On May 12, 2016, I have been invited by Professor Amit Goyal to participate and animate a course for future bankers within the financial market cursus (3rd year bachelor) at Unil (University of Lausanne).
I met approximately 50 students to whom I presented the key challenges that our industry is currently facing, how a market player such as Notz Stucki approaches these issues. I also went through a couple of key questions and structured my presentation as follows:
I have not only presented my ideas but we also exchanged views on certain topics which I am pleased to share and summarise below:
Two third of the students consider the financial industry is (still) offering good working conditions (challenging, interesting and remuneration).
Not a single student dared to express a (strong) conviction that swiss banks are innovative companies.
One third believed the swiss banking secrecy is still alive while 2/3 believed it does not exist anymore.
As a majority of the students were using a Macbook during the class, I asked them if they would trust Apple as a bank. In other words: if Apple was a bank, would they consider having this company managing their assets. Surprisingly, no one was ready to open an account.
Finally, the students shared their views on the key skills an asset manager should have to meet clients’ needs:
– Technical skills (financial markets)
– Ability to create trust
– Transparency
– Understand clients needs
– Risk management abilities
Food for thoughts !
This was a useful exercise which offered me the opportunity to take a step back, and keep in mind what is key to help us to make the appropriate decisions and schedule the right priorities for our future.