Modules WS 2020/2021

  • Cost of capital and capital budgeting Discounted cash flow valuation and financial multiples Payout policy Equity and debt financing Applications of option pricing theory Corporate control and recapitalizationsEnterprise Risk Management
Ethics Essentials:

  • Theory, Principles, and World-Views
  • The Ethical Leader: Self-Mastery and Ethics, Mind-Sets
  • Corporate Ethics: Shared Values, Professionalism (as part of Standards of Professional Conduct)
  • CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct
  • GARP Ethics and Code of Conduct


The course in Corporate Governance covers:

  • Role and Responsibility of Owners
  • Practice of Right of Control for Various Actors
  • The Problem of Free Riding
  • Major Investors
  • Conflicts of Interest Between Financiers
  • Conflicts of Interest Between Stakeholders
  • Financial Remuneration of Managers
  • Alternative Designs for Option-Based Remuneration Structures for Managers
  • Role and Responsibility of Institutions (Accounting, State)
  • Corporate Governance in Financial Services Undertakings
  • Optimal Design for Corporate Governance
  • Empirical Investigations of Corporate Governance
  • The role of Risk Management in Corporate Governance
Empirical Finance will cover:
  • Foundations of Modern Standard Capital Market Theory and Capital Asset Pricing Model
  • Market Anomalies
  • The Event Study Method
  • Empirical Asset Pricing Tests
  • Key concepts of experimental research approaches
  • Testability of market and trader behavior
  • Introduction to R (Syntax, program structure, programming concepts)
  • Introduction to Financial Markets
  • Interest rates and bond prices
  • The structure of interest rates
  • Market efficiency
  • Monetary policy
  • Money markets
  • Bond markets
  • Mortgage markets
  • Derivative markets
  • Introduction to Financial Economics
  • Expected utility, Mean-variance and Prospect theory
  • Ambiguity
  • Capital Asset Pricing Model
  • Behavioral CAPM
  • Basic two-period models
  • Arbitrage Pricing Theory
Investment Strategies by Asset Class: Equitiy, Fixed Income, and Derivatives Strategies
Investment Strategies for Different Economic Environments
Asset Management in Practice
  • Identification of a research problem and development of a research questionThematically formulating a problem and developing a solution through application of - scientific methods Independence in handling a research problem determined in the course of an assessment.Discussion with the advisor about methodological and content issues in solving a research - topic.Completion of a comprehensive assignment where the students deal with a theoretical or - practice-oriented problem in their field of specialisation by drawing on scientific work methods. Completion of presentation documentation on a research problem within their specialised - field. Defense of the elaborated research topic and in-depth discussion with the examination board.
  • Fundamentals in Modern Banking;
  • Asset Liability Management;
  • Banking Regulation;
  • Services and Products in Private Banking;
  • Strategies in Private Banking.
Quantitative Finance will cover:
  • Classical linear regression model assumptions and diagnostic tests
  • Expansions of the simple linear regression model to multiple linear regressions
  • Long-run relationships in finance
  • Models of time series volatility and covariances
  • Simulational methods in finance
  • Introduction to ThomsonReuters Eikon
All aspects that have to be considered for writing a successful exposé and master thesis, like e.g. the fulfillment of formal requirements, the development of a research project and the correct choice of methodology for answering the research question.
  • Overview on different Forms and Asset Classes of Alternative Investments
  • Chances and Risks of Alternative Investments
  • Alternative Investments in a Portfolio Context
  • Regulation of Alternative Investments
  • Socially Responsible Investments and Impact
  • Alternative Investments and Corporate Governance
This year again, CFA Society Switzerland will be hosting the CFA Institute Research Challenge in Switzerland which is the local competition within the global CFA Institute Research Challenge. We also welcome all other universities and especially universities of applied sciences in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to join the Challenge this year.

The Challenge is an annual competition between teams of students in preparing an investment case consisting of a detailed research report and a presentation of a listed Swiss company. For the coming competition Straumann has been selected. The Swiss company is headquartered in Basel and listed at the Swiss Stock exchange since 1998. Straumann is a global leader in implant, restorative and regenerative dentistry which offers products and services to dentists and dental laboratories in more than 70 countries world-wide.

The students will be supported by industry mentors and will have to present their final results in front of a panel of senior investment professionals. The Challenge provides students with a unique opportunity to gain first-hand experience in the investment world and to interact intensively with investment professionals and CFA charterholders.

01.10.2020:
Kick-off will be in-person, but besides a fallback solution we will also aim for a dial in possibility, but we encourage students to attend if possible. The meeting will be held in Zurich and students have to travel on their own expenses.

12.11.2020:
The interaction with the company will be digital this time, and as usual, students will need to hand in questions.

18.02.2021:
The Swiss Local Final will be held in-person, obviously with a fallback solution. The fallback option is that the teams will be presenting live via Zoom to the jury. Again, students have to cover their own travel expenses.
The course will give you a broad understanding of the Chinese civilization and its relations to the people of the western hemisphere during the last two thousand years.

Students:
  • learn about Chinese history, civilization, religions, economy and politics, including the new policies of President Xi Jinping
  • get to understand the differences in thinking, behavior and action of the Chinese in contrast to the people in the West.
  • learn about the economic relations between China, South East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Near East and the West along the continental and maritime silk roads. The global East-West-trade is more than 2000 years old.
  • Introduction to International Tax Policy
  • Economic and Legal Principles of National and International Taxation
  • Taxation and Economic Efficiency: Optimal Taxation and Optimal Tax Systems
  • International Taxation in an Integrated and globalised World
  • International Tax Competition and International Tax Cooperation
  • International Tax and Public Finance
  • Global and regional integration of nations: APEC, ASEAN, AU, BRICS, EFTA, EU, Mercosur, NAFTA, UN
  • Global Leadership of developed and developing countries: G20, G7, OECD
  • Introduction to International Tax Standards
  • Economic and Legal Principles of National and International Taxation
  • Institutional Aspects of International Tax Standards: G20, G7, OECD, EU – NGOs
  • G20/OECD: BEPS-Inclusive Framework and Global Forum on Exchange of Tax Information
  • The International and European Fiscal Framework
  • The Regulatory Environment on Taxation: Global and European Tax Standards (G20, G7, OECD, EU)
  • International Tax Principles on International Tax Competition and International Tax Cooperation
  • International Tax Transparency on Tax Compliance: Exchange of Information and Mandatory Disclosure
  • G20/OECD: Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), EU: Anti-Tax-Avoidance-Directives, Code-of-Conduct
  • G20/OECD: Introduction of a new World Tax Order with Pillar 1 on Digital Taxation and Pillar 2 with a Global Minimum Taxation.
Life-Cycle View of Personal Finance
Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution Plans
Instruments Typically Used in Pension Finance
Models for Integrating Financial Risks with Other Risks like Longevity Risk
Current topics in
  • Basic principles for writing academic texts
  • International Economics
  • Developments in Banking and Finance
  • Innovation Finance
  • Sustainable Finance
Extracurriculare Activities comprise of various activities that are not linked to the Curriculum of the MSc in Banking and Financial Management, which are optional and further support the studying of the Master programme.