Positioning of the education

The UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance is a leading player and is at the forefront of professional development for and with key officers from the financial sector and with eminent individuals in academia. The UvA Academy has a leading role in shaping ideas and developing vision. It offers postgraduate-level programmes and continuing professional education courses within the UvA and the NIBE-SVV. Among the various programmes offered by the UvA, those of the Academy for Banking and Insurance figure prominently. 

Through its Executive Programmes, the UvA supplies business professionals in the insurance, accountancy, actuarial and auditing fields. The UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance then trains the best business professionals, accountants, actuaries, auditors, lawyers, economists and other participants with the appropriate academic level of working and thinking to be key officers who possess continually current, in-depth, relevant and applicable knowledge, insight and skills. These individuals are then employed by a bank, insurer or other financial institution.

The UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance is able to offer these programmes thanks to its unique branch-specific expertise. This is the result of the combined knowledge of NIBE-SVV and the Advisory Council on Financial Law and Management Issues in the Financial Sector, which was founded by NIBE-SVV and the Financial Services Chair Foundation. This broad-based, independent advisory council provides recommendations on the curriculum of the programmes and the research questions addressed. All programmes offered by the UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance not only have a postgraduate character but are also embedded in the professional practice of the specific sector. This makes the programmes highly relevant to the sector concerned.

Examples

A Registered Accountant completed the post-Master's programme in Accountancy at the UvA four years ago. Today, he holds a key position at a bank and is eager to expand and deepen his skills by means of a condensed programme from the UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance. This can be achieved by completing the ‘Financial services policy of the European Union and European Commission’ programme. This programme is taught by Dr Michel Heijdra (Assistant Professor at the UvA and deputy director of financial markets at the Dutch Ministry of Finance).

A product manager employed by an insurance company successfully completed the UvA Master's in Insurance Science three years ago. She wishes to attend continuing professional education in order to stay up-to-date and refresh her knowledge, which is why she turns to the courses offered by the UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance. First, she registers for the course in ‘Rules of advertising for marketers, product developers and communications advisers’. The lecturers for this programme are Dr Rob Schotsman (Professor of Financial Law at the UvA) and Ms Maud du Marchie Sarvaas (company lawyer at de Volksbank).

An actuary has been listed with the AAG register since he successfully completed the Amsterdam Executive Programme Actuarial Science (AEMAS). He wants to familiarise himself with the field of financial law and how financial regulatory law impacts his own work, which is why he registers for the ‘Essentials of the Dutch Financial Supervision Act (Wft)’ training programme from the UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance. He is additionally attending a number of other specialisation modules from the UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance:

• Investment policy of insurers, taught by Mr Pieter Bouwknegt AAG (assistant professor at the UvA and actuary with NN) and Prof. Michel Vellekoop (Professor of Financial Economics at the UvA); and
• Solvency II: current events and initial evaluations, taught by Prof. Roger Laeven (UvA Professor of Risk & Insurance).

A lawyer with vast knowledge and experience in financial law completed the Amsterdam MBA three years ago and is also head of Legal Affairs at a bank. She is therefore attending the continuing professional education course in Financial Law at the UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance.

The UvA Academy is currently pursuing certification from the NBA, NOvA and AAG so that it may award official continuing professional education (PE) points for the courses intended specifically for accountants, lawyers and actuaries.

Profiling of the applied research

The UvA has several substantively related research institutes, including:

• Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics (ACLE)
• Center for Financial Law (CFR)
• Amsterdam Centre for Insurance Studies (ACIS)
• Amsterdam Center for Corporate Finance (ACIS)

The core concern of the ACLE, CFR, ACIS and ACCF is research. The UvA Academy for Banking and Insurance, on the other hand, distinguishes itself from these institutions by being in essence an educational institution. That does not preclude the fact that research will also be conducted by PhD candidates working in specific disciplines within the UvA Academy. These research projects will focus primarily on themes relevant to the target group.