How Does Corporate Finance Differ From Investment Banking

Corporate Finance and Investment Banking, both form very essential divisions of any firm, dealing in the field of Finance. According to Investopedia, the most basic difference between these two is, that Corporate Finance deals with the management of a company’s finances, whereas Investment Banking deals with the financial growth of the company. Regardless of their differences, it has been seen that these two fields make for great, promising careers for finance aspirants. A professional working in either of these fields, has to deal with similar kind of challenges and prospects. Corporate Finance, is like a blanket term, used to refer to all things finance, including every vertical that deals with financial activities. In a very broad sense, Investment Banking can also be called a type of corporate finance, which makes their differentiation slightly difficult. While corporate finance can be used more like a general term, Investment Banking is a more of a niche concept.

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The field of corporate finance, is concerned with all the day-to-day financial activities of a firm. The main objectives herein are, to take decisions regarding investments, raising capital, maximizing the value of the company, distributing the resources throughout, issuing of securities, analyzing and identifying areas, where it would be necessary to raise capital. Investment Banking, by and large deals with the process of making a firm grow. This is done mainly through, the process of mergers and acquisitions, issuing of securities and various other functions, through which the capital can be raised. Investment Bankers are the professionals, who carry out these activities for a firm and are hired for their specialized knowledge and approach. Investment Bankers are known for their abilities to steer a company out of financial turmoil on to calm waters, this why in spite of being a sub-field, Investment Banking is still considered to be a separate field.

The education requirement for Corporate Finance is a background in either economics, business, or any other finance related field. A degree in accounting makes for a lot in this field due to the nature of the job. As this field covers a lot of job profiles, the skills required here are, good analytical abilities, thorough knowledge about corporate theory, financial analysis, strong communications skills and familiarity with other related concepts of finance. Investment Banking requires a more specific set of skills, but a base in finance, investments and other areas is expected. A lot of Investment Bankers complete their MBA degrees and a few other certification courses, which gives them expert knowledge about the field of Investments. Lately a lot of companies have begun looking for candidates with exceptional resumes, which is the reason for the increasing number of people doing certification courses.

There are eminent institutes like, Imarticus Learning, which offer certification programs specializing in both of these field. Their courses are available both in the classroom as well as online format and can be done by professionals who already have a job. While both of these fields are equally challenging and rewarding, Investment Banking has become a front-runner choice for a career in finance; while on the other hand, Corporate Finance offers a variety in terms of career roles. Differences apart, both the fields have great perks and opportunities to offer.

Tips for Cracking The CFA Level 1 Examination

The Chartered Financial Analyst exam is considered to be one of the toughest exams of the Finance world. This exam is conducted by the CFA Institute of America annually and is divided into 3 levels. After clearing all the three levels, a candidate is conferred with the prestigious designation of CFA. This designation not only reflects the expertise but also integrity and intellect of an individual. Once a professional successfully clears all the three levels, they become a member of the charter and are able to avail various benefits, most importantly great career growth. 

As this designation offers many perks including eliminating the need for further qualifying exams, it is also set to be very difficult to crack. Divided into three levels, the first level of this examination gets divided into two sublevels and is conducted twice a year. The eligibility criterion for this exam is that one needs to have around 3-4 years of professional experience with a finance firm. This is one of the reasons why candidates start preparing for the exam as soon as they receive placements. Apart from being extremely difficult to crack, this exam is also said to have very low passing rates; this generally leads to a lot of stress amongst candidates. 

Here are a few tips to crack the CFA level 1 exam with ease

• Ensure that you have all the study material that you would need: books as well as videos. 
• It is always considered to have around 300 hours to study before the exams; one can still crack it in 200 or less hours if they study methodically. Always ensure there is enough time on your side before you begin. 
• Make a detailed scheduled of all the subjects, time to study each subject, hard and easy concepts and then make sure that you stick to it. 
• While it is very important for you to study the rudimentary way (notebook and pen), it is also important to study using various other techniques. One can make use of audio-visuals, mnemonics, anagrams and many others ways to study. 
• As the time to study is lot longer, there are very high chances of one being demotivated or lose interest altogether. Hence it is important to be consistent, be perseverant and not lose focus throughout the months before the exam. 
• While it is important to not be flaky when it comes to studying, it is also important to not over stress oneself by studying continuously.
• There are a lot of institutes that offer short term courses for training candidates to crack the CFA exams. It is always a good choice to opt for course, if one isn’t sure of studying on their own. 
• Mock tests form a very important part of studying for the CFA exam, practice as many sums on the calculator you would use on the exam day. Keep reviewing the study material and don’t study new concepts in the last week towards the exam.
• Go and take a look at the exam centre, be relaxed and keep your mind calm in the last few days. 

