Chartered Investment Banking Analyst™
The Chartered Investment Banking Analyst (CIBA™) program provides a comprehensive, structured learning pathway for individuals seeking to enter or transition into investment banking, as well as for professionals aiming to accelerate their careers through rigorous, practice-oriented training. Offered in both In-Person (New York) and Virtual Live formats, these four-week programs are designed for immersive, fast-track skill building through four sequential, week-long professional certificates..
Across the four weeks, participants develop job-ready capabilities through hands-on exercises, case studies, and transaction simulations. The curriculum mirrors the analytical and execution demands of front-office investment banking and corporate finance roles, enabling candidates to apply concepts directly to real-world financial decision-making, valuation work, credit analysis, financial modeling, and M&A execution.
Program Structure (4 Sequential Weeks)
1. Corporate Finance & Valuation Methods Professional Certificate
2. Financial Modeling Professional Certificate
3. Credit Risk Analysis Professional Certificate
4. Mergers & Acquisitions Professional Certificate
In-Person (New York)
Delivered on campus in New York, the in-person format offers a highly interactive classroom experience with direct faculty engagement, team-based exercises, and in-room simulations. Participants benefit from the pace and intensity of a live professional environment while building technical depth and applied judgment over four consecutive weeks.
Virtual Live
The virtual live format delivers the same four-week, certificate-based structure in a fully live online classroom. Participants engage in real time with expert faculty and peers through interactive instruction, applied exercises, and simulations—preserving the rigor and immediacy of the in-person experience while offering global accessibility.
Graduates of either format complete the program with the technical skill set, practical confidence, and execution readiness to contribute effectively from day one and advance within the demanding field of investment banking.
Note: The CIBA™ designation may be completed through multiple delivery formats, including hybrid learning, in-person study, and virtual live instruction. Each format is a distinct learning structure leading to the same credential.
Week 1
- Time value of money
- Present and future value
- Compounding (annual, periodic, continuous)
- Annuities and perpetuities
- Complex problems
- Payback and discounted payback
- Internal rate of return (IRR) and modified IRR
- Net present value (NPV)
- EVA
- Pros and cons of each
- Brief Review of Financial Statements
- Overview of DCF and intrinsic valuation
- Determining Cash Flows
- Real vs nominal returns
- Asset values
- Comparables
- Perpetuities and growing perpetuities
- Enterprise Value vs Equity Value
- Risk and return overview
- Cost of Debt
- Straight
- Convertible
- Cost of Equity
- Capital Asset Pricing Model
- Alpha
- Beta
- Equity risk premium
- Other methods
- Weighted Average Cost of Capital
- -n theory
- MM
- In practice
- Costs of financial distress
- Optimal capital structure
- Adjusted Present Value
- Differences to WACC valuation process
- Pros and cons
- Peer Group Valuation
- Selecting the peer group
- Key ratios
- P/Es, EV/EBITDA, etc
- Bank lending
- Term loans and lines of credit
- Bilateral and syndicated loans
- Debt
- Investment grade
- High yield
- Convertibles
- Preferreds
- Equity
- Private Equity
- Venture Capital
- Private Equity
- Public Equity
- IPOs
- Secondary (US)/ Rights Offerings (Europe)
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Rationale
- Payment
- Leveraged Buyouts / Management Buyouts
- Wrap-up case study
Day 1
Module 1: Introduction and Overview
Module 2: Project Analysis
Day 2
Module 1: Discounted Cash Flow Valuation
Module 2: Terminal Value
Day 3
Module 1: Cost of Capital
Day 4
Module 1: Capital Structure
Day 5
Module 1: Financing the Corporation (and transactions)
Module 2: Desk Ready Skills Knowledge Check
DAY 1: ADVANCED EXCEL FOR FINANCIAL MODELING
DAY 2: FINANCIAL MODELING
DAY 3: BASIC VALUATION TECHNIQUES
DAY 4: VALUATION
DAY 5: SPECIAL VALUATION ISSUES, DESK READY SKILLS KNOWLEDGE CHECK
Week 3
- Interaction of the market, the client and credit
- Understanding market, credit and operational risks
- The 5Ps and 5Cs of Credit
- Shareholder Value Added
- Risk/Reward and capital allocation
- Purpose and Payback
- Corporates versus Financial Intermediaries
- Specialized Industries
- Specialized Products
- Sources of information
- Industry Analysis including SWOT, critical success factors and Porter framework
- Operation/Business analysis
- Business risk versus financial risk
- The asset conversion cycle
- Environmental and Regulatory risk analysis
- Management Analysis
- Early Warning Signs
- Credit red flags
