Dear students,

in the coming semester, the Chair of Finance and Banking will once again be offering a Master's seminar. The main topic of the seminar will be "Banking in an Age of Uncertainty".

“Banking in an Age of Uncertainty” studies how banks and financial markets respond when uncertainty becomes a defining feature of the economic environment. The seminar focuses on geopolitical risks, discourse on war, economic policy uncertainty, energy crises, and volatility in capital markets. Students analyze how these factors affect bank stock returns, lending behavior, risk appetite, market valuations, and pricing in financial transactions such as initial public offerings (IPOs).

We will offer an introductory event on 15.07.2026 at 15:00 (3 PM) in room LB 137. The seminar presentations will take place from 24.01.2027 -- 30.01.2027 in Scheffau am Wilden Kaiser at the Hotel Kaiser. In addition to you, various practice partners will be on site to introduce themselves. In addition to the seminar and practical presentations, there will be numerous opportunities to talk to the practice partners. The program will also give you plenty of time to take advantage of the leisure activities at the Wilder Kaiser. A large part of the costs for the hotel, including full board, will be covered by our practice partners (personal contribution 150 euros, bank transfer by 15.11.2026). For the journey, we will provide free group tickets for Deutsche Bahn for a connection from Duisburg to Kufstein and back. You are responsible for your own transfer from Kufstein to the hotel. Possibly, we can provide free public transport tickets.

The seminar has an empirical focus and combines current research questions with working with data. Students learn to formulate a research question, identify appropriate data sources, implement an empirical research design, and interpret the results in the context of the academic literature. 

Possible topics include event studies on war and energy shocks, analyses of bank lending during times of uncertainty, tests using uncertainty indices such as the Geopolitical Risk Index and the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, as well as cross-sectional studies on stock returns or undervaluation in initial public offerings. Potential topics can be found here.

If you are interested, you can register for our seminar in the coming semester by sending a short email to banking [at] uni-due [dot] de. Registration deadline is July 17, 2026. Please attend the orientation session if you would like to take the seminar. 

Best regards,

Your Chair of Finance and Banking