Chiara Legnazzi, Market Risk Specialist, FINMA

In order to help current students and recent graduates to find their way in the working world, many of our alumni shared their career story. Here the story of Chiara Legnazzi, Market Risk Specialist at FINMA - Autorità federale di vigilanza sui mercati finanziari in Zurich (CH). USI Degrees: PhD in Economics, 2018 and Master in Finance, 2012.

How did you start your career?

After I completed the PhD, I have been hired as Risk and Performance analyst at Bank J. Safra Sarasin in Basel. After a couple of years I changed job and started as a Quant Engineer at swissQuant Group, a small consulting company in Zurich. I firstly got promoted to Senior Quant Engineer and ultimately to Team Lead of the Capital Markets Analytics team. After 4 years, I changed in May 2024 and got my current position as Market Risk specialist at FINMA.

Why did you choose a career at FINMA?

In the aftermath of the UBS-CS merger, many analysis and investigations have been conducted on how the financial system could have handled better the whole situation. I joined FINMA in May 2024 and the main reason was because I wanted to have an impact and be part of the stream of changes associated to the role, setup and power of the Swiss regulator.

What is your current role/duties?

I am responsible for the supervision and approval of Pillar 1 market risk and counterparty credit risk models for category 1-3 banks in the Swiss financial system. I am as well responsible for the approval of the initial margin model of the Swiss clearing house (SIX) and of the VaR models for investment funds. I am currently involved as well in the definition of the regulatory standards for the definition of the capital requirements of cryptoassets.

In your opinion, what are the qualities necessary for a successful career at FINMA?

As soft skills, for sure the flexibility: priorities continuously change and it is necessary to quickly re-adapt and re-organize the workflow accordingly. Also, given that there are many different topics to work on and multiple discussions ongoing with the Banks, a good organization is key, as well as the ability to easily switch from one topic to the other. Technically, mathematical skills as well as a good knowledge of statistics are necessary to understand and challenge the models.

What positive aspects and qualities meant most to you during the study programme you attended?

Both the Msc and the PhD programmes taught me a lot both at a personal and technical level. The Master in Finance raised my curiosity about many financial topics and made me willing and interested in further deepening my knowledge by enrolling in the PhD programme. The PhD gave me a set of technical skills which enabled me to always find interesting job opportunities in the industry. At a personal level, the PhD taught me to be humble, not to take criticisms in a personal way and to deal (and learn) from failures.

What is your advice to USI students entering the job market?

Be passionate and enthusiastic about the job you will choose.