“When you are working in the valuation space for an investment bank the size and scope of Credit Suisse, exposure to alternative investments is ineluctable. As part of the Inventory Valuation Review process, I help breakdown and explain both why the investment bank has taken certain valuation adjustments used in fair value measurement (e.g. Credit Valuation Adjustments, Debit Valuation Adjustments, Funding Valuation Adjustments, etc.) and what were the key drivers behind salient, usually quarter-to-date, movements. While I felt that I could do these things fairly well when traditional investments were involved, I knew I needed to further expand my knowledge when it came to non-traditional investments if I wanted to add further value to my work.
Working through the CAIA curriculum helped fulfill that need and turned the esoteric into the amenable for me. Not only was I impressed with the depth and quality of the material, but I was astounded with just how quickly and frequently I was actually utilizing the knowledge I was garnering since Credit Suisse deals extensively with many of the non-traditional assets that are covered in the CAIA syllabus such as Hedge Funds, Private Equity, and Structured Products.
In short, I wanted to go beyond boilerplate commentary and analysis to explain nuance associated with the strategies and products involved in this rapidly growing area of finance so that the stakeholders who rely on my work can make the best decisions possible. Earning the CAIA Charter and applying what I have learned has helped me do just that.”
Andrew Keenan, CAIA is an Assistant Vice President at Credit Suisse, where he works on the Valuation Risk and Control team in a reporting and analysis capacity. His work focuses mainly in the valuation adjustment space. Prior to his current role, he worked on the bank’s Prime Services team within Product Control.
Andrew is a CAIA Charterholder. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a Finance Concentration and a Master of Business Administration from North Carolina State University. In addition, he has also earned the CompTIA A+ certification.