Course: Back Office & Finance

Objectives

Entrima offers online education. Our elearning offering covers various educational programmes, each being split into multiple building blocks. The educational programme “Back Office” (basic level) is offered in a range of modules. Each module represents a relevant subject and/or theme.

Course Contents

Processing – Adminstrative processes

• Explaining the back office tasks & responsibilities
• About invoicing & payments; accounts payable & receivable
• Concerning nomination, allocation & reconciliation

Straight through processing

• The deal life cycle; from deal capture & confirmation to delivery, incl. clearing, margining & collateralisation and settlement

End-of-day processes

• About daily (or periodic) reporting; End-of-day/month/year
• Covering position reports, P/L statements & performance mngt.

Margining

• About initial margin, variation margin & maintenance margin
• Concerning correlation, haircut & cross-margin
• Covering discounts or reduction on deposits

Netting

• Covering the concept of netting
• About bilateral & multilateral netting
• Incl. netting by novation, plus close-out and settlement netting
• Concerning master agreements & counterparty credit risk

Settlement

• Concerning daily settlement & final settlement regarding futures
• About settlement procedures; settlement date or period
• Including settlement of commodity options
• About cash settlement

Exam & Certification

Objectives

In this programme focus is on the book structure. The way accounts are set up is thoroughly covered. Students are learned what interaction takes place between the sales department and the trading entity. Therefore internal transfers are set out. This automatically implies that internal transfer price mechanisms are also covered, as much as the factors that set internal transfer prices. Internal transfer prices consist of various premiums and those are thoroughly taken into account.

Course Contents

Accounting – Mark-to-Market valuation

• About valuation of trading positions & fair value
• Concerning IFRS, IAS and hedge accounting

Accounting – Book structure

• About accounts/books; at division, department & personal level
• Concerning lock-in models, for the hedging of physical assets

Accounting – Internal transfers & transactions

• About deals between the business units ‘sales’ & ‘trade’
• Covering transactions between ‘trade’ & ‘treasury department’
• Re transfers between ‘generation’/’asset management’ & ‘trade’

Accounting – Internal transfer pricing (Back Office)

• About liquidity premium & validity premium
• Concerning risk premium & profile premium
• Covering performance management & P/L responsibility

Structuring

Concerning the impossibility to match a hedge with an exposure

• About summer and winter contracts
• Covering the hedge of a profiles with base & peak load contracts

Upstream, midstream & downstream

• About sub-accounts within the trading business unit
• Explaining what relates to upstream, midstream & downstream
• Covering exploration & production, storage, transport and marketing & consumption

Exam & Certification

Objectives

In this programme focus is on pricing & reporting. The fundamental elements of pricing & valuation are covered. Mark-to-market valuation and its features are explained.

Students learn what indices are and how these are applied. In the programme it is also covered how indices can be constructed. The role of price reporting agencies is explained, and the role of exchanges discussed, since these organisations also publish indices.

Reporting is another very important topic in this programme. Students also become familiar with the variety and types of reports that are produced and the way these can be set up.

Course Contents

Data & news providers

• About price information & news and well-known providers
• Including Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, Montel & others

Price reporting agencies

• About accepted benchmarks
• Covering Platts, ICIS, Argus Media & others
• Concerning IOSCO principles, ethical codes & policies

Indices – Price indexation

• About index calculation & publication
• Concerning the characteristics of an index

Index – Application of indices

• About what indices are used for
• Covering what an index may indicate

Commodity indices

• Concerning well-known commodity indices
• About S&P GSCI, TR/Jefferies CRB and Rogers Commodity index

Reporting – Internal (financial reporting)

Reporting – External (regulatory reporting)

• Concerning the consequences of EMIR & REMIT
• Covering ICT solutions
• Transaction reporting & reporting of fundamental data

Exam & Certification

Objectives

In the fourth level of the “Back Office & Finance” programme focus is on financial surveillance & anti-money laundering. It provides students insight in the incidents and behavior behind the recent legislative and supervisory developments. Financial surveillance is still an emerging area of expertise, evolving from detection to more predictive monitoring. Due to recent development in the financial industry the practice is broadening its scope from compliance (p.e. anti-terrorist financing) through governance (insider behavior, governance codes) to risk monitoring (M-to-M valuation, margining, behavior profiling).

Course Contents

Financial crime

• Covering the fundamentals of financial crime, including global impact and including various types of financial crime

Market abuse

• Regarding insider trading & market manipulation
• Concerning front running and other illegal activities

Fraud by external parties

• About identity theft & overtaking identifying information
• Concerning manipulation of existing identity

Fraud by employees

• Concerning various types of fraud by management or staff
• About theft of checks & removing money from back account
• Covering indicators to trace fraud; profiling

Tax fraud

• About tax fraud
• Concerning the VAT carousel, or missing trader fraud
• Including an example from the carbon markets

Money laundering

• About money launderers, their aim & their activities
• Covering placement, layering & integration
• Including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

Financial crime regulation

• About regulatory packages relating to financial crime
• Including anti-corruption & anti-terrorism financing regulation
• Concerning compliance & low regulatory enforcement areas

Crime management

• About crime surveillance
• Concerning prevention
• Including ICT solutions; technologies & systems

Exam & Certification