Master's Program in Finance and Banking
For economists and non-economists
Admission: from the winter semester of the academic year
Term of study: 3 semesters
Form of study: full-time
Conducting: weekly (weekdays after 6 pm and Saturday) and by using online learning sharing platforms (elearn/moodle) includingly.
Director: Assoc. Prof. Bozhidar Nedev, PhD
Email: bozhidar.nedev@feb.uni-sofia.bg
Administrator: Assistant Professor Desislava Petkova
Email: d.petkova@feb.uni-sofia.bg
Conditions for application: Bachelor's or master's degree in Economics & Finance, or Business Administration, as well as related and derived degrees, or in a specialty other than Economics & Finance, or Business Administration, in which latter case five optional disciplines are studied for obtaining a Master's degree within the MP Finance and Banking. For admission to the program, the candidates sit for a check of their motivation and expectations only at an oral interview. The score is formed by the average grade from the diploma, the grade from the state exam (defence of the thesis) and the grade from the interview. Admission is conducted for the winter semester.
Aim of the program: Deepening and profiling of knowledge in the field of finance and banking. Acquisition of skills for solving problems of finance at macroeconomic level and of managing a commercial bank or financial institution.
Tuition fees in Sofia University for the academic 2024 / 2025 year
MP Finance and Banking is aimed at achieving the following results from the study:
- Acquisition of advanced theoretical and practical knowledge, meeting the highest world standards in the field of finance and banking in order to teach senior and middle staff of banks, companies, non-governmental organizations and public administration. The same is achieved through direct lectures and discussions by university professors and senior managers from banking and financial institutions;
- Achieving a high degree of readiness to work in the modern conditions of the banking and financial sector in the introduction of information technology, the development of digital economies, digitalization of the banking sector, as well as the application of alternative financing models;
- Opportunity to work in international banking and financial organizations due to the high level of introduction with international and national banking and financial regulations, studying the evolution of international agreements regulating the banking activity (Basel standards), European directives and regulations regarding capital requirements, capital and countercyclical buffers, as well as readiness to apply asset quality assessment models and stress tests required by the European Central Bank and national regulatory authorities /The Bulgarian National Bank and Financial Security Committee/.
- Teaching of risk managers for banking and financial institutions through in-depth study of risk analysis and management methods; opportunities for building hedging strategies, the use of derivatives - options, futures, swaps, participation in stock trading, valuation of shares and bonds, etc.
- Acquisition of in-depth knowledge of investment theory and management, including types of financial instruments and methods of their valuation, stock exchange trading and market infrastructure, models for valuation of capital assets;
- Obtaining in-depth theoretical and practical training in the field of applied macroeconomic analysis: by studying and applying macroeconomic theories and models for financial programming and forecasting of the main macroeconomic variables (GDP, inflation, unemployment), scenario analysis;
- Acquisition of knowledge in the field of bank accounting, legal support of the banking activity, as well as the mechanisms for protection against financial violations;
- Acquisition of skills for financial analysis of the business of the enterprise - analysis of financial statements, business valuation - approaches for valuing the value of an entire enterprise;
The courses studied during the three semesters of study include: international banking regulations and risk management, investment management, bank accounting, monetary policy analysis, applied macroeconomic analysis, derivative financial instruments, banking law, legal accounting, banking, financial analysis and business valuation, institutional economics and economic analysis. Students can choose between specialized courses related to topics such as big data, business analytics, accounting and more.