M2 Finance | Financial Modeling course

The course provides a comprehensive approach to financial and insurance markets. It provides both empirical and theoretical skills, enabling students to model and understand market mechanisms in detail. The main objective is to provide students with a number of theoretical and empirical tools enabling them to evolve in most professions in the finance and actuarial sector, and to grasp the challenges of the future. This program is co-organized with Centrale Marseille, and most of the courses specific to this program are shared.

Main professional skills targeted at the end of M2 :

• Understand the workings of financial and insurance markets
• Understand and model situations in order to develop relevant strategies in the fields of finance and insurance
• Add value to a company or a project with a view to a transaction or financing
• Value a financial security with a view to taking a position (buy/sell)
• Compare different investment strategies
• Measure the performance of financial assets
• Model risk behavior
• solve complex financial problems

This course has been awarded the "Diplôme en Partenariat International (DPI)" label (link to scheme: https://www.univ-amu.fr/fr/public/les-diplomes-en-partenariat-internati… ). This label covers different types of collaboration between AMU and one or more foreign establishments, with a view to awarding a double or multiple diploma(s), a joint diploma, or the relocation of an AMU course within a partner establishment.

Career opportunities

ROME codes :

• C1105 : Actuarial studies in insurance
• C1202 : Credit and banking risk analysis
• C1303 : Portfolio management in financial markets
• M1401 : Survey management
• M1404: Survey management and administration

Training specialties (NSF code) :

• 122b: Econometric models; Methods of economic analysis
• 313m: Finance, banking, insurance (not indicated or other)
• 313n: Economic and financial studies

The courses are divided into two programs: classical training and the Magistère option.

Master 2 Economics Quantitative Finance and Insurance (FQA) - Standard course (60 credits)

• Semester 3 M2 Economics Quantitative Finance and Insurance Course (FQA) - Standard course (30 credits)
• Theory of financial markets (6 credits)
  • Finance models
  • Portfolio management
• Economic and financial analysis (6 credits)
  • Corporate Finance I
  • Risk and insurance economics
• Mathematics and statistics for finance (6 credits)
  • Stochastic finance
  • Econometrics of banking and finance
• Quantitative techniques in finance and insurance (6 credits)
  • Big data and finance
  • Actuarial science I
• Economics of finance (6 credits)
  • Economics, finance and crises
  • Innovation and finance

• Semester 4 Economics Quantitative Finance and Insurance Course (FQA) - Traditional training (30 credits)
• End-of-study internship or work-study assignment with report and presentation (24 credits)
• Optional teaching units (2 units to be chosen from 4) (6 credits)
• Numerical methods for finance (project) (3 credits)
  • Numerical methods for finance (project)
• Actuarial Science II (3 credits)
  • Actuarial science II
• Corporate Finance II (3 credits)
  • Corporate Finance II
• Credit Risk (3 credits)
  • Credit risk

Master 2 Economics Quantitative Finance and Insurance (FQA) - Magister Option (72 credits)

• Semester 3 M2 Economics Quantitative Finance and Insurance Course (FQA) - Magister Option (36 credits)
• Theory of financial markets (6 credits)
  • Financial models
  • Portfolio management
• Economic and financial analysis (6 credits)
  • Corporate Finance I
  • Risk and insurance economics
• Mathematics and statistics for finance (6 credits)
  • Stochastic finance
  • Econometrics of banking and finance
• Quantitative techniques in finance and insurance (6 credits)
  • Big data and finance
  • Actuarial science I
• Final project (6 credits)
• Big data III (6 credits)
  • Big data tools (Hadoop, Hive, Spark)
  • Advanced machine learning

• Semester 4 M2 Economics Quantitative Finance and Insurance (FQA) - Magister Option (36 credits)
• End-of-study internship or work-study assignment with report and presentation (24 credits)
• Big data IV (6 credits)
  • Big data management with SAS
  • Project
• Optional teaching units (2 units to be chosen from 4) (6 credits)
• Numerical methods for finance (project) (3 credits)
  • Numerical methods for finance (project)
• Actuarial Science II (3 credits)
  • Actuarial science II
• Corporate Finance II (3 credits)
  • Corporate Finance II
• Credit Risk (3 credits)
  • Credit risk

- Access course syllabi for M2 FQA - conventional training

- View course syllabi for M2 FQA - Magistère option in economic engineering

Who can apply?

A good grounding in microeconomics (especially contract theory), probability (including conditional probability) and statistics (estimation, testing) is required.

Some knowledge of the economics of uncertainty is recommended.

M1 in the Economics master's program of the AMSE department of Aix-Marseille University's Faculty of Economics and Management, or the second year of the engineering program at Ecole Centrale de Marseille, offer privileged access to this course. However, parallel entry into M2 may be possible for students who have completed 60 M1 Economics credits in a course with a strong quantitative emphasis.

How to apply?

Apply at the time of admissions on the dedicated platform.

At the end of the year, students carry out an internship and write a Master's internship report. The aim of the report is to demonstrate the student's ability to mobilize the conceptual tools he or she has acquired to address issues arising in the professional world. The student must therefore identify the question, apply the tools, and know how to communicate the results to both a professional and academic audience. Supervision is provided by an academic and an internship supervisor (a member of the company). The report is defended before a jury comprising the academic supervisor, the internship supervisor and two other persons recognized for their competence (including at least one academic).

Each course is assessed by means of a written exam and/or the production of a portfolio, which may be presented at an oral presentation. To limit the number of personal projects to be carried out by students, teachers propose cross-disciplinary projects whenever possible.

This Master's program is part of the AMSE Ecole Universitaire de Recherche (EUR), which brings together nearly one hundred researchers from AMU, CNRS, EHESS, IRD and ECM. Teachers are selected on the basis of their expertise within these entities. The teaching team is complemented by industry professionals.

This course is available in :

• Initial training
• Continuing education
• Work-linked training
• Professionalization contract