Valentin Roulez, a graduate of the Master of Sciences in Finance and Economics at the University of Luxembourg, had the opportunity to do an internship at the Banque the Luxembourg as part of his studies. In his internship Q&A he talks about his tasks, experiences and how the internship enabled him to kickstart his professional life.
Watch Valentin’s internship Q&A
My name is Valentin Roulez, I am 24 years old and was born in Luxembourg. I completed all my studies at the University of Luxembourg; my Bachelor of Economics at the Belval campus and the Master of Science in Finance & Economics at the Kirchberg campus. As I am interested in the Asset Management industry with its variety in investing methodologies, I decided to specialise in Investment Management in the 3rd semester of my Master’s degree.
Furthermore, I am a truly passionate about sports, especially soccer, which I am actively playing in a club as a goalkeeper.
I did my internship at the Banque de Luxembourg, more precisely in the Business Development Unit of the Professional Banking Services department. This unit is in charge of the commercial and strategic development of the bank through the provision of banking and other related services to institutional and professional clients, such as investment fund managers.
My internship was focused on the Fund industry and the services the bank provides in this segment, ranging from set-up and implementation under various legal forms to custody and depositary bank services.
- The Business Development Unit is the client’s or prospect’s first point of contact at the bank. Therefore, each request for a collaboration coming from a prospect is first analised by a Business Developer.
- My role was to summarise the projects following a predefined scheme and thereafter draft a service and fee offer to be sent to the prospects.
- Furthermore, I had to prepare fee simulations that gave the bank and the prospect an idea of all the fees covered by the offer, and which would apply depending on different scenarios.
- During my entire internship, I carried out a lot of research on prospects and their related activity. The research has been different depending on whether it was related to a fund invested into liquid or private assets.
The internship allowed me to see how the theory I learned in class is put into practice within the tremendous Luxemburgish fund market with assets in excess of 5 trillion.
Having had lectures about the asset and fund management industry helped me to understand the functioning of depositary banks, transfer agents, distributors, and other players in the fund industry.
The internship enabled me to see concrete examples of different fund types and their legal forms. Looking at the reality on the fund market, I realized how large and complex the fund industry really is.
I also got to know many different investment methodologies which was interesting and enriching. My previous lectures on the different financial products were a great foundation for understanding the portfolio management of the funds.
My analytical skills in excel were very useful to compute and summarize statistics of the fund business within the bank.
In general, the entire internship really brought me a lot of invaluable experience and allowed me to enter the job market. In particular, the webex-conferences with prospects have been exciting moments, as well as participating in internal meetings at the bank showed me what the reality looks-like.
The Business Development unit being interconnected with various other departments allowed me furthermore to see some other professions as well as meeting many interesting colleagues.
I have to say that some fund ideas brought to us were astonishing and atypical, which made the analysis really amusing.
Definitely! I really enjoyed my time as a Business Developer and I met a lot of nice and helpful People. It confirmed my ambition to start my career in the banking sector.
Although I couldn’t stay in the same unit where I did my internship, I am glad that I could seize the opportunity of a job at Banque de Luxembourg on their market desk.