MSc Financial Risk Management Curriculum
The programme consists of 6 core modules, alongside 9 elective modules. Students will choose 25 ECTS of elective modules in Hilary Term. The final Trinity term is dedicated to your dissertation. Assessment is through a blend of written examinations and continuous coursework.
| Module | ECTS |
|---|---|
| Credit Risk | 5 |
| Market Risk Measurement & Modelling | 5 |
| Operational Risk | 5 |
| Applications in Risk Management | 10 |
| Corporate Finance | 5 |
| Financial Econometrics | 5 |
| Dissertation | 30 |
Taught modules normally take place across Michaelmas and Hilary terms, with the final Trinity term dedicated to the dissertation or group consultancy project.
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September-December Michaelmas Term |
January-April Hilary Term |
May-August Trinity Term |
| Core |
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| Electives |
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Note: Modules offered each academic year are subject to change. The modules listed above and below are the modules and timetables for 2026/27.
Module Descriptions
Credit Risk (5 ECTS)
Examine how credit risk arises, how financial institutions measure it and why poor management can destabilise the wider economy. Compare fundamental credit analysis with market-based indicators such as bond prices, CDS spreads and Moody's KMV. You will explore exposure, default probability, expected loss, governance, regulation and IFRS 9 modelling in a changing global risk environment.
How this fits your MSc journey: Develop a core enterprise-risk capability in one of the most significant exposures faced by modern financial institutions.
Learning outcomes:
- Identify credit-risk sources: Recognise the transactions and financial relationships in which credit risk arises.
- Apply governance principles: Assess how major institutions organise and oversee credit-risk management.
- Measure exposure and loss: Calculate exposure, probability of default and expected loss.
- Use credit models: Evaluate current modelling approaches and the assumptions behind them.
- Integrate analysis methods: Compare fundamental analysis with market measures such as bond and CDS pricing.
- Navigate regulation and accounting: Interpret regulatory safeguards, IFRS 9 principles and their practical implementation.
Market Risk Measurement & Modelling (5 ECTS)
Learn how financial institutions quantify, forecast and manage market risk. Explore price sensitivities, Value at Risk, Expected Shortfall and modern portfolio theory while considering the practical challenges faced by banks, fund managers and pension funds. Alongside the finance theory, you will build introductory Python skills and apply them to real market-risk modelling problems.
How this fits your MSc journey: Combine quantitative finance with practical coding to prepare for technical roles in risk measurement, validation and portfolio analytics.
Learning outcomes:
- Measure market risk: Use price sensitivities, Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall to assess exposure.
- Apply portfolio theory: Explain the relationship between risk,return and diversification.
- Estimate Value at Risk: Compare variance-covariance, historical-simulation and Monte Carlo methods.
- Model correlated risks: Use Cholesky decomposition to generate correlated random variables for simulation.
- Back-test risk models: Assess the reliability and performance of market-risk estimates.
- Model with Python: Apply introductory coding techniques to practical financial-risk problems.
Operational Risk (5 ECTS)
Protect enterprise value by building operational-risk systems that work in practice. Learn how to design policies and frameworks, align them with risk culture and appetite, and apply best-practice controls across financial services and the wider economy. Interactive cases show how organisations identify, categorise, measure and respond to operational threats.
How this fits your MSc journey: Build practical enterprise-risk skills for governance, regulation, resilience and control roles across multiple sectors.
Learning outcomes:
- Design risk frameworks: Develop operational-risk policies and implement effective management practices.
- Embed risk culture: Align operational-risk monitoring with organisational appetite and tolerance.
- Categorise operational threats: Create clear risk taxonomies suited to the organisation and its activities.
- Apply control tools: Use risk and control self-assessments, keyindicators and operational-risk metrics.
- Use loss-event data: Draw insight from internal and external operational-loss information.
- Quantify capital requirements: Apply approaches for measuring regulatory and economic capital.
- Stress-test exposures: Compare scenario analysis and stress-testing methods,outputs and limitations.
Applications in Risk Management (5 ECTS)
Experience risk management beyond the classroom through guest lectures, company visits and live projects. Explore emerging challenges such as ESG, cybersecurity and financial crime with leading researchers, visiting academics and industry practitioners. This experience-led module connects frontier research with current organisational practice and develops the judgement needed to navigate complex financial systems.
