Learning goals
Successful participants will significantly enhance their abilities and career prospects in three distinct ways:
- Removing obstacles to mainstreaming RI: Understand how the "instruments of trade" of conventional finance hinder the development of the sustainable finance paradigm and how to deal with them
- The practice of a truly modern and immaculate finance system: Learn how to apply state-of-the-art financing methods and investment thinking such as AI, quantitative approaches and financial data science
- Learn to behave strategically towards the mainstream financial sector: Identification of approaches to sustainable products and investment techniques in the field of orthodox and conventional asset management
Course information
- English
- Approx. 120 hours of total working time
- One classroom event will take place in London and one in Frankfurt am Main
- The CSIF program consists of 3 classroom sessions of 1.5 days, supported by webinars
- Lecturers: Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoepner and Prof. Dr. Alexander Bassen
Course Description
CSIF – Certificate in Sustainable Investing and Finance
Efficient markets, equilibrium prices, and rational agents! Really? What modern finance is really is about?
This program aims to introduce sustainable investment professionals and intermediaries from the responsible investment space into modern finance and investment practice. The program provides sustainable investment proponents with deeply needed technical and conceptual knowledge of financial markets, and modern methods of financial decision-making such as financial data science, in order to support them in building economically and environmentally meaningful products e.g., green bonds, SRI funds, etc.
Conventional financial theory, as it has been taught and applied over decades, has proved too stylized and unrealistic in its base assumptions to grasp the essence of sustainable finance. Rather than supporting conventional financing, this program is based on truly advanced financial theory, such as behavioral financing, evidence-based financing, and financial data science, as key factors to unlock the potential of sustainability for good investment decisions and ethical financial practices.
Downloads:
CSIF brochure (5.92 MB)
CSIF registration form (466 KB)
Syllabus
Module 1 – Financial Economics
- Introduction
- Portfolio Theory
- Fundamentals of Valuation
- Lessons from Behavioral Finance
Module 2 – Equities
- Equity Valuation
- Corporate events
- Investment styles
- Corporate Governance
Module 3 – Financial Data Science
- Equity vs. Bond Markets
- Evidence-based Investment Analysis – fad or fashion?
- The Elephant in the Room – a Primer in Financial Data Science
- Comparison of ESG Aspects of Equity and Bond Markets
Module 4 – Bonds
- Characteristics of Bonds – Credit Risk
- Financial Data Science of Bond Markets
- Assessment of Bonds
- Post investment decisions
- Sovereign and regional bonds
- Green bonds and green infrastructure
Target Group
- SRI professionals
- Professionals in Sustainable Finance
- Green Bond specialists, originators
- Intermediaries e.g., rating analysts
- Representatives from NGOs and Sustainable Finance Initiatives
who seek to obtain in-depths expertise in finance.
Dates
- In-Class Frankfurt: September 25-26
- In-Class London: November 13-14
- Project Assessment Frankfurt: April 21-22, 2020
Contact
Stefan Schummer
Phone: +49 69 26 48 48 - 121
Or send us an e-mail via the contact form – please mark the subject of the e-mail with "CSIF"
In collaboration with:
About the speaker
Vita:
Professor of Operational Risk, Banking & Finance at University College Dublin
Visiting Professor of Financial Data Science, University of Hamburg
Visiting Professor of Finance, ICMA Centre, Henley Business School
Head, Practical Tools research group, Mistra Financial Systems (MFS) research consortium [5 projects, total funding: 58 million SEK ~ US$ 7 million]
Member, Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, DG FISMA, European Commission, EU
Invited Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
Inventor, US Patent 8751357 B1: investment performance measurement
Prof. Andreas G. F. Hoepner is a CFDS and CSIF Program Lecturer at the DVFA.
Full list of affiliations on LinkedIn
Vita:
Chair for Capital Markets & Management, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Alexander Bassen is a full professor of capital markets and management at the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Science (Germany). He teaches courses in finance and invest-ment, ESG and capital markets and reporting.
Mr. Bassen is a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development – advisory body of the German Federal Government, member of the UN PRI Academic Network Advisory Committee, Honorary Research Associate, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, member of the Environment, Social & Governance Issues (CESG) of the European Association of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) as well as member of several other advisory committees.
Full list of affiliations on LinkedIn
