Our MBA with banking and finance gives students a 360-degree view of the world of baking and finance. Students study the workings of banks, investment firms, and other financial institutions to gain a deep understanding of business and develop the skill set necessary to apply strategic thinking to real-world situations they’ll encounter over the course of their careers. The one-year course shapes students into leaders for the ever-changing context of business and builds on their prior knowledge. To begin the course, students must complete three core modules that focus on leading and managing a business, professional management skills, and creating business advantage. The banking and finance pathway has two required specialised modules, financing business and financial risk management. Finally, during the dissertation stage of the program, students must complete either a strategic business project or developing professional practice, which allows them to take everything they’ve learned over the course of the program and put it into action. Upon graduation, students will be ready to kickstart their careers within the banking and finance sectors and thrive in a globally competitive business environment.
With an MBA with banking and finance, students can find jobs at financial institutions and banks but also at other companies helping them navigate the complicated world that is banking and finance.
What Jobs Can I Get?
Budget analysts help their company maintain a balanced budget and stay on top of their finances. They will run financial reports, work with company leaders and executives to create department budgets and assess budget decisions. Budget analysts will also be part of any budget proposal reviews and regularly present financial reports and data to stakeholders to keep them up to date on the business’s financials. They are responsible for making sure all decisions are compliant with local laws and regulations, planning for the company’s financial future and preparing for unexpected expenses.
Risk managers assess the risk of an organisation and present their findings as well as ways to reduce this risk to stakeholders and executives. They present their findings in risk assessments that identify risks as well as estimate how much each risk could potentially affect the business. Risk managers also develop plans for how to move forward if one of the risks were actually to happen. These risks can be anything that could negatively affect a company’s profitability, safety, security, or existence. Any risk has the potential to be incredibly for a company when you factor in profit loss and legal costs, among many other things. Another major part of risk management is working with company executives and stakeholders to determine how much risk they are willing to accept. In some cases, in order to grow, a company needs to accept more risk than a company that is already very successful, and it is a risk manager’s responsibility to explain this and all the possible outcomes.
Accounting managers oversee teams of accountants as well as bookkeepers and auditors and are another vital part of any organisation. Accountants are responsible for a variety of tasks relating to a company’s financials which can vary significantly based on the size and sector of the company. Most often, they work with financial documents like financial reports, tax returns, budgets, and transaction lists, preparing these documents for public disclosure, looking for errors and investigating fraud. Depending on the size and scope of the company, accounting departments may be broken up into specialities such as auditing and public accounting, and in this case, an accounting manager would oversee one team of specialists.
Financial analysts take past financial reports and data and use them to create projections and make recommendations to the business based on those projections. In order to make these projections, they start by gathering a mixture of public and private information such as company reports, stock prices, and industry data. A financial analyst then takes all this information and turns it into something that company executives and stakeholders can easily make sense of. This is most often done by creating graphs and charts which show things like growth rate and variable costs over a certain period of time. Using this data, financial analysts can then notice trends and make projections for how a business is likely to perform if these trends remain the same.
A business’ finances are at the root of every decision they make, no matter what industry or sector they’re in. One wrong decision can have monumental and often detrimental effects on a business, so financial managers play a very important role. Financial managers provide businesses with financial guidance so they can make the best decision possible. They look at past data as well as business trends and models to advise businesses on their next move. Financial managers also need to have an in-depth understanding of laws and regulations and what decisions a business can make from a legal perspective. They are needed in all industries and sectors, from public organisations such as the NHS, universities and charities to private ones.
Since finance plays such a big role in every business’s day-to-day operations, MBA with banking and finance graduates can find jobs at companies and organisations across all industries and sectors.
What companies could I work for?
HM Treasury
Her Majesty’s Treasury is the branch of the UK government responsible for developing and executing public finance and economic policies for the country. The treasury was formed nearly 1000 years ago during the rule of King William the Conqueror, but since its exact origins aren’t known, it’s often said to have been formed with the Treasury of the Kingdom of England in 1126. At this time, the head of the treasury was called the Lord Treasurer, and this was an appointed position. During Tudor times, the Lord Treasurer became one of the chief officers of state, and since the mid-1700s, the Prime Minister has been the head of the treasury. Over the years, the treasury has changed and developed a lot and today has an annual budget of £3.8 billion. The Treasury Ministers main goals are to maintain control over public spending and achieve strong and sustainable economic growth for the country.
Santander
Santander Group is one of the world’s largest banks with a significant presence in Europe as well as Asia, North and South America. Banco Santander was founded in Spain in 1857 and, over the last 150 years, has merged with and purchased numerous banks both in Spain and around the world. Today Santander has nearly 15000 branches and 200000 employees working in private, corporate and investment banking, wealth management and insurance. Santander UK was founded in January 2010 when Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley merged. The head office is located in Triton Square in London, and there are about 25000 employees in the country.
PwC
PwC, which stands for PricewaterhouseCoopers, is one of the big four accounting groups and is the second-largest professional services network in the world, with over 275000 employees in 157 countries and 742 offices. The firm was created in 1998 when Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse merged. Both Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse began as accountancy firms founded in London around 1850 that grew and expanded to countries like the US and Canada. PwC is broken up into three service lines, assurance, advisory and tax, which each equates to roughly one-third of the company’s annual revenue. Their assurance services are financial audits of major companies, including IBM, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and countless others. PwC has two actuarial consultancy branches offering advisory services, Actuarial and Insurance Management Solutions, which advisors on pensions, life insurance, non-life insurance, health and investments and Human Resource Services, which advisors on pensions and group health. The final service line, tax, focuses on international tax planning and compliance with tax laws and customs.
