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Rotman Risk Management project

An opportunity to gain real-world experience during the program

The applied Risk Management project is a chance for students to tackle a real issue that is relevant and of interest to financial institutions.

The applied Risk Management Project is a chance for students to tackle a real issue that is relevant and of interest to financial institutions.

During the nine-week project, which takes place halfway through the program, you will be taken out of the classroom and into industry where you will work alongside practicing risk management professionals.


"The Risk Management Project was an unforgettable experience. It gave me a chance to learn directly from industry professionals and to develop my own solution to a real-world research challenge."

—Agnes Chang, MFRM '17, Investment Associate, Alternative Investments, Capital Markets, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board


How the Risk Management Project works

Rotman faculty work with the MFRM Advisory Board and our wider network of industry contacts to secure a range of project opportunities from a variety of different organizations.
The project suggestions come from industry and focus on topics that are relevant to them. These suggestions are refined through discussion with faculty to ensure the best possible learning outcome for you as the student and the best possible results for the industry sponsor.

Every student is guaranteed a project. Typically projects are conducted in teams of two.

At the end of the project you will present your findings to your classmates, faculty and industry sponsors.  


Project sponsors

The following organizations supported projects, both in Canada and internationally:

Logos of MFRM project sponsors


"I was fortunate enough to land my job right after finishing the Rotman Risk Management project. One of my first projects was similar to an assignment I had completed in the MFRM program. It is just one example of how MFRM keeps you relevant to what goes on in the real world."

—Ava Athari, MFRM '17,Senior Tax Staff, International Tax Services - Transfer Pricing, Ernst & Young LLP (Canada)

 

Project titles, Class of 2017

  • Alternative Long Duration Assets (ALDA)
  • Bank Trades: Risk Factors & Exposure
  • Capital Issuance Capacity following a Stress Event
  • Comprehensive Capital Analysis & Review (CCAR)
  • Choosing a Balance Sheet
  • Credit Risk Scorecards
  • Extending Interest Rate Models
  • Forecasting Model
  • FRTB: Exceptions to Market Risk Models
  • Integrated Stress Solution Tool
  • Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book
  • Liquidity Metrics
  • Liquidity Risk & Leverage
  • Margin on Derivatives not cleared through CCPs
  • Mutual Fund Liquidity Risk
  • Negative Interest Rate Policy
  • Predictive Power of Equity & Interest Rate Volatility
  • Real Estate Secured Lending (RESL) Risk Factors
  • Retail & Commercial Deposits in an Economic Downturn
  • Risk & Potential Role of Digitalization in Bond Markets
  • Risk Frontier
  • Risk with Retail Credit Card Customers

Project titles, Class of 2018

  • Allocation of capital to transactions under SIMM
  • An investigation of negative interest rate swap spreads
  • Application of behavioral science in risk management
  • Assessment of loan portfolio value using dynamic credit ratings and recovery rates
  • Assumptions for liquidity stress testing
  • Automation of a corporate bond intelligence report generating process for issuers and investors
  • Back-testing of counterparty credit risk models
  • Business plan for an automatic news summary and informing system
  • Consistency of credit decisions across different products
  • Cost-effective risk mitigation
  • Counterparty credit risk and CVA modelling
  • Data validation and compliance monitoring for regulatory compliance management
  • De-risking defined benefit plans
  • Design of macroeconomic stress tests
  • Development of a credit VaR model
  • Development of a system for the analysis of market shocks
  • Development of an internal risk dashboard
  • Forecasting return from commercial real estate investments
  • Impact of regulatory changes on the asset allocation and product offerings of insurance companies
  • Implementing and testing a breakeven volatility model
  • Infrastructure asset cash flow risk modelling
  • Interest rate risk in the banking book
  • Interest rate sensitivity of farmland investments
  • Jumps, liquidity and volatility around macro announcements using high frequency data
  • Measures of the effectiveness of portfolio diversification
  • Retail credit PD estimation
  • Robo-advising when clients have specific requirements and risk preferences 
  • Stress scenarios for credit risk
  • Stress scenarios for NAFTA and liquidity risk 
 

Project titles, Class of 2019

  • A Study of Volatility Forecasting using Artificial Intelligence
  • Bond Pricing Model Improvement
  • Compliance Risk Management: Working as a Second Line of Defense
  • Credit Rating Analysis Using Macroeconomics Factors
  • Credit Risk Modeling via Machine Learning
  • Detection and Prediction of Market Regime Switches
  • Determinants of Automobile Loan Default
  • Disability Insurance Risk Analysis
  • Do Cash Holdings Affect Canadian Equity Mutual Funds’ Performance
  • Dynamic Risk Analysis Under Four-Quadrant Framework
  • Forecasting OIS From WIRP and Macroeconomic Factors
  • FRTB: A Game Changer for Capital Charge
  • Guidelines for Robust Liquidity Stress Testing Framework
  • IFRS 9 Expected Credit Losses: Model Parameters Annual Refresh
  • Improving Risk Analysis for Systematic Trading Strategies
  • Innovative School Payment System
  • Key Operational Risk Indicators
  • Liability Issuance and Risk Management of Government Debt Managers
  • Machine Learning on RiskFrontier Deal Analyzer
  • Macroeconomic Based Default Rate Forecasting Model
  • Model Risk Management under OSFI Guidance E-23
  • Modeling and Testing Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies
  • Modeling Leading Indicators for Predicting Bank Stress
  • Payment Collections and Competitive Credit Cards: Dashboards and Preliminary Insights
  • Python Implementation and Enhancement of Liquidity Back-testing
  • Regulatory Compliance Management Risk Assessment Refresh
  • Risk Analysis for Infrastructure and Corporate Credit Investments
  • Small Business Credit Risk Strategies Development
  • Stress Testing of Liquidity Coverage Ratio
  • The Dynamic Nelson-Siegel Yield Curve Model

