Master Financial Services online with IOB

Pathway to the MSc in Financial Services

The Pathway to MSc in Financial Services is ideal for financial services professionals who are in leadership positions, or who aspire to leadership roles.

The Pathway to MSc in Financial Services aims to develop expertise in your chosen areas of interest (e.g. Digital, Data, Culture, Risk Management, Retail Banking or Investment Funds) while fostering a strategic perspective to enable you to assess strategic alternatives, identify new growth opportunities, and solve complex problems in financial services.

Pathway Diagram

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The curriculum develops industry specific knowledge and research insights and utilises students’ practical experience to promote peer learning. An important aspect of the programme is the integration of technical skills and a focus on strategic challenges facing financial institutions to identify opportunities and threats arising in the global marketplace.

Students will critically evaluate the implications of operating in a dynamic business environment and the challenges they face in developing and executing strategies to provide value added products, services and solutions as firms seek to create compelling value propositions to support sustainable competitive advantage

How you will benefit

On completing the MSc in Financial Services, graduates will be able to:

• Utilise in-depth technical and theoretical knowledge necessary to manage in the evolving financial services landscape

• Critically appraise the forces shaping financial services including regulation, technology, competition, risk, customer/client expectations

• Assimilate a range of theoretical and empirical evidence to analyse complex problems and develop and evaluate innovative solutions and strategic alternatives

• Formulate strategy and policy for the financial services firm cognisant of the impact it may have on wider society and the need to recommend courses of action in an ethical and sustainable manner

• Critically evaluate the trade-offs between an institution’s risk appetite, related internal control framework, operating model and its profitability

• Communicate clearly to stakeholders, using appropriate media and reporting standards, contemporary issues, decisions and developments in retail banking and financial services.

The routes to attaining the MSc in Financial Services award:

There are two routes to attaining the MSc award.

First route

Study a six module, 60 ECTS Graduate Diploma and then the Professional Diploma in Strategic Management in Financial Services. The Graduate Diploma programmes are six module programmes that run over 18 months. You must receive 2.2 or higher in the Graduate Diploma programmes to receive the MSc award at the end of your study. IOB offers four Graduate Diplomas - (As outlined in the diagram).

Second route

You must complete two Professional Diplomas from our postgraduate offerings and then the Professional Diploma in Strategic Management in Financial Services. You complete individual Professional Diplomas on a stand alone basis, but need to complete all three Diplomas within seven years to be eligible for the MSc in Financial Services award.

Award

When you successfully complete this programme, you will be awarded the MSc in Financial Services from UCD. This is a level 9 qualification on the National Framework of Qualifications.

Professional Body Membership

You must be a current member of IOB, or become a member, to register for this programme.

Continuous Professional Development

If you hold an IOB designation or a designation managed by IOB, CPD hours may be awarded on successful completion of this programme.

For further information

Please contact [email protected]