Testimonials 

Alex Matarucco: Sr ALM Trader | Treasury, Banco Bradesco 

"In a relatively short time, the BTRM gave me the chance to learn about various areas of ALM. My knowledge of Balance Sheet Management increased dramatically, consolidating concepts and good practices. The BTRM Course was an invaluable experience and I consider it to be the highly recommended for ALM related workers."

Dr. Periklis Thivaios: Partner, True North Partners LLP

Professor Moorad Choudhry virtually sits down with Dr. Periklis Thivaios to discuss his experience taking the BTRM course and why he would recommend it to practitioners new and old alike.

Transcript: Professor Moorad Choudhry - Dr. Periklis Thivaios 

MC: Hello everybody and welcome. It's my great pleasure to have in conversation with us today Mr. Periklis Thivaios. He is an alumnus of cohort 11 of the BTRM. Periklis, thank you very much for your time today and thank you for joining us in conversation. 

PT: Thanks for inviting me, Moorad.

MC: I really wanted to ask, I note that you have previous professional qualifications: you are a CFA as well as FRM holder. The first thing i wanted to ask was, what are your thoughts on the BTRM? How would you describe the BTRM experience?

PT: To be honest with you, after I finished the CFA in the financial risk management qualification I promised myself I'll never do it again. So already, being convinced to start with the BTRM, clearly there was something that I felt that attracted me about the structure of the course and the curriculum. The truth is that what I really enjoyed about BTRM is the focus that it has on risk management for the financial services industry which is exactly what I'm working on so it was a course that was tailored to what people who work in financial risk management, within the banking sector, within the treasury department need to know. Tailored to their needs and taught by experienced industry professionals, not just tutors, which I think is something quite important. 

MC: Okay, thank you. So it's, in your view, by practitioners for practitioners and that was the value you got out of it, yes? 

PT: I would have to say that that probably made the biggest difference. I mean the curriculum was very carefully curated, I really enjoyed the topics. They started a little bit introductory and building up a lot more but the fact that the teachers were actual practitioners who knew how to respond to questions from the students based on actual experience and rather than, you know, theoretical concepts is what really stood out for me in this course. 

MC: Excellent, thank you. Well, that's really good to know, that's great feedback for us and would you say that, having taken the course and the qualification and now entitled to the letters BTRM to add to the existing letters after your name, would you say that that's something you can now add to your day job? It's something you would take away the experience and you could apply it to your day job in a value-added way? 

PT: Yes, absolutely. I've actually been using it in my day job since the first lecture, which was something great and I mean the qualifications are always useful for the life of me. I also have a doctorate in finance, which I have to admit I've never used it, so it's definitely... which is definitely very encouraging that yeah, indeed, the BTRM course, a number of the modules that were taught are things that I'm facing almost on a day-to-day basis in my working life. 

MC: Okay, well that's that's great to hear, it's lovely to hear this. Just one last thing, would you say, well, what would you say to a practitioner, whether it's perhaps two different answers slightly different answers here, what would you say to a junior practitioner, someone with, say, three to five years experience in in finance risk or treasury or front office in a bank, as well as a senior practitioner, maybe someone who is at the c-suite, what would you say to either student contemplating possibly taking the BTRM? What would you say to them if they were thinking of taking it?

PT: Yes, actually I think the thing that the BTRM course manages the best is to bridge the requirements of both groups and it does give really good foundations for... I'm imagining myself 15 years ago and maybe I wish I had done the course back then. Of course it didn't exist back then but you get what I mean. It would have given me such strong foundations for things i had to learn on the way. Having said that, during the course of 18, 19 years into my working life, if i may call it like this, there was still a lot I could pick up on, get into more depth in some of the concepts that maybe I had touched on but had never studied them in a lot of depth and, as I said, the the point about practitioners to practitioners also really helped.

It was a totally different experience than me just going and reading something online or on a webinar about treasury risk management. It was actually people who do this on a daily basis; they have many years of experience that they could share this with me so the combination of the reading material, which could give a lot of the background, plus the lectures, which were not just repeating the reading material but were building up on it, I think that worked really really well for myself and I'm sure it can work really well also for people who have just started their career in financial services risk management and they want to build the right foundations for growing their career path forward.

MC: Well, i can't expect any more than that, that's as much as we would hope to deliver so that's fantastic. Really pleased to hear that was your experience, well done on achieving the award and I wish you the best in your career. Fantastic, thanks. Periklis, thanks for joining us.

PT: Moorad, thanks a lot thanks for setting up the course. I genuinely found it really valuable.

MC: Thank you. My pleasure. All the best, my friend. Take care.

PT: Cheers.