News Innovation and Leadership: Alex Joshi, Behavioural Finance at Barclays Private Banking 09.10.2025

In October, Alex Joshi, who heads up the Behavioural Finance team at Barclays Private Banking, came to speak to our Year 10 Innovation and Leadership students and to Sixth Form students interested in studying Economics and Finance. It was a fantastic opportunity for our students to hear directly from someone pioneering and working in the field of Behavioural Economics and Finance. First off, Alex shared with our students the importance of gaining a good academic foundation but that it was even more important for our students to have a good story to tell explaining why they are a good fit for this relatively new but expanding discipline. Alex himself studied Maths, Further Maths, Computing, Economics, Physics and Spanish at A Level and went on to study Economics at the University of Nottingham and a postgraduate at the University of Cambridge – focusing on behavioural economics. He then worked in a consultancy applying the principles of behavioural economics to design large scale online behavioural experiments and surveys, to help public and private sector clients understand consumer decision-making in a wide variety of domains, particularly in retail finance. These included designing an experiment studying the impact of the presentation of fund charges on the decision-making of retail investors for the Banking Regulator, and designing and testing the presentation of information for the insurance industry.

Alex provided fascinating information, insights, role play, and advice to our students, focusing on the areas of:
• Behavioural Economics in Consultancy Firms
• Behavioural Finance in Banking and Wealth Management
• Key Behavioural Biases
• Challenges in his Role and How it has Evolved
• Employment Opportunities for Behavioural Scientists
• Behavioural Science in the Wild
• Career Advice for Aspiring Behavioural Economists

There were lots of questions from our students which took us well past the allotted time and they were very grateful to Alex for delivering such an informative and engaging session. There were definitely some inspired and aspiring behavioural economists in the room by the end of the session.