How to enrol?
To enrol on CertFMM as a standalone ACT certificate please complete and return the certificate enrolment & booking form to the ACT by the enrolment deadlines:
15 September for April examination
15 March for October examination
CertFMM is recognised as an individual certificate and also counts towards the AMCT Diploma in Treasury - the ACT's core treasury qualification which leads to associate membership. To enrol on CertFMM as part of AMCT please complete the AMCT enrolment & booking form or go to the AMCT page for further information.
Entry requirements
- Due to the course being written and examined in English, students will need to possess a good standard of English.
- Internet Browser version: the course website is an important part of this course as you will be able to access the online course material, discussion forum and further information. Therefore you do need the latest browser to access the content. We suggest one of the following browsers: Internet Explorer 7 or 8, Firefox 3 or Google Chrome to view the content correctly.
- A basic understanding of finance is assumed. The course is quantitative in nature, so it requires the ability to set up and solve standard equations and to use a standard (nonprogrammable) calculator.
- Familiarity with Excel or similar spreadsheet applications is also required. It is assumed that you are able to perform the following as a minimum:
- Saving and renaming worksheets and files
- Cell, column and row formatting
- Customising number and data formats
- Print areas and print formatting
- Copying data
- Relative and absolute cell referencing
- Autofill
Student subscriptions
Students enrolling on ACT Certificates or the AMCT Diploma are required to pay an annual student subscription fee of £134 on a pro-rata basis from the month of enrolment and thereafter a yearly subscription each May.
This provides full student membership benefits including a subscription to The Treasurer magazine, special student rates when attending ACT training courses and events and purchasing the International Treasurer's Handbook.
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Course content
An overview of the course content is provided below. For a detailed outline download the full syllabus
The Certificate in Financial Maths & Modelling provides a rigorous and integrated set of quantitative tools to understand and explain financial instruments, financial risk and corporate value and the fundamentally important relationship between them. The emphasis throughout is on the practical modelling of real life problems and opportunities. Techniques such as no-arbitrage pricing, duration, convexity and portfolio analysis - including the trade-off between risk and return - are explained and applied. The course analyses the use of options for financial risk management, and the valuation of different types of option using binomial pricing models, the Black Scholes model and other techniques. It also introduces and applies Value at Risk measures, their potential uses and their limitations.
Study Unit 1 - Fundamental concepts in financial maths and modelling
Study Unit 1 introduces the fundamental concepts of financial maths and modelling in the four areas of: interest rate mathematics; modelling the values of a series of fixed or growing future cashflows; modelling the term structure of interest rates using no arbitrage relationships; and selected issues in probability and statistical models.
Study Unit 2 - Modelling the maths of debt
Study Unit 2 looks at modelling the maths of debt in the main areas of: present values, future cash flows, timing and risk; and interest rate sensitivity and duration models, in particular value relationships with respect to yield, maturity, coupon rate and coupon frequency.
Study Unit 3 - Modelling the maths of foreign exchange
Study Unit 3 introduces the concepts of modelling the maths of foreign exchange in the three areas of: quoting conventions; hedging using forward foreign exchange contracts; and the relationships between foreign exchange rates, interest rates and inflation rates.
Study Unit 4 - Modelling the maths of derivatives
Study Unit 4 covers the maths and modelling of derivatives in the two areas of: introduction to derivatives mathematics; and modelling capital market swap mathematics.
Study Unit 5 - Modelling the maths of options
Study Unit 5 covers the maths and modelling of options in the four areas of: option payoff mathematics; option payoff maths in the context of hedging; option valuation modelling; and options arbitrage and the put-call parity relationship.
Study Unit 6 - Modelling the maths of portfolios and corporate finance
Study Unit 6 introduces the fundamental concepts of modelling the maths of portfolios and corporate finance in the three areas of: modelling portfolios - analysis of risk and return; modelling for corporate finance - corporate valuation and the impact of changing capital structure; and modelling the maths of Value at Risk.
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Who should take this qualification?
- Corporate treasurers with a requirement to manage financial risk, financial instruments and funds
- Finance professionals who wish to understand how financial instruments are evaluated
- Market practitioners within banks and financial institutions
- Investment bankers
- Consultants advising banks and corporates
- Anyone with responsibility for or an interest in financial risk management.
Course objectives
- Provide a thorough understanding of risk management techniques and how they can be applied to everyday scenarios and practical situations
- Equip you with the tools to calculate, analyse, understand and interpret financial risk from a mathematical viewpoint
- Enable the use of spreadsheet models to illustrate and explain financial relationships to non-specialist colleagues and clients
Learning outcomes
Following completion of the course you will be able to:
- Use spreadsheet models to illustrate and explain financial relationships to non-specialist colleagues and clients
- Validate, explain and apply the calculations used in identifying risk
- Understand the underlying modelling assumptions behind strategic decision making
- Examine and analyse interest rate sensitivity
- Explain how portfolios can be measured in terms of risk and the limitations of those measures
- Value options and other financial instruments
- Understand and apply Value at Risk.
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How will I study?
CertFMM is a distance learning programme combining self study with optional face-to-face tuition. The study materials are delivered online through the course website, supplemented with a range of online resources designed to support your learning. The online resources for this course include downloadable PDF versions of the course material, example Excel models, practical exercises, self tests and further reading materials. Each study group also has the support of a dedicated course tutor to answer questions, solve problems and offer advice through the online discussion forum. This enables regular interaction with both the course tutor and other students.
