The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is proud to announce the opening of this year’s FDIC Academic Challenge, a competition for undergraduate students interested in banking and economics. We would like to invite students from your institution to take part in this year’s Challenge, “The Impacts of COVID-19 on the Banking Sector.” The Challenge will provide students the chance to work with their peers, sharpen their analytical thinking, and develop their academic and professional skills..
Teams of four or five undergraduate students, along with a faculty advisor, are welcome to submit a written response to this year’s Challenge.Teams will have the opportunity to use multiple data sources to support their economic analysis and gain a greater understanding of the U.S. banking sector. We will invite teams with top-scoring written responses in the first round to present their findings in front of a panel of judges in the final round of the Challenge on April 8, 2022.
We are currently planning to host the final round of the Challenge in person at FDIC facilities in the Washington, D.C. area. The FDIC is closely monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and following public health and local government recommendations and guidelines. The health and well-being of our attendees is our top priority, and the FDIC is preparing to move to an online format if public health and local government guidance is inconsistent with holding the event in person. Finalist teams will be notified as soon as a decision on the format is reached.
First-round written submissions for the Challenge are due by November 19, 2021. To help students and faculty understand the Challenge and address any issues that arise during participation, FDIC economists will host a question and answer session via conference call on October 6, 2021 at 7pm (888-469-1382, passcode: 7704786). The call-in number and passcode for the call are also available on the Academic Challenge website.
For more details on the Academic Challenge, including the full question, dataset, timeline, and submission form, please visit https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/
