Alumni Career Paths

Banking

(includes central banks, commercial banks, and investment banks)

Class of 2011
	Sascha Bützer Trainee European Central Bank (Frankfurt)
"My tasks at ECB include the estimation of equilibrium exchange rates, contributions to the ECB’s annual “The international role of the euro” report and the implementation of a dynamic factor model to forecast economic developments in non-EU countries. In this regard, I have to give credit to the Barcelona GSE macroeconomics master for the excellent preparation to tackle the manifold research opportunities I am encountering at ECB. And to the Barcelona GSE’s reputation of equipping students with the necessary tools to do so which surely was an asset in getting here in the first place!" Eye on Alumni Feature
	Ramon de la Rosa Economist Bank of Mexico, Economic Research Division
"I started working at the Bank of Mexico in 2007 as an analyst. My main tasks were to generate statistical information and to support the preparation of institutional presentations. After graduating from Barcelona GSE in 2011, I returned to the Central Bank as an economist, and thanks to knowledge I acquired during the master, especially in macroeconomics and banking, my responsibilities have changed. Now, I carry out both applied research and economic analysis. In the area of economic research, I worked on the construction of a Financial Conditions Index for Mexico, and now I am working on a study to find out the relevance of the Banking transmission channel for the Mexican monetary policy. In the area of economic analysis, I am elaborating the weekly analysis of the Central Bank´s balance sheet public report, and I am conducting the analysis of monetary aggregates and financial indicators for the Monetary Policy Committee’s report."
	Ludmila Fadejeva Econometrician Bank of Latvia
"My main responsibilities are developing and use of research models in the analysis of different aspects of Latvian and European economies. Most recent research projects are development of medium size Bayesian VAR models for short-term forecasting, analysis of price setting behaviour in Latvia, and development and Bayesian estimation of Latvian DSGE model with housing sector and financial frictions. Current projects include analysis of labour market mobility in Latvia, and total factor productivity and output gap evaluation."
	Miroslav Josic Economist / Analyst Croatian National Bank (Zagreb)
"In my daily work at the Croatian National Bank, I am using skills from many of the Finance master courses. First of all, Econometrics and Statistics, which, although it was intensive on many occasions, now, I am so grateful for it, especially Time Series. Of course, endless hours working with STATA and Matlab make my day much easier now. Also, Empirical Finance as well as Macroeconomics in Banking (Topics in Finance) courses provided extremely valuable tools for doing research work. Overall, I think that rigorous work from all of the courses and the research mindset that the master is emphasizing, will prepare you for a first class employer in many important institutions, like central banks." Eye on Alumni feature
	Santiago Moldes Senior Corporate Auditor Merrill Lynch (Bank of America)
"During my master’s degree I gained the fundamental analytical tools to understand the complexity of the economic world which I am using today at my job. Moreover, it provided me the right understanding of how macroeconomic interactions can affect the developing countries' regulatory environment, and this helps me every day in my work when I am evaluating the company’s business risk within this changing environment." Eye on Alumni feature
	Tobias Neumann Analyst Prudential Policy Division Bank of England
"Material from the Financial Institutions Management course is what I probably use most as it provided me with a thorough understanding of how banks operate, which is obviously important for coming up with good regulation. In addition, I use what we learnt on empirical finance and risk management for my work on capital requirements. In fact, because the world in finance is so complex and interlinked, it’s difficult to come up with anything we covered in the Barcelona GSE Master in Finance that I’m not using or at least need to have an understanding of. And, since the work at the Bank is very thorough and requires a high level of technical proficiency, the demanding courses we took at the Barcelona GSE really paid off." Eye on Alumni feature
	Antoni Targa Trainee European Central Bank (Frankfurt)
"With changes in interest rates, international agreements with the Federal Reserve and other central banks, the turnover of Jean-Claude Trichet by Mario Draghi, the evolution of the debt crisis, all the hearsay regarding sustainability of the status quo and a context of increased social sensitivity to the relevance of macroeconomic policy—the last months have been particularly intense inside the ECB. I consider myself lucky to witness the current evolution of European fiscal and monetary policies, and I am grateful to the Barcelona GSE professors who helped me achieve this goal." Eye on Alumni Feature
	Hung Tran Kieu Head of Fixed Income Desk Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam
"The Macroeconomic Policy and Financial Markets master degree at Barcelona GSE has helped me much in my present profession as a rate trader for the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), one of the biggest commercial banks in Vietnam. My responsibilities include managing and restructuring bond portfolios to optimize profit and minimize risks. In order to do that, I need to have a deep assessment of macroeconomic indicators and know the financial market well. I am also involved in activities such as bond issuance, underwriting, and sales."
Class of 2010
	Arin Chirapaisarnkul Interest Rate Swap Trader HSBC (Bangkok, Thailand)

	Saffet Tinaztepe Analyst Citigroup New York, NY (United States)
"I have two primary responsibilities. First, I am a corporate banking analyst on a coverage team that is responsible for banking technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) clients with whom Citigroup has had a historically stressed relationship. My second responsibility is to calculate our expected return on loan deals that are proposed by other TMT corporate and investment bankers." Eye on Alumni Feature
Class of 2009
	Giovanni Gili Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy Department Intern Banca d'Italia
"I am assigned to the Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy Department and I am currently working on a project about the housing market. The goal is to build some “affordability indexes” that enable to measure the burden for a median (average) household to buy a house in Italy."
	Natasa Jemec Analyst, Analysis and Research Department Bank of Slovenia
Two recent research projects: Estimating output gap for Slovenia using production function approach and Analysis of inflation perceptions. Writing articles for publications Economic Indicators of International Economy (GDP, inflation, interest rates figures...), Monthly Bulletins and Price Stability Reports. Covering fields of International Economy (GDP, inflation, interest rates figures...), Competitiveness of Slovenian economy (describing the movement of real and nominal effective exchange rate) and Real sector (description of development of GDP components).
	James Marrone '09 (Economics) Research Assistant Federal Reserve Board of Governors Washington, DC (United States)
"My job consists of academic research, policy memos for the Federal Reserve governors, and peer review of other economists' work for conferences or journals. Most of my research revolves around finance and credit risk. Right now I have projects regarding the variance risk premium, granularity of loan portfolios and contagion in financial markets." Eye on Alumni Feature