Over 7,000 graduates in thirty years and more than 700 new students for the academic year that is about to begin. This is how, in the centenary year of Università Cattolica, the School of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences celebrates the anniversary of its foundation. It has been a constant place of meeting, confrontation and dialogue, as witnessed during the celebrations on Wednesday, September the 8th, by both founders and alumni, who accepted the invitation of Dean Elena Beccalli to retrace thirty years of history through the recounting of memories, experiences and anecdotes. But it was also an opportunity "to celebrate a significant event for our entire University," wrote Rector Franco Anelli in a message addressed to those present at the ceremony and to guests connected via streaming. "A School that, born from a bold choice, has steadily grown in quantity and, above all, in the quality of its didactic offerings, responding to the need for high specialized training manifested by the sector, contributing to the diffusion of the financial culture of our country and accrediting itself as an authoritative interlocutor of institutions and economic operators," Professor Anelli remarked.
After all, from the year of the rector's decree of institution, dated 10 May, 1990, to today, the School "has grown, strengthened and constantly innovated, cultivating the fundamental values and following in the footsteps of its founders. The numbers speak for themselves: more than 1,600 students enrolled in the School's undergraduate and graduate degree programmes and an educational offer divided into a graduate degree programme and five graduate degree programmes, four of which are taught in English, including Banking and Finance, the University's first graduate degree programme taught entirely in English.
It was the turn of the founders to recount the beginnings of a School born at a time when, said Mario Cattaneo, the "financial world in Italy was very small" and where "the only glory was to increase the number of bank branches". And yet, nothing prevented a group of professors from coming together in a sort of "ideological start-up" to study and create new educational paths at Università Cattolica that would "flank and not replace the Faculty of Economics". On the other hand, as Francesco Cesarini pointed out, "in those years we were witnessing a change in finance, with an excessive financial accentuation of economic decisions, which required a timely response from the universities as well. In addition, "being located in Milan represented a further point of advantage in our favour". However, beyond the reasons that led to the institution of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences, according to Professor Cesarini, "the reasons for the success of the School are to be found not only in the personal motivations of its promoters, but also in those who believed in the idea and in the professors who were always able to keep up with the times".
A far-sighted project that "formally came to life on 10 July, 1990 in the presence of the then Rector Adriano Bausola with three degree programmes: Banking, Finance and Insurance", recalled Benito Vittorio Frosini. At the beginning, the demand for enrolment was so high that out of 1,080 applications we had to accept only 250".
And it was the innovation of the training path ("fundamental for her professional career") that pushed Barbara Casu, Professor of Finance at the Bayes Business School in London, to enrol in the newly founded School, of which she was one of the first graduates in 1994. Like Federico Sella, CEO of Banca Patrimoni Sella & C, who owes his passion for banking technology to the School. The entrepreneurial idea of Tommaso Migliore, who graduated six years ago and is currently CEO of Mdotm, a leading European company in Artificial Intelligence investment strategies, was born among the desks of Largo Gemelli.
These testimonials confirm what has been the mission of the School for thirty years, in the words of Dean Elena Beccali: "To train capable and rigorous professionals, but also men and women of integrity and responsibility" with a view to not limiting themselves to "maximising profit" but to contributing to "creating economic and social value over time".
The ceremony concluded with the awarding of pries to the winning students of the "Finance Lab for Future" Challenge and the Concert by the soloists, instrumental ensemble and choir of the Studium Musicale d'Ateneo, conducted by Beatrice Venezi.
