ICMA Centre

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ICMA Centre


Established:	1991
Type:	Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Executive Education, Research
Dean:	Prof.John Board
Staff:	ca.59
Students:	ca.250
Undergraduates:	ca.50
Postgraduates:	ca.200
Doctoral students:	ca.18
Location:	Reading, United Kingdom
Campus:	Whiteknights Campus
Affiliations:	REUTERS, CFA INSTITUTE, FINRA, PRMIA, EURO MTS, The ICMA Centre is supported by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), Zurich.
Website:	www.icmacentre.ac.uk/

The ICMA Centre is unique in Europe and has an international reputation for providing quality undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education tailored to the capital markets industry. The ICMA Centre’s success is based not only on the integration of applied finance theory and industry specific training but also its considerable professional and academic expertise, and strong links with companies and trade associations in the global finance industry .

Established in 1991 with funding provided by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) in Zurich, the Centre is housed in a striking purpose-built modernist building, and was formally opened in March 1998 by Sir Brian Unwin, then President of the European Central Bank.

The state-of-the-art facilities include two dealing rooms where students learn how markets really function and apply theory through simulations. As well as the two dealing rooms, the Centre also boasts a 120-seat lecture theatre, several seminar rooms, information seating area, café bar, Bloomberg TV and wireless broadband is available throughout the Centre. The upper floor of the Centre houses the administrative and academic staff and doctoral researchers.

Due to the great success of the Centre and growth in demand for our programmes from a worldwide audience, ICMA are investing a further £5 million, which will fund the expansion to the building. The extension will include an additional 50 seat dealing room - the largest in Europe – which is sponsored in part by Reuters. There will also be a 170 seat lecture theatre as well as new seminar rooms and a dedicated research area. The building will be fitted with state-of-the-art audio and visual technology allowing us to podcast and webstream our lecture content. The new building is expected to be open for students at the start of their 2008 academic session.

"The ICMA Centre, formerly known as the ISMA Centre, was formed in 1991 through a unique relationship between the International Securities Market Association (ISMA) and the University of Reading. Following a merger between ISMA and IPMA in July 2005, the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) was formed, and the ISMA Centre was re-named. ICMA’s investment in the Centre now totals over £10 million, making it the largest single corporate investment in any European business school."^[1]

[edit] Dealing Rooms

At the ICMA Centre, the dealing rooms complement the theoretical learning in a way which is not possible at other institutions. The ICMA Centre was the first business school in Europe to have a dealing room facility of this kind and is still the only university with a facility on such a scale.^[2] In 1994 a 20 terminal dealing room was opened and then on completion of the new building in 1998 a further two dealing rooms (Reuters I and II) opened with 62 workstations running the latest Reuters products – 3000 Xtra and the new Reuters Traders product. These are complemented by a Bloomberg terminal, which provides an ideal tool for fixed income research. Research and project work are further supported by economic and financial data from Datastream, ICMA and other sources and a host of analytical, mathematical and statistical software. Reuters I also features a 50’’ plasma screen displaying live market prices and news.

The ICMA Centre will soon be the largest non-investment bank Reuters populated facility in the world when a further 50 station workstation flagship dealing room (sponsored in part by Reuters) opens in October 2008. The Centre will have a total of 112 workstations, which is the size of a medium sized investment bank’s dealing floor.^[3]

These rooms are not merely training centres for traders of the future; they enable staff to combine theory and practice across a whole range of activities, whether in derivatives trading, portfolio management, risk management, financial engineering or corporate finance.

The dealing rooms are also used for a wide range of computing work throughout the programmes, including Excel spreadsheet modelling, Monte Carlo simulation, financial econometrics and sessions on market microstructure. Many dealing room sessions are conducted by former market practitioners with academic credentials who are able to draw on personal experience in the capital markets for their teaching.