How this fits your MSc journey: Integrate learning from across the MSc with real-world risk challenges while strengthening professional confidence, collaboration and industry awareness.
Learning outcomes:
- Analyse emerging risks: Evaluate ESG, cybersecurity and financial-crime threats in real organisational contexts.
- Reflect on expert insight: Use practitioner and academic perspectives to deepen understanding of current risk practice.
- Connect theory with practice: Apply core risk-management knowledge to company visits, cases and live projects.
- Collaborate on risk challenges: Work effectively in teams to investigate complex problems and develop recommendations.
- Communicate professionally: Present clear findings through reflective writing and group project outputs.
- Engage with the risk community: Interact with industry experts and researchers with curiosity, preparation and professional judgement.
Corporate Finance (5 ECTS)
Develop a strong foundation in the core principles of financial management and learn how finance drives strategic decision-making in organisations. Gain practical skills in investment appraisal, risk-return analysis, and value creation, while engaging with both theoretical frameworks and real-world financial practices.
How this fits your MSc journey: Equips you with essential financial literacy and decision-making skills that support leadership, strategy, and value creation across all areas of business.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand financial management fundamentals: Grasp the critical role of finance in organisational success and sustainability.
- Evaluate investment decisions: Apply key techniques to assess capital investments and guide financial strategy.
- Manage risk and return: Explore the balance between risk and return in corporate decision-making.
- Navigate financial markets: Understand stock market behaviour through alternative investment theories.
- Create corporate value: Examine how firms generate and maximise value in competitive environments.
Financial Econometrics (5 ECTS)
Use econometric methods to investigate financial data and research questions. Combine theory with practical software work as you explore the classical regression model, functional form, time series, choice models and panel data. You will learn to generate tests, diagnose model violations and interpret the econometric results reported by software and academic research.
How this fits your MSc journey: Strengthen the quantitative, technological and research capabilities needed to analyse evidence and solve complex financial problems.
Learning outcomes:
- Evaluate econometric models: Assess the classical model, functional-formchoices and potential model violations.
- Generate econometric tests: Apply appropriate procedures across classical, time-series and panel-data models.
- Interpret software output: Explain the meaning and implications of econometric estimates and diagnostics.
- Read financial research critically: Analyse econometric evidence presented in academic journal articles.
- Use econometrics in research: Design evidence-based approaches to financial questions and communicate the findings.
Advanced Data Analysis (5 ECTS)
Develop the practical skills to analyse complex economic and financial data and generate evidence-based insights. With a particular focus on cross-sectional and panel data, you will apply advanced econometric methods in STATA, evaluate model performance and interpret results using real-world datasets. The module also provides a strong foundation for dissertation research and data-driven professional roles.
How this fits your MSc journey: Strengthen the empirical and software capabilities needed to investigate financial questions, assess evidence critically and support strategic decision-making in finance, economics and policy.
Learning outcomes:
- Explain advanced econometric techniques for analysing complex cross-sectional and panel datasets.
- Use STATA competently to analyse financial and economic data.
- Conduct rigorous empirical analysis and interpret statistical outputs critically.
- Evaluate model performance using parametric, semi-parametric and non-parametric methods. #
- Apply evidence from financial and economic data to strategic decision-making.
Energy Finance & Trading (5 ECTS)
Navigate the financial dynamics of global energy markets. Map the energy value chain and its participants, evaluate energy companies and examine how climate-related challenges affect their valuations. You will also explore energy derivatives, market views, trading strategies and hedging approaches in a sector shaped by transition, innovation and volatility.
How this fits your MSc journey: Develop sector-specific expertise that combines corporate valuation, commodity-market insight and practical financial-risk management.
Learning outcomes:
- Map the energy value chain: Explain the roles of producers, traders, utilities, consumers and other market participants.
- Value energy companies: Critically evaluate pricing methods and the impact of climate and market challenges.
- Address sector challenges: Identify financial and strategic risks and propose workable responses.
- Design trading strategies: Formulate positions that express informed views on energy markets.
- Recommend risk controls: Develop hedging and risk-management approaches for energy exposure.
