Financial Markets Education - Emerging Trends

INTRODUCTION: Financial Markets are witnessing huge transformation in the past decade. Innovations in market microstructure, screen based trading systems (SBTS), corporatization of market intermediaries, demat system is revolutionizing the way financial markets operate. This new eco-system needs huge pool of trained human resources in terms of Knowledge of Market Design, Risk Management practices, Understanding of Concepts, Trading Systems, IT interfaces. Exchanges are taking initiatives to fulfill this gap in knowledge. New Exchange Supported Courses (ESC) are being introduced for the first time in India. This is a welcome trend as it enhances the knowledge base and resource pool available for Financial Markets. NSE has introduced MBA Financial Markets and BBA Financial Markets courses integrating with its NCFM (NSE Certification in Financial Markets) Modules. To quote National Stock exchange's MD and CEO Mr. Ravi Narnia ''Educating the youth on financial issues has been a key focus area of NSE for many years. The exchange has conducted hundreds of seminars on financial literacy, to bring more people into the financial mainstream. This is another step in that direction to train the youth and empower them to take sound financial and investing decisions". This article reviews the various educational courses available to students in India and particularly the various ESC's and Non ESC's. INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO: Exchanges are major supporters of educational initiatives internationally also. For example CME www.cmegroup.com) has lot of educational programs. ICE (www.theice.com) also has a variety of financial markets education programs. CBOE and SGX has partnered with Kent State University in offering a 2-year MS in Financial Engineering. INDIAN SCENARIO: In India the trend of exchange supported education programmes in Financial Markets is increasing off late. This has started with NSE's NCFM which is a huge success and became a benchmark in financial markets certification. According to NSE as of June 2011 , more than 12 lakh students have already appeared for various NCFM modules. BSE's certification program on various topics and BSE training institute has tied up with IGNOU to offer MBA Financial Markets program and also it offers GFMP (Global Financial Markets Professional ). MCX the Multi Commodity Exchange also has a program called MCCP (MCX certified commodity professional). Financial Technologies, the promoter of MCX and MCX-SX also has programs in

association with IGNOU through its division FTKMC. Other regional exchanges like Cochin Stock Exchange and Madhya Pradesh Stock Exchange also have their training programs on various aspects of Stockmarkets and trading. It is estimated that 62 lakh professionals will be required by the BFSI sector by 2022, but there is a huge shortfall in this target. These courses will help employers to find youth with the requisite skills. MBA Financial Markets : NSE has tied up with various universities like Punjabi University, M D University , GGSIP University to offer MBA Financial Markets degree program. As part of the curriculum, MBA students will be required to qualify in 15 modules of NSE's National certification in financial markets (or NCFM) . The NCFM modules are widely recognized in India as a necessary criterion for employment in the financial and capital markets space. The students will also be taught investment, trading and portfolio management skills. Through mock software developed by the exchange. The university and NSE will help students to get effective placements and internships with industry