- Exercise: Balance Sheet Recognition Homework: Participants will complete the business and industry analysis for the selected company
- Role
- Concepts/Process
- Methodology/Issues
- Oversight
- Ratings
- Advantages and Limitations of ratios
- Types of Ratios including: profitability, asset quality and efficiency, leverage and coverage
- Peer comparisons/Industry benchmarks
- Specialized industry ratios
- Seasonality
- Overall performance ratios: DuPont formula
- Exercise: Ratio Analysis Homework: Participants will complete the ratios for the selected company
- Structure of the cash flow statement
- Sources and Uses
- Reconciliations including PP &E, Intangibles, Investments, Deferred Taxes, Long term debt, Minority interest and Equity
- Exercise: Participants will complete the cash flow for the selected company
- The Audit
- Review of historical patterns and industry performance
- Income Statement analysis
- Balance Sheet analysis
- Cash Flow analysis
- Exercise: Participants will work in small groups to complete the FYE analysis
- Contingent liabilities
- Operating leases
- Debt of joint ventures and unconsolidated subsidiaries
- Guarantees
- Take-or-pay contracts and obligations under throughput and deficiency agreements
- Receivables that have been factored, transferred or securitized
- Contingent liabilities e.g. potential legal judgments or lawsuit settlements
- Financial guarantees
- Performance guarantees
- Ratings triggers
- Covenants
- Revenue recognition
- Unusual gains and losses
- Asset write-offs
- Swap exposures
- FX exposure
- Pension deficits
- Securitization
- Structural subordination
- Partnerships/SPVs
- Leases
- Environmental
- Product liability
- Exercise: Annual Reports: identifying and recognizing industry and company specific off-balance sheet risks
- Building a forecast-framework and methodology
- Qualitative and quantitative factors
- Base, management, and downside cases
- Critical value drivers
- Analyzing results- assessing debt capacity, recommending financing alternatives, public versus private, quantifying results and drawing conclusions
- Exercise: Forecasting the critical value drivers for selected companies
- Investment grade versus non-investment grade
- Holding company analysis
- Guarantees, Keepwells, LOMIs
- Collateral secured versus unsecured
- Liquidation analysis
- Borrowing base
- Covenants
- Subordination
- Exercise: Due diligence for selected case studies
- Introduction
- What is credit risk
- Purpose of credit derivatives
- Market participants
- Role of regulators
- The Credit Default Family
- ISDA
- Description of vanilla vs. structured derivatives
- Total Return Swaps
- Characteristics
- Exercise
- Credit Default Swaps
- Characteristics
- Risks and Risk Management of Credit Derivatives
- Credit
- Operations
- Market
- Liquidity
- Legal
- Risk Management
- Participants will present the complete credit analysis for the selected company
Day 1
Module 1: Overview of Credit
Module 2: Credit Analysis Fundamentals
Module 3: Business and Industry Analysis
Module 4: Rating Agencies
Day 2
Module 1: Ratios and Credit Statistics
Day 3
Module 1: Cash Flow Analysis
Module 2: Historical Financial Analysis
Day 4
Module 1: Off Balance Sheet Items
Module 2: Additional Risks to Consider
Module 3: Forecasting
Day 5
Module 1: Structuring and Documentation
Module 2: Derivatives
Module 3: Presentations
Module 4: Desk Ready Skills Knowledge Check
Day 1
- Mergers and Acquisitions Overview
- Key Drivers of a Successful Acquisition
- Attractiveness of Target Companies
- Acquisition Structure
- Sequence of Events
- Documentation and Agreements
Mergers and Acquisitions - Concepts and Theories Part I
Day 2
- Managing for Value Creation
- How Does the Integration Process Affect Value Creation?
- Valuation
- Financing the Acquisition
- Anti-takeover Mechanisms
- Anti-trust Policies
Mergers and Acquisitions - Concepts and Theories Part II
Day 3
- Free Cash Flow and the Objectives of the Firm
- Components of Free Cash Flow
- Cost of Capital
- Capital Budgeting Using Free Cash Flow
- Modified Free Cash Flow
- Using Free Cash Flow to Evaluate Acquisition Opportunities
- Integration of Acquisitions
Free Cash Flow Modeling
Day 4
- Legal structures
- Tax structures
- Accounting
- Letter of Intent
- Seller paper, earn outs, hope certificates
- Special cases
- Tax loss mergers
- Break-up/sum-of-the-parts/split-offs
- LBOs
- Roll-ups, consolidation plays
- Distressed (Bankruptcy) M&A
- Special Purpose Acquisition Corp. (SPAC), Blind pool
- Reverse merger, backdoor IPO
Mergers and Acquisitions - Structuring the Deal
Day 5
- Equity Method of Consolidation
- Purchase Accounting for Business Combinations
- Forecasting the Performance of the Combined Company
- Internal Revenue Code Section 338(g) and 338(h)(10) Transactions
Accounting for Mergers and Acquisitions
Module 2: Desk Ready Skills Knowledge Check