Financial Engineering & Management | Specialisation | Industrial Engineering & Management

Learn about the complexity of financial products or services and assess what risks are involved using mathematical models.

Expanding markets and the increasing complexity and variety of financial products have pushed up demand for skilled professionals capable of creating, pricing and hedging complex derivatives. In the specialisation Financial Engineering & Management (FEM) you acquire the mathematical and managerial knowledge needed to fulfil your ambitions in the fascinating field of banking, insurance, pensions and more.

Research orientations

A research orientation represents a scientific research area and determines a part of the mandatory courses you are going to follow and the field in which you complete your master’s thesis. Within the FEM-specialisation, there is only one research orientation, which is fully in line with the specialisation itself and is also called Financial Engineering and Management.

What to expect?

A key focal point in this specialisation is your ability to identify and quantify risk. The increasing complexity of financial contracts, the growing overlap between providers of financial products, and the emerging markets for new products – such as energy, dairy quotas or emission rights – have raised the need for quantitative risk management instruments. This specialisation teaches you how to analyse and manage financial risks using financial products and modifying business processes. Think, for example, of reengineering business processes, adapting the firm’s strategy, switching customers/suppliers, or making alternative investment decisions.

Examples of courses you follow during this specialisation:

In the course Risk Management, you learn how Collateral Debt Obligations played a crucial role in the big financial crisis of the last decade, while this industry was in fact boosted by regulation to prevent such a crisis.

What’s the current unifying principle behind the pricing of a wide variety of options and other financial derivatives – a trillion-dollar industry? You find out in the course Mathematical Finance.

The course Applied Financial Engineering teaches you how to design a structured financial product, reflecting on its purpose, profitability and marketing.

Assessing financial risks involves a lot of mathematics. That’s why some courses in this specialisation are being taught in collaboration with the Master’s in Applied Mathematics. You also benefit from comprehensive management training and learn to apply strategic skills to manage an organisation’s innovation and technology. Moreover, you get the opportunity to bring theory into practice, as you work on real-life cases as well. For example, you complete your master’s assignment in the field, solving an actual problem.

What will you learn?

As a graduate of this Master's and this specialisation, you have acquired specific, scientific knowledge and skills and values, which you can put to good use in your future job.

Knowledge

After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

have a thorough knowledge of financial markets and financial products;
have a profound understanding of regulation and risk management in the financial sector;
understand game theory as an explanatory factor.

Skills

After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:

know the principles of microeconomics and you can apply them in price forming and categorisation of markets;
can apply pricing techniques for shares, options and structured products (CAPM, Black-Scholes, risk-neutral valuation, martingale measure theory);
know how to apply principles of risk modelling, measurement and management (Value at Risk, coherent risk measures, Basel regulation, Solvency regulation).

Value

After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

have a sharp eye for the limitations of models, even when the mathematics seem impressive;
have a solution-oriented mentality, no matter how complex a situation or problem is;
are aware of the different backgrounds of stakeholders and take these into account and benefit from them while working together.

Other master’s and specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. It is also possible – and welcomed – to make bridges between specialisations, by adding a second specialisation (within or outside of the IEM-programme).

Not sure if Industrial Engineering & Management might be the right choice for you? Find out more about these other Master’s: