Three courses on the prudential foundations of banking: risk mapping, credit risk control and asset-liability management.
Fundamentals of Banking Risk Management (Basel)
The prudential foundations of banking, from risks to capital requirements
Description
A banking institution carries risks of very different natures, whose prudential treatment follows distinct logics. This four-day course lays the foundations: identifying the main risk families, understanding how the Basel accords turn them into capital requirements, and locating each actor’s role in the control framework. It is the base layer for the other modules in this area.
Learning objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Identify the main risk categories carried by a banking institution
- Understand the prudential treatment of each risk category
- Locate the architecture of the Basel accords and their European transposition
- Distinguish the roles of the three lines of defence
- Read the main prudential indicators and understand how they are built
- Locate supervisory work and its consequences for the institution
Teaching methods and resources
Structured input illustrated by European institution cases. Simplified calculation exercises, risk mapping workshops, supervisory case studies. Summary diagrams of the Basel accords and a reading grid for prudential indicators. Validation quizzes by risk area.
Course programme
1. Mapping the risks of a banking institution
- Distinguish credit, market, liquidity and operational risk
- Locate conduct, third-party and model risk
- Understand the interactions between risk categories
- Build a usable risk map
Practical work: building a risk map for a given institution profile. Collective ranking of exposures.
2. Locating the prudential architecture
- Trace the construction of the Basel accords and their successive objectives
- Understand how the three pillars fit together
- Locate the European transposition and its timetable
- Distinguish the standardised approach from internal approaches
Practical work: guided reading of a published institution’s capital structure. Identification of the main components.
3. Understanding capital requirements
- Build risk-weighted assets
- Distinguish capital tiers and their quality
- Locate the buffers and the conditions for using them
- Understand the effect of a commercial decision on requirements
Practical work: simplified calculation of the effect of new lending production on risk-weighted assets and the solvency ratio.
4. Organising the control framework
- Allocate responsibilities across the three lines of defence
- Locate the risk function’s role and its independence
- Organise the escalation and treatment of limit breaches
- Document the framework so that it is auditable
Practical work: critical review of a control framework described in a case. Identification of organisational weaknesses.
5. Locating supervision and its effects
- Understand the supervisory review process
- Locate stress testing exercises and how they are used
- Handle a remediation request
- Anticipate regulatory developments in preparation
Practical work: analysis of an anonymised supervisory report. Construction of a prioritised remediation plan.
Participants
Risk analysts, risk managers, internal auditors and compliance officers.
Prerequisites
No academic prerequisite. Experience in a banking or financial institution is recommended.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Credit Risk Management & Over-Indebtedness Prevention
Controlling risk at origination, through the life of the loan and at the first signals
Description
Credit risk is controlled at three moments: at origination, during the life of the loan, and when the first signs of difficulty appear. This three-day course covers all three, on both retail and corporate portfolios, with particular attention to the early detection of over-indebtedness.
Learning objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Assess the risk of a retail or corporate counterparty
- Locate rating methods and their limits
- Monitor a portfolio and detect deterioration before arrears appear
- Identify over-indebtedness situations and address them early
- Calibrate a prevention arrangement proportionate to the portfolio
- Locate provisioning and its effect on earnings
Teaching methods and resources
Methodological input followed by exercises on real anonymised files. Case studies of counterparties in difficulty, rating exercises, early detection workshops. Counterparty analysis grid and warning signal matrix. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Assessing risk at origination
- Analyse the repayment capacity of a retail and a corporate borrower
- Locate collateral and its real value in the event of default
- Understand how a score is built and its limits
- Handle files that fall in the uncertain zone
Practical work: analysis of three origination files, including one borderline case. Reasoned decision and associated conditions.
2. Monitoring the portfolio
- Organise the periodic review of counterparties
- Identify deterioration indicators before arrears appear
- Handle concentration on a counterparty, a sector or a region
- Measure portfolio quality over time
Practical work: analysis of a portfolio’s evolution over three financial years. Identification of pockets of deterioration.
3. Detecting and preventing over-indebtedness
- Spot the behavioural signals that precede difficulty
- Distinguish temporary difficulty from structural insolvency
- Conduct the conversation with a client in difficulty
- Build a sustainable restructuring solution
Practical work: role play of an interview with a client showing over-indebtedness signals. Debrief on how the exchange was conducted.
