MSc in Data Science with Specialization in Financial Technology
Collaborate with FBA
All courses are compulsory:
FINC7060 Topics in Data Analytics and Financial Technology
3 credits
This course introduces to students the advanced statistical and decision analysis tools. It emphasizes on the applications of data analytics techniques in business practices. Students will learn the intuition behind the methods and build hands-on experiences using Python, which is the most popular programming tool with versatile applications in finance and economics.
FINC7054 Introduction to Modern Financial Technology
3 credits
The financial industry is undergoing profound changes in the past several years. With the arrival of new technologies, financial services firms are increasingly using these new technologies to increase their efficiency, develop new businesses and services, and revolutionize their marketing practices. The lines between financial services and technology firms have also blurred, as we are seeing more and more technology companies venturing into the finance industry, particularly in China.
This course aims to provide you with an overview of FinTech and its implications within the finance industry and beyond. We will review companies in the FinTech industry, their businesses, products, and technologies. We will also cover the basic technologies that power the FinTech revolution, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain (B), Cloud Computing (C), and Big Data (D). We will also discuss FinTech’s current status and future trends. After this course, you will have a basic understanding of the FinTech landscape and be ready to explore more about it.
BAGC7891 Project Report
6 credits
This Project Report gives the students an opportunity to apply the knowledge obtained from their previous studies in data science and their field of specialization. Students will be required to identify existing practical problems in their field of specialization. To develop solutions for the problems identified, they need to conduct detailed literature review, design appropriate research method, gather relevant data, analyze their data using big data analytic techniques, interpret their findings, and finally write up the entire project report.
Choose 2 required elective courses from the following:
FINC7010 Corporate Finance
3 credits
This course offers students a more advanced understanding of important concepts in the field of corporate finance. It covers basic topics including capital budgeting, alternative valuation methods, capital structure decisions, corporate payout policy, securities offering decisions, as well as more advanced topics (optional) such as corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate risk management. The objective of this course is to provide students with essential tools to study more advanced courses in finance.
FINC7026 International Banking and Bank Management
3 credits
This course is structured around the microeconomic problems of financial management of banking firms. It focuses on decision making and offers a unique approach to understanding commercial bank management. Topics to be covered include banking trends and competition, performance analysis, liquidity planning, interest rate risk management, credit risk analysis, cost of funds, and capital management. Both domestic and international banking activities will be examined. The objective of this course is to provide the student with the conceptual framework necessary to analyze and comprehend the current problems confronting managers of commercial.
FINC7035 Financial Risk Management
3 credits
This course focuses on risk management techniques in multinational corporations and credit risk management. A strand of risk management topics would be covered such as foreign exchange, money market instruments, derivative products, risk exposure of corporations, measurement of exposure, and risk management in financial institutions. The credit risk will discuss various economic and financial factors that affect credit quality of corporations, evaluating corporation’s debt servicing ability and their likelihood of default. Topics covered will include business and financial risk analysis, debt covenants, security structures, credit scoring and credit rating models.
ACCT7060 Financial Statement Analysis for Decision Making
3 credits
This course aims to demonstrate how financial statements can be reformulated, analyzed and interpreted for decision making. It first identifies information sources that analysts frequently employ in financial statement analysis and examines the steps of the financial statement analysis framework. It then discusses the objective of financial reporting and how financial reporting standards affect security analysis and valuation. The course will cover important tools and techniques used in financial analysis including activity, liquidity, solvency, profitability and valuation ratios, describe the relationships among those ratios and evaluate real life companies using ratio analysis. It also demonstrates the application of DuPont analysis of return on equity, and other ratios especially used in equity analysis and credit analysis. Finally, it provides a framework for considering potential analyst adjustments that are necessary when comparing companies that use different accounting methods or estimates.
BECO7010 Statistics and Financial Econometrics
3 credits
This course introduces the basic tools with the aid of data for decision making in finance. It covers introductory probability, decision analysis, basic statistics, regression, simulation, linear and nonlinear optimization, and discrete optimization. Computer Programming exercises, cases, and examples, deliver in SAS® (by the SAS Institute Inc.) are drawn from asset pricing, market microstructure, derivatives, and other functions.