Late last year, exact! won a contract to provide financial translations for a major bank. I subsequently had the opportunity to attend in-depth training courses to extend my knowledge of banking supervision and other relevant financial topics. As part of a two-day course at the renowned Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in October 2106, my colleague and I examined topics such as in-house and external audits, the European banking union and Basel III.

Another financial training course was held in London a month later, which I travelled from Germany to attend (and didn’t let Storm Angus put me off!). I was joined in London by a freelance colleague who works for exact! from her base in England. The training course was held by a financial translator and former banker, and looked at various topics, from the broader macro-economic concepts of monetary and fiscal policy, through to specific financial instruments such as credit derivatives and their role in the US sub-prime crisis.

The course allowed me to refresh and expand my knowledge of familiar financial topics and provided a thorough yet comprehensive overview of other, more specific aspects of finance. As a translator, what I always find interesting is how creative (and bizarre!) financial language can be. Here are some animal-related metaphors by way of example: A dovish approach to monetary policy refers to a looser policy with lower interest rates, while a hawkish approach aims to restrict inflation by increasing interest rates. Other creative jargon we looked at included short straddles, long strangles and credit butterflies.

Now armed with the financial knowledge gleaned from my training, I am looking forwarded to discovering and using new creative financial jargon in future German to English translations!