Basel simulation where students build a bank's capital plan

A Basel regulations simulation is a timed activity where students run a bank's capital position rather than describe the rules. In the Finsimco Basel Regulations Simulation, each student builds the requirement from the minimum through every buffer and the supervisor's own addition, chooses how assets are weighted, sets a headroom, and then faces a raised Pillar 2 requirement, a questioned model approval and a stress test that threatens the dividend. Unlike a rules summary, the constraint is felt.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students on Banking, Financial Regulation, Risk Management, Financial Institutions or Public Policy courses, and MBA programmes. Difficulty is adjustable, so the same bank can be run with a single ratio and fixed weights, or with the full stack, a leverage backstop, a countercyclical buffer raised mid-year, a model approval withdrawn and a stress test the plan has to survive for Masters and MBA cohorts.

Some. Students should know what a bank balance sheet is. Risk-weighted assets, capital tiers, conservation and countercyclical buffers, distribution restrictions and leverage ratios are explained and computed inside the activity, with worked examples in the tool tips.

Mid to late module, typically from week six onwards, once banking basics are covered. It also works as the applied session in a financial regulation module, because the rules only make sense once the distribution restriction is visible.

The Regulatory Compliance simulation works on how a firm organises itself to meet obligations. This one is quantitative: how much capital, against what denominator, and what happens to the dividend when the ratio falls.

A case study describes a bank's capital position at a point in time. Here each student builds the stack, sets the headroom and then has the supervisor raise the requirement. You get the plan, the densities and the reasoning behind both, rather than a written summary.

Most Basel teaching is a list of ratios and acronyms that students memorise and never use. The Finsimco Basel Regulations Simulation is different because the stack is built and then tested. The minimum turns out to be irrelevant, the risk weights turn out to be a choice, and the dividend is what actually disciplines the decision. It suits modules that want regulation taught as a constraint on management.

It can sit alongside one or replace it. An assignment assesses an explanation of the rules. This makes students run a balance sheet inside them.

They take the capital, risk weight and distribution roles in turn, assemble the requirement from the minimum through conservation, countercyclical and systemic buffers plus Pillar 2, choose between internal models and standardised weights, set a headroom and a dividend, and then handle a raised Pillar 2 requirement, a questioned model and a stress test.

Every student holds all three. Capital wants the requirement met, risk weight wants an efficient denominator and distribution wants the dividend paid. Nothing is submitted until all three are satisfied, so the student has to reconcile them rather than pick a favourite.

No. A thin headroom with a conservative denominator and a thicker one with modelled weights can both be defended. What scores badly is managing to the minimum, or carrying headroom without ever pricing what it costs.

Single-player. Every student runs the same case independently, so there is no team formation, no minimum cohort size and no group-work marking to untangle. It runs equally well with one student or several hundred.

About three and a half hours with the default timings, and the timings are yours. Every stage can be lengthened or shortened from the professor panel, so the same simulation fits a longer block or a shorter slot.

Yes. It pauses and resumes without losing submitted data. Two configurations work well: two sessions, with Briefing and Build the Stack in the first and The Year, The Assessment and the debrief in the second; or three sessions, one per working stage. Briefing can also be set as pre-reading if you would rather open on the stack.

Yes to all four. Because students work independently inside the platform, a remote or asynchronous run behaves exactly like an in-room one, which also makes it straightforward to set as homework. Delivery is covered across our simulations for universities.

As much or as little as you like. The simulation is self-running and coaching is optional. You control the timeline, can adjust stage timings, and can monitor student inputs live. See how a Finsimco session runs for the setup, controls and first-delivery support.