Financial Markets & Institutions (5 ECTS)
Understand how financial markets, banks and central banks support economic activity and influence financial stability. Explore the structure of the financial system, analyse major crises and trace how shocks spread into the real economy. By evaluating policy responses and regulatory reforms, you will learn to identify systemic vulnerabilities and judge whether financial safeguards are fit for purpose.
How this fits your MSc journey: Build the financial-system knowledge needed to understand where risk originates, how it spreads and how institutions and regulators respond.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand financial systems: Explain how markets and institutions support economic activity.
- Assess crisis-management tools: Evaluate the policies and mechanisms used to manage financial risks and shocks.
- Analyse systemic failures: Identify the causes, transmission channels and consequences of major financial crises.
- Evaluate regulatory reform: Judge how effectively financial rules promote stability and reduce future vulnerabilities.
- Interpret central banking: Assess how central-bank functions influence markets, stability and economic performance.
FinTech in Banking, Insurance & Asset Management (5 ECTS)
Explore how FinTech, artificial intelligence, open banking, embedded finance and digital platforms are transforming banking, insurance and asset management. Through cases, workshops, industry insight and an AI Innovation Sprint, you will develop a technology-enabled solution to a real financial-services challenge while considering customer needs, commercial viability, governance, risk and regulation.
How this fits your MSc journey: Connect finance and risk-management knowledge with the innovation, responsible-AI and executive communication skills needed to lead change across regulated financial institutions, consulting firms, FinTech companies and regulatory bodies.
Learning outcomes:
- Evaluate how emerging technologies are changing financial-services products, business models and operating environments.
- Assess the opportunities and risks created by AI and digital innovation in regulated institutions.
- Apply customer-centred design and innovation methods to develop technology-enabled financial solutions.
- Evaluate the regulatory, governance and ethical implications of emerging financial technologies.
- Use generative AI responsibly to support research, analysis, ideation and business problem-solving.
- Communicate complex business and technology concepts through executive presentations and written analysis.
Managing Financial Risk in Start-ups & Scale-ups (5 ECTS)
Understand the financial risks and opportunities facing ambitious start-ups and scale-ups. Following the entrepreneurial lifecycle from start-up and survival through growth, professionalisation and exit, you will examine venture performance, funding options from bank lending and informal finance to venture capital, and the influence of fiduciary duty, intellectual property, competition policy and regulation. Cases and live simulations will help you balance financial returns, stakeholder interests, ESG objectives and long-term value creation.
How this fits your MSc journey: Extend your financial-risk knowledge into entrepreneurial and corporate-venturing environments, developing the judgement needed for careers in venture finance, start-up advisory, entrepreneurship, policy, regulation and innovation strategy.
Learning outcomes:
- Analyse the economics of entrepreneurial activity and recommend an appropriate venture-finance and risk-management strategy.
- Evaluate the risks and determinants of venture performance across uncertain and high-growth environments.
- Design financial-risk strategies for the full venture lifecycle, from start-up and survival to growth, professionalisation and exit.
- Compare the theory and practice of bank lending, informal finance and venture capital.
- Assess how intellectual-property law, competition policy and regulation affect venture value, financing and exit options.
- Adapt financial-risk management to support long-term value, ESG goals and responsible business transformation.
Sustainable Finance & Investment Management (10 ECTS)
Integrate sustainable finance with the practical management of investment portfolios. Explore ESG investing, regulation, climate commitments and emerging sustainable-finance solutions alongside asset allocation across equities, bonds and alternatives. Using live market analysis and economic outlooks, you will evaluate risk and return, construct multi-asset portfolios and design strategies for long-term wealth, liabilities and the transition to net zero.
How this fits your MSc journey: Connect modern portfolio management with sustainability, impact and climate considerations to support responsible investment decisions for institutions and individuals.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand sustainable investing: Critically assess the principles, drivers and challenges behind sustainability and ESG integration.
- Build multi-asset portfolios: Apply the portfolio-management process to asset-allocation decisions across traditional and alternative investments.
- Manage long-term objectives: Address the practical needs of institutional and individual investors seeking stable returns and liability coverage.
- Design sustainable wealth strategies: Incorporate ESG principles into investment and retirement-planning decisions.
- Respond to economic scenarios: Evaluate how changing market conditions affect returns, strategy and portfolio positioning.
