Finance and insurance

ANTONIO LUCIANO MARTIRE

The career-oriented training activities aim to enhance students’ transversal, practical, and professional skills, facilitating the transition into complex and dynamic work environments. These activities include participation in seminars, workshops, and online certification programs, organized in collaboration with companies and relevant institutions. The objective is to enrich students’ professional profiles by developing complementary skills, improving adaptability, productivity, and problem-solving abilities in financial, insurance, and technological fields. Practical and collaborative experiences are designed to strengthen independent judgment, critical thinking, analytical and communication skills, providing tools to define and pursue personal and professional goals. At the end of the program, students will be able to apply the transversal skills acquired, interact effectively with professionals and experts in the field, understand the dynamics of the labor market and research activities, and leverage their preparation in both professional and academic contexts. The study program also promotes internships with partner companies and institutions and, subject to authorization, may recognize participation in scientific conferences as an integral part of the training path.

The training activities designed to support employability aim to strengthen students’ transversal, practical, and professional skills, facilitating their transition into complex and dynamic work environments. These activities include participation in seminars, workshops, scientific conferences, and training programs leading to online certifications or micro-credentials, developed in collaboration with leading companies and institutions.

Specific Objectives (Dublin Descriptors):


Knowledge and understanding: The activities will provide skills that complement the study program, making students more adaptable and competitive in the job market. Students will interact with professionals through internships or seminars and with the research world through conferences on finance, insurance, and information technology topics, with particular reference to artificial intelligence.


Applying knowledge and understanding: Students will improve their analytical abilities, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in professional contexts.


Making judgments: By participating in collaborative activities, students will be able to make autonomous decisions to define and achieve personal and professional objectives.


Communication skills: Students will develop effective communication skills in collaborative contexts.


Learning skills: The activities will provide competencies that complement the study program, making students more adaptable and competitive in both the professional and research environments.

The student must know and be able to apply the basic elements of mathematics, probability and financial mathematics.

The training activities designed to support employability aim to strengthen students’ transversal, practical, and professional skills, facilitating their transition into complex and dynamic work environments. These activities include participation in seminars, workshops, scientific conferences, and training programs leading to online certifications or micro-credentials, developed in collaboration with leading companies and institutions such as ARPM, MathWorks, 4CareItalia, Gruppo ICCREA Banca, and Eurizon. The objective is to enrich students’ professional profiles by fostering complementary skills that enhance adaptability, productivity, and problem-solving abilities in financial, insurance, and technological contexts. Practical and collaborative experiences are intended to develop independent judgment, critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills, providing essential tools for defining and pursuing personal and professional goals. Upon completion, students will be able to apply the transversal competences acquired, interact effectively with professionals and experts, understand the dynamics of the labor market and research environments, and leverage their preparation in both professional and academic contexts. The degree program also promotes internships with partner companies and institutions, and, upon prior approval, might recognize participation in scientific conferences as part of the student’s educational pathway.

Students can choose from a range of activities offered in collaboration with companies, until they reach the number of credits (CFU) required by the degree programme.

Warm up your skills with ICCREA BANCA (3cfu)
The course aims to provide students with a solid understanding of soft skills needs, through an initial assessment to define priorities for improvement and objectives. Soft skills are developed through practical situations, integrating their evaluation (through observation) into activities and group work to complete a project or achieve a common goal.

National Financial Accounting (on the IDEA-moodle platform https://idea.uniroma1.it/course/view.php?id=116)(3cfu)

“Go beyond the headlines—learn to read the numbers that drive crises, policies, and the global economy.”
Why did no one see the 2008 financial crisis coming—and could we miss the next one? Behind every headline on debt, trade, or inflation lies a deeper story in the numbers. This course will help you uncover that story.
Over six weeks, you’ll explore how households, firms, governments, and the rest of the world connect through financial accounts, balance sheets, and trade flows. We’ll examine government finances, global imbalances, and the lessons of past crises, from 2007–2009 to COVID-19. Along the way, you’ll learn to read and use key institutional reports from the IMF, ECB, BIS, OECD and others.
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to read financial accounts critically, connect them to economic thinking, and engage with the debates shaping our future. Whether you’re analysing government budgets, trade balances, or stability reports, you’ll be equipped with the tools to go beyond the headlines—and maybe even challenge them.

Masterclass MATLAB (3cfu)
The educational activity aims to provide students with basic operational tools for using the MATLAB environment in the quantitative analysis of financial and insurance problems. The course intends to develop practical skills in data management and analysis, their graphical representation, and the construction of simple calculation and optimization models, with reference to application contexts in finance and insurance. At the end of the lecture cycle, the student will be able to use the MATLAB environment for the analysis of financial and insurance data, to graphically represent and interpret data and time series of economic-financial interest, as well as to perform calculations with vectors and matrices relevant for the analysis of risk and returns. Furthermore, the student will acquire the ability to manage datasets through tables and logical operators, to design and implement simple codes for basic programming, and to tackle introductory optimization problems in the financial and insurance fields.

Social Insurance as a Fundamental Tool for the "Reconstruction" of a New Welfare System in Italy (3cfu)
The main purpose of the course is to provide students with the ability to translate risk assessment techniques in the "Second Pillar" into the real world, enabling them to simulate the complex and delicate activity of assuming "collective" risk in insurance companies. The course, also thanks to exercises carried out with real working tools, allows graduates to add a highly specialized actuarial "skill" to their CV, which is absolutely uncommon among new graduates and highly sought after by private and public entities operating in the sector.

