A summer internship with insightful learnings and pleasant surprises – Meet our interns in Oslo
Summer time means welcoming students to our Nordic trading floors – also in Oslo where seven young talents have joined our summer internship programme and started their rotation between various units in Markets and Investment Banking. After a couple of weeks, they’ve already learned a lot from various “exciting projects”, diving into the shipping industry and the bond market, analysing credit spreads, assessing risk and much more.
Read all about it in this first blog in a series, featuring our seven interns in Norway sharing their experiences from the summer internship with us in Markets and Investment Banking. First up are Henrik, Emma, William and Ingrid, eager to explore career opportunities and gain hands-on experience - and they're seemingly off to a good start.
We’re happy to see they’re learning a lot fast, and enjoying themselves. See for yourself and hear about what surprised them about the culture and the people at the trading floor!
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration, which is part of the "Siviløkonom program”. I am a double degree student in finance at NHH/Nova SBE.
Henrik Fuglenes Mathiesen
This spring, I completed my final year at NHH (Norwegian School of Economics) in Bergen, with a major in financial economics. In August, I will relocate to Lisbon to pursue my final year at Nova SBE, where I will enroll in a Master of Science in finance.
I applied for this internship as I’m pursuing a career in finance, ideally in an investment bank, and I find the internship as an excellent opportunity to gain insight into the various sectors of investment banking.
Several exiting projects in Fixed income
The first two weeks, I have been working in the Fixed Income unit, and assigned to the high yield team, where I’ve been engaged in several exciting projects. I have been analysing the credit spread of a 5-year bond issued by a shipping company and a debt collection company.
It’s been a great experience to dive into company fundamentals and learning more about the corporate bond market. I especially enjoyed gaining insight into the different aspects of a bond issue – from Debt capital markets (DCM) and credit research to sales – and seeing how they interact and influence one another.
Fascinating learnings and positive surprises
It’s fascinating to learn how the high yield bond market works in reality. It’s been particularly interesting to learn about the efficiency in the Nordic bond market, and how it in an international context still is the preferred primary bond market by many global corporations.
One thing that has surprised me is how many different and exciting roles there are in Nordea Markets, which I wasn’t aware of before the internship. The varied client services and roles has been eye-opening. I was also very positively surprised by the kind and welcoming attitude of my colleagues in Markets.
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Emma Hammersmark Lønn
This autumn, I am starting my final year of my Master’s degree in Finance at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).
I applied for the summer internship because it offered a unique opportunity to gain insight into the largest bank in the Nordics, and explore various areas within finance. During the internship, I will rotate between four desks: Fixed Income, Sustainable Finance Advisory, Securities Finance & Structured Products, and International Shipping.
Valuable insight to credit spreads and risk
In the first week, I joined the Fixed Income desk together with Henrik. We worked on an analysis of two shipping companies, and explored how the shipping market functions, identified industry challenges, and assessed each company’s credit risk. We used Bloomberg to gather market data and supported our analysis with information from the companies’ financial reports. The main goal was to estimate the credit spread they might have to pay when issuing a new bond.
Henrik and Emma working on a shipping analysis in the Fixed Income team.
Along the way, I received helpful input from credit and equity research analysts, which gave me a better understanding of how to evaluate company risk. I gained valuable insight into how the credit market prices risk, and how supply and demand affect credit spreads. I also got a closer look at the day-to-day work of a credit salesperson. At the end of the week, we presented our findings to the Fixed Income team.
Open and approachable
I’ve been struck by how open and approachable everyone here are. No matter which desk you're curious to learn about, people are genuinely willing to take the time to explain what they do and share what their day-to-day looks like.
I am holding a bachelors’ degree in Business Administration from BI Norwegian Business School
William Wold
I am currently halfway through my MSc in Finance. I applied to the Nordea Markets, LC&I Summer Internship program, as I saw it as a great opportunity to explore different areas within the financial markets. Nordea Markets, LC&I offers a wide range of financial products and services, and the program gives you the opportunity to participate in various tasks and projects.
Throughout the summer, I will rotate between Markets Derivatives, FX, Sustainable Finance and Corporate Finance in Investment Banking.
Exciting project, diving into interest rate swaps and hedging
This last week, Ingrid and I have been working on a project for the Derivatives team. We were to create a dynamic model, that could be used for making a debt portfolio analysis for all types of companies. After constructing the model, we were tasked to find the optimal hedge of the portfolio using interest rate swaps. We used the model to forecast interest expenses and identify risk elements within the company’s current debt portfolio and outstanding swap agreements.
It’s been a really exciting project, where we got to learn a lot about interest rate swaps, and how they are used and implemented in practice. We’re excited to present the model and our findings for the team by the end of the week.
I have a bachelor degree from Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome where I studied Economics and Business.
Ingrid Moen Eide
Following my bachelor degree in Economics and Business in Rome, I moved to Copenhagen where I started my master degree in Applied Economics and Finance at Copenhagen Business School (CBS).
After having studied for some years, I am eager to gain hands-on experience and obtain a deeper understanding of how the different areas in a bank operate. When I learned about the rotational internship program at Nordea Markets, LC&I, I saw it as an unique opportunity to try out various fields of finance. Luckily, I got the opportunity to join this summer’s programme, and after one week I have already learned so much!
I will spend two weeks with the Derivatives team, before moving on to Equity Research, Secured Finance & Structured Products and lastly to the Investment Banking division.
Steep learning curve
For the past week and a half, William and I have been working on developing a generic and dynamic model as William explained. While working on this project, I have had a steep learning curve about the dynamics behind interest rate derivatives as well as the interconnectivity between departments at Nordea Markets.
Ingrid and William at the Derivatives desk, working on a dynamic model to be used for making debt portfolio analysis.
Meanwhile, we’ve also attended several seminars introducing the different units of Nordea and we’ve got to meet many of the well-experienced people here.
Inclusive and collaborative
One eye-opener to me is how inclusive and collaborative the company culture is, despite being the largest bank in the Nordics. Everyone seems happy to chat about their work and answer questions, which makes it easy to learn about other divisions beyond the ones covered in the internship program.
Watch this space for the upcoming blog by their fellow interns, William Ravn, Sondre Jentoft and Peter August Jebsen Anker.
Meanwhile, check out some of the blogs by other interns and graduates on our Meet our talents blog.
Interested in a career at Nordea Markets LC&I?
Nordea Markets LC&I (Large Corporates & Institutions) is the leading international capital operator and investment banking partner in the Nordic region. Let some of our student interns, graduates as well as experienced professionals explain it to you; how it works, what we do, and about the many career opportunities we can offer you.
