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The Challenge
GFMI’s client, the investment banking arm of a large, complex banking organization, wanted to provide new hires in its Technology and Operations (T&O) and Sales and Trading (S&T) groups with foundational knowledge across various capital markets topics, including cash and derivative products, market risks, equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities, credit, financial statement analysis, counterparty risk, securitization, operations/lifecycle of a trade, and collateral management.
The bank sought outside partners to provide quality content and engaging, experienced instruction as part of a planned six-week-long program to be held annually for new hires.
GFMI’s Recommendation
Given the relative experience of the new hires and the breadth of topics for training, GFMI recommended a blended solution including both pre-course reading and classroom-based instructor-led training.
To maximize the bank’s ongoing investment in online training, GFMI recommended leveraging 40-50 hours of content from the bank’s existing e-learning provider. This pre-course reading would prepare the new hires with fundamental knowledge prior to their participation in customized classroom training.
GFMI also recommended customizing several course outlines to meet the bank’s content and learning objectives for their audiences.
The Solution/Implementation
As part of the bank’s T&O Analyst/Associate Program, the bank’s new hires completed online pre-course reading on different aspects of bond math. In order to build on the pre-course reading foundation, GFMI then delivered a one-week instructor-led training program. This program included sessions covering several topics, such as time value of money; bond pricing; yield measures; traditional risk measurements such as duration and convexity; spot and forward rates and building yield curves; swaps; options; collateral management; current regulatory topics such as Dodd-Frank, Volcker Rule and Basel III; and operations/lifecycle of a trade.
GFMI also delivered a four-day bond math instructor-led program to the new hires in the S&T Analyst/Associate Program in order to develop a solid mathematical foundation for future market education and on-the-job experience. This program was more advanced in nature and included additional topics such as using binomial trees to value bonds with embedded options, analyzing and valuing agency MBS, analyzing different curves and applying them in rich/cheap analysis, and how OIS is used to value various derivatives.
Results
Feedback on both of the programs was very good. Based on the participants’ self-rating, there was 43-46% increase in knowledge level after the classes.
GFMI also received high praise from the bank’s participants for the instructors’ knowledge and presentation, practice exercises, real world examples, and industry experience.