Moroccan Math Whizzes Dominate French Financial Engineering Sector

Titled "In finance, these Moroccan engineers who ’outdo the French’", the article highlights the skills of Moroccan engineers but also the quality of the training provided in Moroccan high schools and preparatory classes. "Very well trained in mathematics, Moroccan students make up a significant portion of financial engineers in French banks, across the Paris market," writes the author of the article. The latter states that the share of Moroccans has reached up to 40% of the financial engineering workforce in certain services within the major French banks. Observation made "across the Paris market, both at BNP and at Société Générale, at Crédit Coopératif or at Natixis."

According to Gilles Pagès, head of the Master 2 "Probabilities and Finance" at the University of Pierre-and-Marie-Curie and Polytechnique, the success of Moroccan engineers is explained by the level of rigor of the mathematics training provided in Moroccan preparatory classes. "Unlike France, it is rare that in Morocco we remove chapters in mathematics," explains a Moroccan engineer interviewed by the magazine. "They are very well trained in selective Moroccan high schools and preparatory classes. When you compare with Algeria, it’s not even close," says in turn a research director of a major French bank. Result: "those who come after to study in France are indeed war machines," says the author of this article.

These "war machines" are trained at the Lycée d’Excellence de Benguérir (Lydex). The graduates who leave the establishment each year shine in the Polytechnique admission exam. This year, they are 24 to have successfully passed the admission exam to the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. Referring to their success, Gilles Pagès believes that "Moroccan students are outperforming French students."