Indian Bankers Receive Crucial Edge With Groundbreaking ‘Wall Street’ Training - August 2007

Indian bankers will soon receive a critical advantage over other emerging financial centres with the first ever financial training courses offered in the country tailored from programmes developed on Wall Street and in London.

It’s not just call centres and technical support being outsourced anymore. US, UK and European banks are having critical analytic work performed in India, and the home-grown Indian banking sector is also taking off.

This is fuelling competition for qualified employees. As a result, Wall Street-style financial training is migrating to India as well, led by financial training specialist AMT.

Adkins Matchett & Toy (AMT), the world’s leading financial training company, has taken the significant step of having recently opened an office in Mumbai and has just delivered the first ever training investment programme for bankers in the growing Indian market.

The move follows the decision by AMT to work with the expanding banking sector in India and especially those areas supporting teams in the London & New York markets. In the fullness of time, world class financial training is likely to prove advantageous to the Indian banking sector in its competition with other markets in the region.

The first tranche of courses, which began in mid-June, are aimed at entry-level banking analysts, equipping them with the knowledge to ‘hit their desk running’ with financial analysis and valuation skills.

The courses have been adapted from those used to train bankers in London and New York and were compiled by Alastair Matchett, widely regarded as one of the world’s pre-eminent financial trainers and author of AMT's ‘Introduction to Accounting for Finance’ - commonly known as Wall Street’s popular ‘green book’ for new analysts.

Mr Matchett, CEO of AMT, said the decision to offer courses in India was a natural decision based on the competitive market in India and its growing influence.

He added: “We are responding to the needs of our clients, global investment banks whose operations in India have blossomed in recent years. We are also finding strong interest from the local Indian banks, which serve the booming markets in India and the entire region.”

Ed Ascoli, one of the trainers who conducted the first training course in Mumbai, said he believed the participants had performed well and would ultimately gain an advantage over other analysts, both in India and other markets in the region.

He said: “The first ever training programme, begun two weeks ago, proved a great success and the analysts performed to a very high standard. “

“The interesting and thoughtful questions posed by the participants demonstrated they were thinking about the complex concepts being taught.”

“As such, these participants will have gained very strong valuation, desk-ready, investment banking skills during this course. There is no question they are sufficiently equipped to a level of competency to match analysts in other, significant markets.”

“I believe the quality and overall standard of the analysts, coupled with the high-level training they have received – and will continue to receive – can only help them further develop the Indian market and strengthen its position in the region.”

The Indian courses are part of AMT’s new Certified Investment Banking Analyst Programme, a three-year continuing development program for investment bankers. Sponsoring financial Institutions send analysts to AMT’s Wall Street-style training, both to upgrade their skills and to improve employee retention. AMT’s programme is a cost-effective approach for smaller institutions to access the same financial training available in New York and London.

Highly practical, the certificate programme focuses not just on financial skills but also technical know-how - Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe (PDF) - and writing skills. Throughout the programme, participants will analyse a variety of sectors using companies reporting under US GAAP and IFRS.

The length of the actual programmes in each year will vary, with Level 1 being the longest.

For further information or an interview with Alastair Matchett, please contact Ludo Morison

T: 01295 817 417
E: ludo.morison@matchettgroup.com