Leading UK bank selects SA student for risk project

A leading UK bank has employed a top South African Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI) student to work as an intern in a team of highly skilled financial engineers on major risk projects. This work can be used as part of his Masters degree in financial risk management.

Corn'e Strydom (23) is studying at the Centre for BMI, North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus). He was top of his class for the risk project completed at the beginning of the year.

Having completed the initial semester, he will complete his degree with an internship at Lloyds TSB in Brighton, and academic supervision will be via video conferencing between Brighton and Potchefstroom.

Strydom, from Gauteng, jetted off to London in August, leaving the borders of SA for the first time.

"This is a great experience, and completely different from what I had imagined," says Strydom. "Working for a company abroad is very exciting and I am being exposed to many new things. I am currently part of a credit risk team, and this exposure has enabled me to link my theoretical knowledge to practical aspects. The work is challenging and I am learning a lot."

"The Centre for BMI trains highly skilled risk analysts - a profession in huge demand with the current global focus on risk management," says Murray de Villiers, Manager: Alliances of SAS Institute. Leaders in business intelligence, SAS Institute launched the SAS RiskLab in 2000 within the Centre for BMI.

Established in 1997 (as a joint initiative between Absa and the university), the Centre for BMI is a centre of excellence in financial risk/reward management and analysis. Its mission is to train students for professional careers in the area, and conduct research that would benefit the financial services industry and, in particular, the banking industry.

Strydom's skills in SAS's analytic products, including SAS Risk Dimensions, ensured his selection to complete his studies outside SA, a first for the institution.

"SAS skills make our students more marketable, because banks throughout the world use SAS business intelligence software," says Riaan de Jongh, director of the Centre for BMI.

"The placement of Strydom in England is significant. It shows that our training programme is of an international standard and that we train students who are in demand globally. Our emphasis on practical training and specifically in sophisticated SAS technology made his placement possible."

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De Jongh adds that the centre manages to place all its masters students in industry for their second semester, and for the past two years, all students have been employed upon completion of their degrees.

The centre has 27 students in the Masters degree programme this year.

"I was very excited about the opportunity to go abroad to complete the practical part of my degree," says Strydom. "I believe that the experience I acquire will open many doors for me.

"SAS is an amazing analytical tool, which opens a whole new world of possibilities, not only to the financial world," he says.

Strydom's placement at Lloyds TSB was initiated, arranged and facilitated by Quantforce, a UK-based company specialising in contracting highly skilled quantitative risk analysts in Europe.

"QuantForce is confident that this is a growing market, and is in the process of sourcing candidates for placement of five to ten additional interns at UK banks before January 2005," says Wim Hugo, business manager at QuantForce.

"We think that South African risk analysts are generally well educated, and their basic grounding in industry-leading software, such as SAS products, assists with their placement.

"The interns gain a wonderful opportunity to build experience and improve their employment prospects worldwide," he says.