- Manage execution risk: Assess implementation challenges and identify ways to reduce investment and ESG-related risks.
- Support the net-zero transition: Prioritise investments that mitigate climate change and contribute to long-term climate commitments.
- Design robust wealth strategies: Develop tailored approaches for institutional and individual clients across economic cycles.
- Mitigate investment risks: Identify and minimise execution risks while aligning strategies with climate and sustainability goals.
Trading Psychology & Behavioural Analysis (5 ECTS)
Experience the realities of making risk decisions in volatile financial markets through immersive AmplifyME trading simulations. Acting in roles across sales and trading, asset management and proprietary trading, you will connect behavioural-finance theory with live market conditions, examine how psychology affects performance and receive individual feedback on your decisions.
How this fits your MSc journey: Turn financial-market theory into practical experience, develop greater self-awareness under pressure and explore how your strengths align with careers across trading, investment and asset management.
Learning outcomes:
- Compare the objectives and pressures facing buy-side and sell-side trading operations.
- Analyse how behavioural factors, market narratives and technical levels influence asset prices.
- Evaluate the effects of liquidity and volatility on market makers and trading performance.
- Construct and manage a multi-asset portfolio during periods of significant market volatility.
- Build and execute trading strategies while managing risk under uncertainty.
- Reflect on personal strengths, weaknesses and decision-making patterns across different market roles.
Derivatives (5 ECTS)
Learn how derivatives allow companies and investors to reshape exposure to interest rates, currencies, equities, commodities, inflation and other market risks. Examine forwards, futures, options and swaps, how they are valued and how they support hedging or speculative strategies. Real market cases and developments in machine learning connect pricing theory with contemporary practice.
How this fits your MSc journey: Develop the derivative-valuation and risk-management capabilities that complement investment theory, fixed income, treasury and alternative investments.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand derivative markets: Explain the purpose, structure and analytics of the principal derivative instruments.
- Value derivatives: Price forwards, futures, options, swaps and related contracts.
- Design risk strategies: Assess how derivatives can support hedging and informed speculative positions.
- Compare specialised products: Evaluate index and currency options, futures options, exotic options and other structures.
- Learn from market events: Critically analyse historical derivative cases and apply the lessons to current risk decisions.
Treasury Management (5 ECTS)
Understand how treasury supports liquidity, resilience and corporate value. Explore cash and working-capital management, forecasting, financial and operational risk, treasury policy, funding and capital-structure decisions. You will also examine credit ratings and how market, regulatory and organisational factors influence access to capital and the cost of debt.
How this fits your MSc journey: Apply finance theory to the day-to-day management of liquidity, funding, risk and investor relationships across different organisations.
Learning outcomes:
- Understand treasury's role: Explain how treasury operates within corporate finance across different organisational structures.
- Develop treasury policy: Apply sound principles and practices while aligning policy with corporate objectives.
- Manage cash and working capital: Plan liquidity, prepare cash-flow forecasts and identify opportunities for optimisation.
- Evaluate treasury risks: Assessfinancial-market, operational, legal, regulatory, counter party and liquidity exposures.
- Optimise capital structure: Compare debt and equity choices and understand their effect on funding and investor relations.
- Assess credit ratings: Explain rating processes and evaluate the factors that influence borrowing costs and access to capital.
Dissertation (30 ECTS)
Undertake an independent research project focused on a contemporary issue in finance or financial risk management. You will identify a focused research question, critically evaluate the relevant literature, select and apply an appropriate methodology, and present evidence-based findings. The dissertation allows you to integrate the theories, analytical techniques and practical skills developed throughout the programme while building specialist expertise in an area aligned with your interests and career ambitions.
How this fits your MSc journey: Bring together your learning from across the MSc Financial Risk Management and demonstrate your ability to investigate a complex financial issue independently, apply rigorous research methods and communicate your findings to academic and professional audiences.
Learning outcomes:
- Evaluate relevant research: Critically analyse and synthesise the literature surrounding a focused research question.
- Explain financial theory: Demonstrate a clear understanding of the theoretical foundations underpinning the chosen topic.
- Apply appropriate methods: Select, justify and use suitable statistical, numerical, theoretical or qualitative research techniques.
- Analyse evidence rigorously: Interpret findings and develop conclusions that follow logically from the analysis.