Bayes Business School and the World Federation of Exchanges launch the first Market Infrastructure Certificate (MIC) programme in the world

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses, has chosen Bayes Executive Education as their partner of choice for the design and delivery of the Market Infrastructure Certificate (MIC) programme.

The MIC will be the first advanced bespoke programme on financial market infrastructures in the world. The programme, which is the only one of its kind, will be purpose-built to serve the learning needs of all senior managers and mid-career professionals who need to engage with, and understand, the functioning and role of the organisations that underpin public markets. It’s expected to support professionals at central banks, buy-side and sell-side firms, exchanges, clearing houses and regulatory bodies.

The MIC will be comprehensive including both basic and advanced topics of financial market infrastructures, aiming to provide integrative knowledge across areas of specialism, creating T-shaped leaders.

Blended learning

Academics from Bayes Business School will teach on the programme using a blended learning approach with online and face-to-face elements, including two residential weeks: one at Bayes in London and the other one at one of the WFE members’ locations. The Bayes academics teaching on the MIC programme include Professor Giovanni Cespa, Professor Barbara Casu, Professor Richard Payne and Professor Daniel Beunza.

Participants on the MIC programme will acquire integrative, systemic knowledge enabling them to ‘connect the dots’ across market infrastructures’ specialist topics. Successful participants will obtain a postgraduate certificate worth 60 credits upon completion of the programme from Bayes.

Professor Andre Spicer, Dean of Bayes Business School, said:

“Financial market infrastructures are changing rapidly. The MIC programme will give financial professionals cutting-edge skills and insights to navigate these changes. The programme will bring together our world-class faculty at Bayes with top professionals in the field. It will create leaders who not only have a depth of knowledge but have the breadth which is required. I am sure the programme will be a springboard for the leaders who will transform the sector in years to come.”

Nandini Sukumar, CEO of the World Federation of Exchanges, said:

“This programme is designed to equip any mid-career professional with an understanding of market infrastructure, the vital industry that sits at the centre of financial markets, and the pillars that underpin public markets everywhere. The programme is designed to complement a traditional capital market course and will be a mark of excellence for professionals around the world. We are delighted to partner with Bayes who demonstrated a deep breadth of knowledge on the issues that are relevant to today’s market infrastructures.’’

Professor Santi Furnari, Associate Dean for Executive Education at Bayes, said:

“The MIC programme exemplifies how Bayes Executive Education creates new, highly interactive learning solutions that are custom-tailored to the learning needs of a client organisation, leveraging City University’s and Bayes' reputation in the City of London and our excellent academic quality standards. We look forward to continuing to work with WFE to deliver a transformative learning experience for all the participants of the MIC programme”.

Professor Giovanni Cespa, Academic Director of the MIC Programme, said:

“We believe the WFE-Bayes MIC postgraduate certificate will become a new ‘must-have’ industry standard of excellence. We expect to attract a diverse range of participants in terms of nationality, background, and working across different environments, including emerging, frontier and developed markets. We are deeply convinced that such background heterogeneity will be key to facilitate quality peer-to-peer learning and networking”.

The programme will consist of online webinars covering the theory of the core principles, case-based examples, and a mix of academic and industry leader-led sessions. The online component will include recorded sessions which participants can access at a time that suits them and a series of live webinars which will be highly interactive.

In-person sessions will focus on how to apply the principles in practice. A key part of the programme is the residential, face-to-face component, which will consist of one week in London and one week at a WFE member organisation for an ‘industry immersion week’. It will include an ‘industry group project’ to put learning into practice, with guidance from a Bayes faculty mentor.

The taught modules will be:

• Module 1 – Payments and market infrastructures
• Module 2 – Exchanges, asset classes and market microstructure
• Module 3 – Regulation, ESG and ethics
• Module 4 – Industry project.

To register interest or to receive updates about the program please email MIC@world-exchanges.org. Applications will open later this year.