Risk Management in Asset Management -- Building the Key Function from Scratch (3cfu)
Imagine you have just been hired as Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at a new asset management company. The company has great ambitions, it wants to raise capital from institutional and private investors, but it needs you for a fundamental mission: to build the Risk Management function from scratch.
The course will guide you on this journey, step by step. We will not limit ourselves to studying theoretical concepts: we will ground them in concrete reality. You will discover the risks faced by a company managing investment portfolios (market, credit, liquidity, operational, reputational, regulatory…), and how a solid risk governance function becomes not only a regulatory requirement but also a competitive advantage.
The course is designed for ambitious, curious students ready to put themselves in the shoes of a professional. Not just theory: every meeting will be a laboratory of ideas, simulations, and practical discussions.
By the end of the course, you will have built your own risk management framework, understanding not only the risk map but also the monitoring, control, and reporting mechanisms that characterize a true risk management department. It will be an immersive exercise, putting you in the shoes of a professional called upon to make decisions and structure an organization capable of protecting (and growing) clients' investments.

Financial Markets and Portfolio Management (3cfu)
Support material: Class notes. Extracts from Frank J. Fabozzi, Fundamental of Fixed Income. Extracts from K. Garbade, Fixed Income Analytics. Bloomberg terminal analytics
Class 1:
Introduction to the course
Financial market assessment: what are financial markets doing today?
What are the factors that affect the value of an investment portfolio?

Class 2:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
Capital Structure: understanding debt vs equity, conceptual differences.
The need to borrow money explained.
What is a bond and how does a bond price?
What are bond spreads telling us?
Examples of bonds: sovereign vs corporate bonds. Senior vs. subordinated. Others.

Class 3:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
Duration of a bond & duration of a portfolio.
The inverse correlation between price of a bond and yield of a bond.
Understanding the risk-free curves used to price a bond. What valuations do bonds trade at?
Duration & coupon of a bond, duration & maturity of a bond.
Different interpretations of duration: sensitivity to interest rate movements, average time to repay investments, first derivative interpretation.
Concept of Convexity.
Concept of Liquidity. Why is a bond more exchangeable than another? Term structure of a bond. The concept of “bond curve”.

Class 4:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
Monetary policy: what is the Federal Reserve trying to achieve in this cycle? What is the ECB monetary policy at the moment? What are the tools that central banks have to control the economy? Things that investors look at: GDP, CPI, PCE, NFP, Unemployment rate among other things.

Class 5:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
More on the Federal Reserve and the ECB: the “dot plot”.
Interest rates: what are different slopes telling investors? A normal curve vs. an inverted
curve slope.
Inflation expectations and monetary policy moves: how do they impact the risk-free rate curve.

Class 6:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
Accounting and leverage & the importance of free cash flow generation.
Shareholders’ friendly vs bondholders’ friendly policies.
Measures of risk in an investment portfolio: interest rate duration, spread duration contribution, duration x spread (DTS), tracking error volatility, value at risk VaR.

Class 7:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
Construct a bond portfolio: practical examples. High beta vs. low beta. Aggressive vs. conservative styles. Practical examples of bonds priced on Bloomberg. What if scenarios performed live.

Class 8:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
How did the bond portfolios perform this week? In depth analysis of what affected the value of our investments.

Class 9:
Financial market assessment: how did the market perform this week?
Summary of the course.
Q&A

Class 10:
Final test: 10 questions true or false &/or multiple choice style.

Any recommended texts will be specified by the professionals who will hold the lesson series.

The material will be provided by the company or professional, there are no reference text

The activities will include meetings with companies in the classroom and will be carried out through lectures, seminar activities, and individual and/or group work.

Attendance is required for meetings with companies or professionals.

The assessment tests, as specified in the delivery methods by the professionals conducting the training activities, contribute to achieving a pass mark. The elements that contribute to achieving the pass mark are:
the correctness of the procedure identified for solving the question;
the appropriateness of the proposed solution in relation to the skills the student is expected to have acquired by the end of the course;
the use of appropriate language.

The questions depend on the type of activity followed.
For the Warm Up Your Skills program, participation in activities during the program is required.

For example, for the National Financial Account program, the following could be asked:
Calculating duration.
How to avoid crises and "bubbles"?

• Course Warm up your skills with ICCREA BANCA 
  • Books: Material provided by ICCREA BANCA 


• Course  National Financial Accounting
  • Books: on the IDEA-moodle platform https://idea.uniroma1.it/course/view.php?id=116


• Masterclass MATLAB (3cfu)
  • Books: Any recommended texts will be specified by the professionals who will hold the lesson series. (Martina Ciambellini, Alessio Conte - MATHWORKS)


• Social Insurance as a Fundamental Tool for the "Reconstruction" of a New Welfare System in Italy (3cfu)
  • Books: Material provided by the professional/company (Claudio Raimondi - 4CARE ITALIA)


• Risk Management in Asset Management -- Building the Key Function from Scratch (3cfu)
  • Books: Material provided by the professional/company (Riccardo Appolloni - Generali)


• Financial Markets and Portfolio Management (3cfu)
  • Books: Class notes. Extracts from Frank J. Fabozzi, Fundamental of Fixed Income. Extracts from K. Garbade, Fixed Income Analytics. Bloomberg terminal analytics