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its programme specification is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can be necessary to make changes, for example to courses, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include, but are not limited to: strikes, other industrial action, staff illness, severe weather, fire, civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack (whether declared or not), natural disaster, restrictions imposed by government or public authorities, epidemic or pandemic disease, failure of public utilities or transport systems or the withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to courses may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and
Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.
Ask us a question
Want to quiz us about your course? Got a question that just needs answering? Get in touch and we’ll do our best to email you back shortly.
