M.Sc in Banking and Finance – Main Courses

Governments, Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

This course analyses the complex, delicate and indistinguishable at the non-insiders interactions among the governments and the central banks with the money and capital markets. It is designed having in mind the needs of the students of schools of business administration as well as of people who wish to comprehend the complex world where they live.

Ecoonometrics

This course presents useful tools and methods of mathematics and statistics, which are based on matrix algebra and probability. Special emphasis is given on the comprehension and use of the examples of regression and of the theory of stochastic evolution. There are also been developed the main methods of evaluation of parameters and the properties of the estimators are analyzed. Finally, there applications with the use of the program E-views are provided.

Financial Reporting

The course is aimed at introducing the students to the key financial accounting concepts and elements (assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity) in detail, and help them make decisions as users of financial statements. The course further covers more specialised topics in accounting, such as topics relating to earnings management, and the basic elements of financial statements analysis. Financial reporting concepts are presented according to the provisions of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

At the end of the course, students will have a hands-on understanding of the elements of the financial statements, and be able to use this information for financial decision making. They should also be able to perform financial statements analysis into the accounts of a company, and understand the basic factors that shape and can deteriorate the quality of earnings and financial reporting more generally.

Financial Management I

The goal of the course is the analysis of the investment and financial decisions of the company. These decisions are related to the economic status of the company as well as to the risk and the funding of investments. The risk evaluation and the theory of the effective markets are also introduced. A supplementary approach on the evaluation of investment plans is based on the theory of the financial rights.

Portfolio Theory

The course covers the theory of evaluation of capital elements as well as the modern bibliography. It covers the relative theories and the empirical findings regarding the synthesis, the administration and the evaluation of portfolios of stocks and other securities. The students use EXCEL for the resolution of certain exercises and for the creation of a portfolio game.

Financial Derivatives

The course aims to make students familiar with the financial derivatives markets. Emphasis is given on the issues of pricing as well as static and dynamic hedging. First, futures and forwards as well as swaps agreements contracts will be presented. Then, the binomial and Black Scholes models to price options as well as the Greek hedgerations will be explained. Models to price options on different underlying assets (equities, FX, futures) will also be presented. Advanced topics in option pricing and hedging such as pricing by Monte-Carlo simulation and pricing in incomplete markets will also be covered.

Money and Capital Markets

The aim of this course is the investigation of the characteristic of the international money and capital markets. The possibility of measurement and administration of the risk that arises from changes in exchange rates is analyzed. Within such a framework, the administration of assets as well as of corporate obligations, within a globalized environment, is also analyzed.

Bank Risk Management

Modern banking is driven mainly by risk management.  The course describes current banking developments in Greece and abroad as well as the increasingly strict regulatory environment, driven by the Basel framework and the European Single Supervisory Mechanism and Single Resolution Mechanism.  The measurement of an array of risks is analyzed (interest rate, credit, FX, country, market, liquidity, operational, etc.) as well as their control via derivatives, securitization and other techniques.  Students are introduced to the concepts of “value-at-risk,” “credit VAR,”  “risk-adjusted return on capital,” “expected shortfall”  and to banking practices like Asset Protection Scheme, Risk Appetite Framework,  SREP, ICAAP, ILAAP, or stress tests.

Financial Management II

The course focuses on the analysis of the financial decisions in the framework of the maximization of the value of the firm. The risk and the strategy of the enterprises is analyzed, the shares policy and the forms of financing, focusing on the influence of the fund structure at the value of the firm. The first approaches are made by the environment of the perfect and effective markets and next the analysis is approached by the issue of asymmetric information.

Financial Econometrics

The course analyzes the need for the estimation of the characteristics that determine the evolution of the financial measures along with their incorporation in a framework that can clearly describe their dynamic behaviour. This framework is offered by financial econometrics. More specifically, the financial sizes are described by examples, the definition of which is realized by the use of statistical methods, such as the analysis of time series and the evaluation of parameters. The primary issue in this course is the teaching of these methods as well as applications with real data, through the E-views software.