What’s included: Access to the e-learning website, study materials, online resources and discussion forum.
You will need: Access to a computer with an internet connection.
This is an ONLINE course therefore you will not receive a hard copy course manual. You can access the course materials as soon as the course website opens. This is usually approximately one week before the course starts.
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Is there any face-to-face teaching?
Whilst it is possible to fully complete the the course successfully using just the online learning programme, tuition and revision days are available for those wanting the option of face-to-face teaching. These are currently provided in the UK.
Tuition and revision
Tuition days and modelling workshop
The two day lecture-based tuition course is organised around three technical areas: money and capital market calculations, options and portfolio analysis. The two day modelling workshop provides a hands-on financial modelling experience using Excel. It takes the concepts learnt in the course and shows you how to apply them in a practical way. These courses are designed to complement each other. Whilst it is possible to take them separately we recommend both.
These courses are suitable for you if you want to supplement your online learning with classroom-based teaching.
Revision
The three day revision course covers exam preparation techniques, revision, tutor-structured solutions and exam question practice. The objective of the revision course is to revise material covered earlier, to enhance your confidence in attempting exam standard questions in the topics covered. Coverage is not comprehensive, but is designed to complement your final exam preparations and the previous tuition course and/or home study programme.
This course is suitable for you if you have already attended tuition and want some extra revision support. If you haven't attended tuition, to get the most out of this course you should have worked through all of the CertFMM study materials and be in the revision phase of your studies.
You can book onto the optional teaching courses when you enrol or up to 10 days before the start of the course.
Dates
Tuition and revision dates for October 2012 exam:
Tuition course (2-days)
July 9 – 10
Modelling workshop course (2-days)
Workshop package 1
July 23 – 24
Workshop package 1
July 25 – 26
Revision course (3-days)
August 20 – 22
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How will I be assessed?
Students are assessed by a three-hour written exam.
Pass mark and pass rates
The mark you need to achieve a pass is 50%.
Booking your exam venue
Students are automatically registered to sit the exam in London. If this is where you intend to sit your exam, no further communication with us is necessary.
We have exam venues in Edinburgh, Dublin, Hong Kong, Singapore, Qatar, Zambia, Dubai, and Johannesburg which you can book. These may be subject to change. You don’t need to book your exam venue when you enrol, we will write to you 10 weeks before the exam date asking you to select your venue.
If you cannot take your exam at one of the above venues and you live outside of the UK mainland, you can request to take your exam at a venue local to you. It is your responsibility to contact a suitable venue. The first point of contact is the British Council, although Universities and Colleges of Higher Education are also acceptable venues. Further details will be available to you when you enrol as a student.
There is no additional fee if you are sitting your exam in London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Johannesburg. For students sitting exams at any other venue, an administration fee will be payable directly to your chosen local exam venue.
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Student case studies
Nikki Gilbert, CertFMM, Principal Manager, Treasury Financial Control, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
In my role as Principal Manager at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, I focus on the accounting behind financial instruments. This requires a thorough understanding of various financial instruments and the drivers behind their value.
Understanding the changes in values ensures that I can make sense of the numbers, challenge unusual movements and ensure that we are correctly reporting accurate figures. Because of this, I wanted to take a qualification that would go beyond the surface definitions to provide me with a complete understanding of financial instruments. In particular I wanted to know how to communicate complex analytical findings to senior
management. The theory behind financial instruments is a very hard
topic to glean simply from ‘on-the-job’ training. To get ahead, I decided that I would need to combine my experiences with a formal qualification.
In terms of the course itself, I found the five month study programme well paced.
Furthermore, the tuition days provided an excellent opportunity to cement my knowledge of the course material. I found tutor explanations helped hugely as the course content was presented in an alternative format to that used in the study materials, thereby applying different learning methods to suit different styles. The short-form questions we worked through in both the tuition and revision days provided excellent preparation for the examination.
Since qualifying, I have experienced a significant improvement in my general understanding of financial instruments, the mathematics behind these instruments and the drivers of their valuations, which is highly applicable. The downstream benefits of this increased knowledge have been immense, in particular I feel there has been an improvement in my analytical and communication ability over the figures we report. Sitting the CertFMM has enabled me to do my job better, and more efficiently – making me an integral member of my team.
I would definitely recommend the course to anyone requiring an in depth knowledge
of financial instruments. The mathematics element worried me at first, but the course
is presented in a straight forward manner and the learning tools, including the tutorial and revision sessions, make the content clear and relevant.
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ACT faculty membership
Once you have completed CertFMM you are eligible to join the Risk Management Faculty, which will continue your involvement with the ACT once you have finished studying and support your continuous professional development.
Benefits include access to a wide range of resources including the knowledge centre with updated CertFMM course materials, best practice guidance and the latest technical content as well as The Treasurer magazine. Networking opportunities will also be available through the faculty member directory, discussion forum and ACT regional group events.
Use of the designatory letters, CertFMM is exclusive to RM faculty members.
Continuing your studies
As well as a standalone qualification, you may also count CertFMM as one of the seven papers that comprise the AMCT Diploma in Treasury: the ACT's core treasury qualification which leads to associate membership and use of the designatory letters AMCT.
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Frequently asked questions
These frequently asked question pages answer generic questions on our qualifications processes and rules which are applicable across the range of our products.
Alternatively you can go straight to your area of interest:
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