Center Overview

The Center for Financial Market Regulation is a cooperative project of the financial services industry, regulatory organizations, and major law firms with the University at Albany and Albany Law School to educate students and conduct research in financial market regulation.

The Center oversees an undergraduate major and minor in Financial Market Regulation at the University at Albany and graduate and legal education in financial market regulation at the University at Albany and Albany Law School. The program is designed to graduate students who are capable of responding in sophisticated, flexible ways to current developments in financial markets, whether in entry-level professional practice or in graduate and law school. The Center also contributes to the theory and practice of financial market regulation through research connecting academic researchers’ specialized training with professionals’ knowledge and experience, engaging live issues facing regulators and supervisors.

Two core principles drive the activities of the Center for Financial Market Regulation. First, collaboration among practicing professionals and academic organizations is central to high-quality and relevant education and research in financial market regulation. Second, education and research in financial market regulation require knowledge of how finance, law, public policy, and computer and information technology jointly shape financial market regulation. Students, professional participants, and faculty engage issues in each of these areas.

• The business of financial markets in order to understand how regulations and controls affect business functions.
• The law of market regulation in order to know how rules apply to business functions and policy questions.
• Public policy in financial market regulation in order to anticipate how regulations should be designed given tradeoffs among competing considerations.
• The technology of information management and data analysis essential to modern regulation and supervision.

Graduates have classes and experiences encompassing each of these areas. They will enter careers in financial market regulation and supervision appreciating its issues and necessary skills, prepared to learn more efficiently from on-the-job experience and continuing professional education. Strong ethical values are a foundation for market regulation, and so the academic program highlights ethical issues graduates will encounter in their work.

Internships

Through internships, and ideally internships in different types of related organizations such as a firm and a regulatory organization, the student experiences work in the field in an initial way. Faculty and professionals work closely with students to prepare them for the competitions for these internships.

Advisory Council

An Advisory Council of accomplished professionals oversees the center. The Council provides guidance on the course offerings and career experiences for students.

The Academic Structure of the Center for Financial Market Regulation

The University at Albany offers an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science major with a specialization in Financial Market Regulation.

http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/program_financial_market_regulation.html

Students also may minor in Financial Market Regulation, complementing undergraduate majors on campus such as Business, Computer Science, Economics, Political Science, Public Policy and Management, and Sociology, among others.

http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/minors.html

The courses for the major and minor are described in more detail in the next page, The Academic Program, of this website.

Graduate students are enrolled in the Master of Public Administration (MPA) or Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs, taking courses consistent with their degrees as permitted by their primary academic advisors. Law students at Albany Law School are enrolled in the Juris Doctor (JD) program, including joint JD/graduate programs with the University at Albany. Regardless of their degree, all students will study, through coursework and other experiences, how finance, law, public policy, and technology combine to shape work in the field.

Inquiries and information: cfmr@albany.edu
Please send questions or comments about this site to: erma@albany.edu