What to study to learn banking in one week?

January 18, 2005 4:20 PM

StudyBingeFilter: let's suppose I had one week to teach myself banking, specifically: asset/liability management, market risk management, credit risk, funds transfer pricing/profitability, mortgage servicing valuation and accounting. anyone recommend some books/study materials/etc.?

...crickets chirping... :)

posted by mdpc98 to education (7 comments total)

So you looked lonely and I thought I'd chime in. First off, this is a huge range of topics, that unless you already have some sort of finance background, you probably won't learn much in a week. If you're looking for just a general overview, I've found this site to be pretty helpful. However, if you're looking for an indepth understanding, you might try looking up a good business school, university with an undergrad econ program, and checking out their coursebooks. There is usually a booklist online, or just call up the uni bookstore and they can give you the titles.
posted by orangskye at 6:23 PM on January 18, 2005

Just judging by the topics you mentioned, it seems like you could get something out of the FRM exam topics (PDF of exam topics/study guide and a list of the books here). You obviously don't need all of those books for the stuff you mentioned, but like almost every professional exam, you can get just the notes, which I think would be an okay bet to cover the stuff you do need in one week.
posted by milkrate at 6:24 PM on January 18, 2005

I assume you have a job interview at a commercial bank, or something similar coming up.

IMO, skip the GARP curriculum-- it's too quant-heavy and too market-related and derivatives-heavy to be of great use in a commerical bank setting.

Perhaps this book or a similar title is available at your local library.
posted by trharlan at 7:08 PM on January 18, 2005

That's a huge order, and I doubt that any one book or even group of books will be efficient for you in the limited time you have. Your best source of material would be the handouts for the credit training program of a large bank, such as JPMorgan Chase (scroll down to "Training"). You can try calling them, see if they'll give it to you. If not, try to talk to whoever runs the program, see what they recommend. Or if you know someone who joined a bank in the last year, you can borrow their materials.

Second stop: RMA. They have lots of study guides, concentrating mainly on credit & market risk, but also ALM (asset liability management).
posted by mono blanco at 8:05 PM on January 18, 2005

yeah, it's a tall order but i appreciate the feedback. i know that a week of studies isn't likely to make me an expert, but maybe if i put on a tie...
posted by mdpc98 at 8:29 PM on January 18, 2005

There's a lot of good to be had in studying accelerated learning techniques... which, of course, you don't have time to do much of.

That said, Mind Maps can be learned very quickly, and they help a lot. I passed my personal trainer certification based on a 500 page textbook with a week's study and a lot of mind mapping.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 11:30 AM on January 19, 2005

I had to learn accounting in a weekend and I found this book to be really helpful. It's all about a kid running a lemonade stand ("daddy gives you $20 to buy lemons. This is called paid-in capital ") and it made it all really easy to understand. I am, however, a math-impaired humanities major, so you may find it too elementary.
posted by pokeydonut at 12:13 PM on January 19, 2005