Treasury and financing
Liquidity planning, loan negotiations, interest rate and currency hedging, payment operations. Predictable hours, high precision, a short line to the management board.
Study financial management alongside your job
You come from banking, insurance or accounting and want the degree to match what you already do. Financial management is the fitting route, and your apprenticeship usually opens admission and gets credited.
Positioning
What financial management is, and what it is not
Three subjects sound similar and lead into completely different departments.
Financial management deals with the capital side of a company: how it invests, how it finances itself, how it keeps liquidity secure, how it steers interest rate, currency and default risk. Programmes cover investment appraisal and financing, capital markets, company valuation, balance sheet analysis, treasury and risk management, with accounting and tax as the working tools.
The distinction that should be settled before you enrol:
- Business administration is the roof over everything and keeps your options open for longer. If you are not ready to commit, that is the better fit, more on it under business administration by distance learning.
- Controlling looks inward: planning, costing, variances, decision papers. Financial management looks outward, at capital providers and markets. The distinction in detail is under controlling by distance learning.
- Accounting records what has happened and follows fixed rulebooks while doing it. Financial management decides what should happen next.
- Banking and insurance management are tied to one sector and shaped by regulation. The content overlaps, the job market is a different one.
And the point I most often have to set straight: regulated investment advice requires its own proof of competence, and that does not come with the degree. Anyone advising inside a securities services firm has to be registered with the regulator as competent, and anyone working as an independent financial investment broker in Germany needs a trade licence including a competence examination. A relevant degree can be accepted as equivalent in certain cases, but the competent authority decides that, not the university. If advisory work is your goal, settle this before you choose a programme.
Admission
Possible without the Abitur, and here it is the normal case
Few subjects have feeder occupations as clearly defined as this one.
A completed commercial apprenticeship plus a few years of work experience opens university access for a subject-related degree in Germany, and financial management is obviously subject-related. Anyone who also holds an advanced vocational qualification usually gains general university access and with it a free choice of subject. The three routes are under studying without the Abitur.
Typical feeder occupations:
- Bank clerks, the classic route. Lending, securities and interest calculations are already familiar, the degree sorts and deepens them.
- Insurance and financial advisory roles, strong on the risk and sales side, often with the aim of moving into steering functions.
- Tax clerks and industrial clerks, with a solid accounting foundation that carries immediately in the degree.
- Advanced vocational qualifications such as the Bankfachwirt, the Fachwirt in financial advice or the certified accountant. They frequently bring admission and credit at the same time, more on this under advanced vocational qualifications and credit.
If your last maths lesson was long ago, plan a preparatory course first. Investment appraisal and financial mathematics come early, and anyone who loses the thread there loses it for several modules at once.
Credit transfer
What your apprenticeship is worth
Credit transfer is mature in commercial subjects, and still hardly anyone asks for it.
A commercial apprenticeship is a formal qualification with documented learning outcomes, and that is exactly what credit transfer builds on. Universities usually credit foundation modules in accounting, business law, business English and general business administration. A Fachwirt qualification or a certified accountant brings considerably more, because both sit at the same qualification level as a bachelor. For learning acquired outside higher education, an upper limit of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS usually applies.
What that means is clear from the arithmetic. A bachelor covers 180 ECTS. If 45 are credited, 135 remain. At 15 ECTS per semester that is four and a half years instead of six. With a Fachwirt as prior learning the block is often larger, and the arithmetic becomes clearer still.
The order matters: clarify the credit first, then choose the university. With identical prior learning the differences between providers are substantial. How the process works is set out under crediting ECTS and credit for work experience. Which universities in the German-speaking region qualify is best compared on Hochschulnavigator.