4. Handling default
- Locate the definitions of default and their consequences
- Understand provisioning and its effect on earnings
- Arbitrate between restructuring, recovery and disposal
- Document the decisions taken
Practical work: treatment decision on three defaulted files with contrasting profiles, with justification.
5. Steering the framework
- Define the credit policy and its limits
- Organise lending delegations and their control
- Measure the effectiveness of the prevention arrangement
- Report on portfolio quality to governing bodies
Practical work: revision of an existing delegation grid. Presentation of the proposed changes and their rationale.
Participants
Credit analysts, risk managers, recovery managers and legal staff.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of common credit products. No prior accounting training required.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Liquidity Risk & Asset-Liability Management (ALM)
The risk that kills fastest: tools, regulatory ratios and stress scenarios
Description
Liquidity is the risk that kills fastest: a solvent institution can disappear in days for want of funding. This three-day course covers liquidity management tools and asset-liability management, including regulatory ratios, stress scenarios and the funding decisions that follow from them.
Learning objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Locate an institution’s liquidity position and its drivers
- Understand how the regulatory liquidity ratios are built
- Analyse the interest rate and liquidity gaps of a banking balance sheet
- Build a stress scenario and draw the consequences from it
- Locate the instruments for hedging interest rate risk
- Organise the asset-liability management framework and its governance
Teaching methods and resources
Technical input followed by exercises on simplified balance sheets. Gap calculations, stress scenario construction, liquidity crisis case studies. Gap calculation templates and a scenario construction grid. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Understanding the liquidity of a banking balance sheet
- Locate funding sources and their respective stability
- Distinguish market liquidity from funding liquidity
- Identify off-balance-sheet commitments that consume liquidity
- Understand contagion mechanisms in periods of stress
Practical work: analysis of the funding structure of two institutions with opposite profiles. Identification of vulnerabilities.
2. Building and reading the regulatory indicators
- Understand how the short-term liquidity ratio is built
- Locate the stable funding ratio and its horizon
- Identify the run-off assumptions used and their significance
- Interpret a gap between the regulatory indicator and internal management
Practical work: simplified calculation of the liquidity ratios on a given balance sheet, then analysis of the effect of a change in deposit structure.
3. Analysing the gaps
- Build a maturity schedule of assets and liabilities
- Calculate liquidity and interest rate gaps
- Handle items with no contractual maturity
- Locate run-off conventions and their sensitivity
Practical work: construction of a gap profile on a simplified balance sheet, then sensitivity analysis to the conventions chosen.
4. Building a stress scenario
- Define idiosyncratic and systemic stress scenarios
- Calibrate assumptions for withdrawals and market closure
- Measure the institution’s survival under each scenario
- Build the associated contingency funding plan
Practical work: construction of a stress scenario and calculation of the survival horizon. Presentation of the remediation measures identified.
5. Organising asset-liability management
- Locate the instruments for hedging interest rate risk
- Organise the asset-liability committee and its decisions
- Define limits and their monitoring
- Report the liquidity position to governing bodies and to the supervisor
Practical work: simulation of an asset-liability committee deciding on a hedge for a given rate position. Debrief on the argument made.
Participants
Treasurers, ALM managers, risk managers and CFOs.
Prerequisites
Command of banking balance sheet mechanics. Practical exposure to liquidity indicators is a plus.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Practical information
The following applies to every programme presented on this page.
Funding
Several funding routes exist and depend on your professional situation: skills development plan, sector funding bodies, or direct company funding. Contact us so we can work out the most suitable option together.
Timetable
Courses run from 9.00 to 17.30, with a lunch break of one hour to an hour and a half. Participants are welcomed from 8.45. Breaks and lunches are provided. For four or five day courses, sessions finish at 16.00 on the final day.
Dates and locations
In-company and open sessions are arranged on request, at our premises, at yours, or remotely. Contact us for the next available dates and to agree the format best suited to your teams.
A question or a specific requirement?
Every programme can be adapted to your context, your sector and the level of your teams. We will come back to you with a tailored proposal, a schedule and a price matching your request.
This programme is an original work designed by the teaching teams of Helios Advisory. Any reproduction, representation, adaptation or exploitation, in whole or in part, without prior written authorisation, is strictly prohibited.