MSc in Finance

This is a very complete program that offers challenging courses in all areas of finance, investment banking, corporate finance and advisory, quantitative finance, risk management, derivatives, and asset pricing.

Teaching is structured along with a number of alternative strategies and methodologies that combine:

• Case studies as applied to practical valuation problems of firms and investment projects.
• Group assignments, in addition to individual studies and assignments in accounting, valuation, and theory of finance courses.
• Hands-on lab sessions based on modern software to develop skills in managing data and illustrate typical results from the application of statistical methods in the econometrics sequence.
• Simulated trading sessions in the derivatives sequence.
• Meetings and guest sessions with operators from top financial institutions. These moments of first-hand testimony, integrated into many subjects, are a great opportunity for our students. They are facilitated by the fact that Bocconi is at the heart of a financial center like Milan, a natural international crossroads for exchange and relationships.

The program presents many career opportunities as managers, analysts, and economists at banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, as well as consultants in either corporate finance advisory or finance divisions of large consulting companies and financial authorities and regulators.

Program Structure

This program's curriculum is designed to provide an optimal balance between theory and its practical application in the industry. In the first year, the Master of Science in Finance offers key skills in all the major areas of finance, from accounting, corporate finance, and investment banking to investments, quantitative finance, risk management, and derivatives. This exposure to all key areas of finance, rather than just a subset of them, is crucial to enable students to become competent and flexible professionals, able to interact with colleagues from different divisions and backgrounds in their future careers.

The second year offers the choice of a wide number of specialized elective courses that can be chosen in accordance with desired career paths and personal interests, going further in-depth in fields such as investment banking, quantitative finance, asset management and insurance, management and consulting for financial institutions.

First Semester
Main topics:

• Investments and Portfolio Decisions

• Financial Modelling

• Corporate Valuation

• Financial Analysis and Reporting

• Statistical Methods in Inference and Forecasting

This semester provides a rigorous set of tools to interpret financial phenomena in the perspective of modern finance and accounting theories.

Second Semester
Main topics:

• Derivative Pricing

• Investment Banking and Capital Structure Operations

• Company and Financial Markets’ Law and Regulations

• Risk Management and Capital Compliance

• Econometrics of Time Series Applied to Pricing and Portfolio Management

Students will further expand their knowledge of concepts and applications of financial modeling tools to applications relevant in the world of banking and of financial services and advisory.

Summer Internship

Majors

• Financial and Insurance Institutions Management

• Corporate Advisory and Investment Banking

• Quantitative Finance and Asset Management

Free Track

• 4 electives

Study Abroad Programs

• Double Degrees with:
  ESADE Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas (Barcelona, Spain)
  HEC École des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (Paris, France)
  Keio University (Tokyo, Japan)
  RSM Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
  Stockholm School of Economics (Stockholm, Sweden)
  NOVA School of Business & Economics (Lisbon, Portugal)

• Advanced Economics Exchange program: a unique, challenging program for up to 6 students to spend the entire second year attending the Ph.D. program in Economics at either
  University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, US)
  Yale University (New Haven, US)

• Exchange Programs

Internship (compulsory)
Foreign languages (two languages)
Thesis

Learning Objectives

The Master of Science in Finance has the following educational objectives:

• Provide advanced preparation in the main business areas: corporate finance, quantitative finance, management of financial institutions and investment banking necessary to work in the international context of corporate finance and financial markets and institutions.

• Develop the skills to combine company assessment and fundamental analysis with quantitative competences, and to operate both as an expert, as well as in the areas of investment banking and capital markets of the major financial intermediaries.

• Complete the business studies providing competences in economics and law, so as to develop problem analysis skills in interdisciplinary areas.

• Develop competences via educational activities inside and outside the classroom which promote student-teacher interaction and interaction between the students themselves as well as complex problem analysis, problem-solving skills, ability to present and discuss the results of one’s work.

• Promote competence (in the business area) in the use of English and of a second EU language to work effectively and efficiently in one’s profession.

Career Opportunities

The main career opportunities are the following:

• Manager at banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions.

• Corporate finance/investment banking analyst in investment banks or other financial institutions.

• Equity and debt analyst/financial analyst and economist.

• Trader/sales/structures in equities, fixed income, currencies, derivatives.

• Asset manager.

• Private banker/sales to institutional clients.

• Risk manager.

• Consultant in either corporate finance advisory or financial institutions’divisions of large consulting companies.

• Consultant and analyst at authorities and regulators of the financial system.