Project titles, Class of 2020

  • Canadian Active Fixed-Income ETFs: Market Activity & Key Characteristics
  • KPI Model Performance Monitoring
  • NLP for MSB Compliance Document Extraction
  • Predicting Misconduct using Machine Learning
  • Empirical Asset Pricing through Machine Learning Models 
  • Environmental and Social Risks Assessment Process
  • ESG Factors and Sentiment Analysis
  • Using AI to Predict Financial Distress
  • NLP Applied to Finance
  • Market Risk Forecasting Using Macroeconomic Indicators
  • Default Rate Modelling and Forecasting with
  • Macroeconomic Factors
  • Predicting Yield Curves using Artificial Neural Networks
  • Initial Margin Requirements for OTC Derivatives
  • Models to Evaluate Portfolio Risk
  • Sentiment Analysis on Public Data and Quantifying Reputational Risk
  • Capital Raising Challenges for Start-Ups
  • Illiquidity Discount on Private Equity
  • Dynamic Risk Analytical Solution for Pension Portfolios
  • Modeling Cyber Risk Capital
  • Quantitative Validation Analysis for “Venture Capital
  • Economic Capital Model”
  • Algorithmic Trading and Optimal Execution:
  • A New Era of Capital Markets
  • Underserved Credit Cards Strategy: Dashboard and Insights
  • Data Aggregation and Visualization of IRR Management
  • VaR Limit Predictive Model
  • FRTB IMA Portfolio Optimization with Evolutionary Algorithms
  • Collateral Allocation Model
  • The Launch of a Canadian Stablecoin
  • Predicting Disability Risk with Economic Indicator
  • Mortgage Default and Prepayment Rate Prediction
  • IFRS 9 Enhancement in ECL Measurement

Project titles, Class of 2021

  • Reach for Yield or Resiliency? Explaining the Shift in Canadian Pension Portfolios
  • Digitalization of LOC Documents for Information Extraction
  • Powerful Insights (PI)
  • Churning – Detecting Misconduct and Compensation Manipulation
  • Cryptocurrency Markets and Decentralized Finance
  • Carbon Risk and Stock Return
  • Enterprise Conduct Risk Assessment Methodology
  • Modelling Shadow CDS Spreads with Machine Learning
  • Predictive Research on Agriculture and Timber Assets
  • Risk Opportunities in Oil & Gas Industry: How Blockchain Can Deepen it
  • OFA’s Foreign Debt Issuance, Liquid Reserve & CBOE Skew Index Analysis
  • Risk Management and Decision Making during Covid-19 Pandemic
  • Measuring Risk of Intraday Momentum Trading Strategies
  • Canadian OTC Derivatives Research with Public Data
  • Market Analysis of Short Selling Activity
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Python
  • Historical Stress Testing in OTPP
  • Trading Crises: Examining the Effects of Pandemic Relief on Sovereign Risk
  • Risk Management for Securitized Products
  • Assessment & Innovation of Retail Credit Capacity Measures
  • The Optimization of Credit Strategy Decision Rules
  • Macro Feature Engineering
  • Impact of Emerging Technological Trends on Financial Institutions
  • Stablecoin Global Expansion & Open Lending Exploration
  • Using Machine Learning for Stock Price Prediction
  • Bank Performance and Basel III
  • Convergence Trade

 

Project titles, Class of 2022

  • Can platform trading and central clearing improve financial markets?
  • Risk Management of Foreign Reserve Portfolio after COVID-19
  • SAR Narrative Automation
  • CSC Adjudication Model Enhancement
  • Innovative Mortality Modeling
  • NFT Valuation
  • Quantification of the financial impacts related to climate change – an application of Advanced Data Analytics to Climate risk
  • Global Portfolio Diversification for Canadian Long-Horizon Investors
  • Climate Change and Credit Risk Modeling
  • Modelling and forecasting Real Assets Risk 
  • Swap Valuation Discrepancies 
  • Economic & Financial Market Dashboard
  • Crypto Asset Dashboard
  • Derivatives surveillance system
  • Explainable AI and Fairness in ML Models
  • Portfolio Company Monitoring Tool
  • Borrower Rating Scheme with Climate Transition Risk
  • Machine Learning for Large Exposure Framework 
  • X-Gamma Analysis in Counterparty Risk Trading
  • Innovative CS01 for Dynamic Credit Hedging
  • Treasury Non-Trading Market Risk Dashboard 
  • Credit Bureau Data Exploration for Small Business Customers Capacity Assessment

 

Rotman's Master of Financial Risk Management

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Key Facts

Duration

  • 10 months, full-time

Intake

  • September, one intake per year

Program fee (2023 entry)

  • Domestic = $39,850 CAD
  • International = $70,370 CAD 

Employment rate

  • 100% (Class of 2022, within six months of graduation)

Ranking

  • #1 in Canada
  • #4 in North America
  • #18 in the world

QS World University Rankings: Masters in Finance Rankings 2023