Lastly, it is important to get as much rest as possible before the paper; one must be very comfortable about spending the long hours writing the examination. If all the things are done right, there is nothing that can stop you from cracking the exam. To know more about CFA exam visit our website

Reasons Why You Should Go for Finance Courses

                            

Finance courses are the study of how monetary assets are managed, traded and invested.  From the historic perspective, the study of finance seems to be one of the most archaic. The reason for this is that firstly, finance is everything related to money and the second being, since the dawn of civilization and the advent of money; there have existed monetary transactions. Finance thus is a very fruitful career with great benefits and rewards. As this field has such importance in worldly affairs, it is also one of the sought after fields with students, taking up various finance and investment banking courses. Here’s a list of 5 reasons why one should invest in a Financial Course.

The World is All about Finance

Take a person, who earns a certain amount of salary every month. Then, this person goes onto divide his salary for various things like household essentials, school fees, utility bills, loans and then at the end he tries to save some money, for the future or invest it somewhere. Now replace this person with a company and think about all the financial activities it goes through, from capital management to loans, debtor management, and equities and so on, are the things that the company needs to consider. Thus we can infer that at every level, the knowledge of managing finances comes to the fore.

World has Started Taking Notice

As the importance of this field increases, so does the number of aspirants. Lately, there has been a hike in the number of people opting for courses in finance. At the same time, there has also been an increase in the number of institutes providing for courses in finance. There are institutes that have started offering for short term and long term courses, in classroom as well as online format, in finance which are all certification programs.

Real Life Concepts

  Financial concepts like “price” and “value”, have real life usage and are not always confined to the hardcore financial sphere. There have been so many eminent personalities, who have drawn references from the two concepts and drawn parallels with their own works. Those two terms become very philosophically inclined as well, when we talk about the spiritual value and the price paid for certain things, thus in a way their concepts don’t become too dry to grasp. Thus other concepts like overvalue, undervalue also have their come into purview in terms of life.  

Finance is a Very Interesting Field

Money will always remain in fashion so, as long as money is on people’s minds, finance will be a prominent career too. Apart from being an indispensible part of the business world, finance in itself is a concoction of many intriguing theories, which when applied can lead to great results. One can either choose to be an investment banker and go on to achieve new heights, or choose to research all the possibilities and try to find newer concepts and theories.

 Great opportunities

This field offers many lucrative opportunities and the chance to get to one’s dream job possible. There are a number of courses, both short term and long term; offered by many institutes in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi and other cities in India. A career in this field offers one with the opportunity to land their dream job, become an investor, start their own business and so on, thus making finance a very beneficial field laden with great many benefits.

While investing in finance courses, the important thing is your interest and will to learn. If one is determined then, there are a lot of avenues as well as many courses offered for the same. There are a number of institutes which offer courses in finance for those aspiring for a career herein.

Imarticus Learning is one such institute, offering a host of certification courses in corporate finance as well as financial modeling, retail banking, wealth management and others. 

Source: http://imarticuslearningeducationinstitute.weebly.com/home/5-reasons-why-you-should-invest-in-finance-courses

Disruptive Innovations in Financial Services

Disruptive innovation in Financial Services is having the greatest impact where the delivery is happening through business models which are platform based, light on capital & data & analytics intensive .This is making the industry very innovation focused and competitive as it gears up to provide its customers with upgraded, digitally intensive solutions across business lines such as banking, payments, cards, investment management and many more.

A few central themes emerge in this area and are summarized as follows:

Infrastructural Streamlining

Advanced emerging platforms and decentralized technologies have changed the way information is aggregated & analyzed, improving connectivity and accessibility while reducing the cost & time for accessing information and providing financial solutions across geographies.

Automation

Firms are increasingly relying on and leveraging advanced algorithms and computing power to automate manual activities ,allowing them to offer cheaper, swifter & scalable products and services to clients.

Role of Intermediaries

Latest innovations are changing or eliminating the role of traditional institutions as intermediaries, and offering lower prices and / or higher returns to customers

The Strategic Role of Data

Financial institutions are accessing new data sets like social data, customer online behavior & likes , which is redefining ways in which they are  understanding customers and markets. It helps them to customize and offer bespoke offerings as per client requirement versus generic cookie cutter solutions.

Niche, Customized Products

With extensive availability of customer related data a lot of the financial institutions ,especially the new entrants are creating highly targeted products and services with deep & complex specializations, hence increasing competition and creating pressure for the traditional end-to-end financial services model to unbundle

Customer Empowerment

In this flat world with high end technology & emerging innovations, customers now have access to previously restricted assets and services, more visibility into products and their features and benefits and hence a heightened ability to make intelligent,need based choices making them “prosumers”