Workload
Time and cost, realistically
The subject is exam-heavy, and exam periods like to collide with closing dates.
| ECTS per semester | Hours per week | In practice | Bachelor takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | around 7 to 8 | one module in peace, good for a first semester | 18 years, useful only as an entry |
| 10 | around 15 | two evenings plus half a weekend day | 9 years, 6.75 with credit |
| 15 | around 22 | workable as long as the calculation modules do not pile up | 6 years, 4.5 with credit |
| 20 | around 30 | effectively a second part-time job | 4.5 years |
Calculated with 30 hours per ECTS and around 20 active weeks per semester. How to work out your own figure is under ECTS per semester.
On cost, part-time bachelor programmes usually sit at a few hundred euros a month. What counts is the total at a realistic pace, and that falls above all through credit transfer, see what distance learning costs.
One point that applies particularly often in banking and insurance: many employers run fixed funding schemes for part-time degrees, because they need successors for steering functions. Watch out for repayment clauses, they typically tie you in for several years, see getting your employer to pay.
Afterwards
Where the degree leads
Three directions that differ clearly in daily work and in what they demand.
Banking and financial services
Credit analysis, corporate banking, product steering. Heavily regulated, with separate proof obligations depending on the activity.
Risk and investments
Risk management, investment appraisal, valuation of holdings and projects. Analytical, project-driven, often in a staff function.
An honest word on salary: the degree alone does not change it, the changed position does. Anyone doing the same work after the degree usually earns the same. The step up comes with the move into a role carrying steering or decision responsibility, and in many organisations the degree is the formal precondition for that. More on this under salary after your degree.
And the limit of the subject: financial management does not open a regulated activity automatically. Investment advice is governed by the proofs of competence described above, and auditing and tax advice have their own state examinations, which a degree prepares for but does not replace. What the shortest route looks like in your case I clarify with you in the initial consultation.
Common questions
Financial management by distance learning
The questions that come up in almost every initial consultation.
Can I study financial management without the Abitur?
As a rule yes. A completed commercial apprenticeship plus several years of work experience opens access to a subject-related degree, and banking, insurance or tax roles clearly qualify as subject-related. An advanced vocational qualification such as the German Fachwirt often adds general university access on top.
What is the difference between finance and controlling?
Financial management looks outward: raising capital, investment decisions, liquidity, interest rate and currency risk. Controlling looks inward: planning, costing, variance analysis and decision papers for management. In small companies one person does both, in large ones the tasks sit in separate departments.
Does the degree allow me to give investment advice?
Not automatically. Regulated investment advice requires its own proof of competence. Anyone advising inside a securities services firm has to be registered with the regulator as competent, and anyone working as an independent financial investment broker in Germany needs a trade licence including a competence examination. A relevant degree can be accepted in certain cases, but that is decided by the competent authority and not by the university.
How much of my apprenticeship gets credited?
That depends on the university and the differences are substantial. For commercial apprenticeships and Fachwirt qualifications many universities credit a fixed block against foundation modules, further points come from relevant years in the job. For learning acquired outside higher education, an upper limit of 50 percent of a programme's ECTS usually applies.
How calculation-heavy is the degree?
Noticeably, but it is manageable. Investment appraisal, financial mathematics, statistics and balance sheet analysis run through the early semesters, and assessment is usually a classic written exam with a calculation part. Anyone coming from a banking or accounting role already knows the way of thinking. Anyone coming from elsewhere should plan a maths preparatory course.
Next step
What is actually possible in your case
Admission, credit transfer and a fitting programme, settled in one conversation.
Levels in this subject
Which level fits your goal?
The same subject, three different answers. Each level has its own admission routes and leads somewhere else.
Bachelor part-time
Access through banking roles, credit for apprenticeship and Fachwirt
Master part-time
Which bachelor counts, 180 versus 210 ECTS
MBA
Why it is not a specialist degree
Information Notice
The information on this page is general in nature and based on my advisory practice (last updated 31.07.2026). It does not replace an official credit transfer or recognition decision by the respective university and is not legal advice. Specific decisions are made by universities, the ZAB (Germany), the BMBWF (Austria), or the SBFI (Switzerland). I clarify binding next steps with you in the initial consultation.