BFF Prize for Best Master’s Thesis 2024: And the Winner Is…

For the third consecutive year, the Belgian Financial Forum has awarded a prize for the best master’s thesis on financial, monetary, and economic topics. Frank Lierman, Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Revue bancaire et financière/Bank en Financiewezen and President of the BFF Prize jury, had the honour of announcing the winner for the academic year 2023-2024 at the BFF event “De woningmarkt onder de loep: ontwikkelingen, informatie en renovatieplicht” in Antwerp on February 13, 2025. And the winner is…

A Strong Third Edition

Thirty-seven master’s students from the economic faculties of all Belgian universities entered the competition, the highest number of participants so far. Given that the minimum requirement for participation is a distinction grade, this is a significant achievement, largely due to the commitment of the promoters who encouraged their students to participate.

As in previous years, most theses were written in English (30 out of 37). There was a balanced gender representation among the participants. The most common topics were asset management and stock exchange (11 theses), closely followed by climate, sustainability, and ESG (9 theses). Other topics included monetary policy, banking, bonds, and cryptocurrencies.

Thirty-Seven Candidates, One Jury, One Verdict

Each thesis was evaluated based on the following five criteria:

• Topical relevance
• Theoretical grounding
• Empirical analysis
• Relevance of the results
• Format and correct use of language

The jury consisted of members of the Editorial Board of the Revue bancaire et financière/Bank en Financiewezen. To ensure a balanced score, each thesis was judged by a team comprising at least one academic and one finance professional. There were two evaluation rounds, with the top five theses receiving a second evaluation by different jury members than in the first round.

The award includes a €2000 cash prize, a free training program offered by the Febelfin Academy, and the publication of a summary of the master’s thesis in the Revue bancaire et financière/Bank en Financiewezen.

And the Winner Is…

“Goals-Based Wealth Management: Two Implementation Issues” by Marie-Laure De Breuck, a master’s in business engineering at the University of Antwerp (promoter Professor Dr. Marc De Ceuster and co-promoter Professor Dr. Hairui Zhang). Her thesis received the highest scores across all five criteria and was unanimously praised by the jury for its extensive theoretical grounding, convincing empirical evidence, and the relevance of both the analysis and the results obtained.

The starting point for this work is the low financial literacy. The thesis addresses two implementation issues when using the goals-based wealth management model:

• The evaluation of estimation risk, which is a shortcoming of the classic portfolio theory often used in the financial industry. Various statistical methods are employed to explain the returns of different asset classes, including the possibility of short selling.
• The exploration of strategies for practical implementation within the existing services of financial institutions. A six-step process is used to illustrate the different steps in applying a goals-based wealth management approach in practice, along with potential pitfalls and mitigation strategies.

The conclusion is that a quick implementation of the process is feasible, even within digital services.