Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments

The module aims to introduce you to the competitive landscape facing the financial services industry. It enables you to consider the effects of this competitive environment on key aspects of the sector, such as the impact of new business models on the principles and structures of lending. It supports you in developing a critical analysis of the structures and strategies of the industry and in establishing an understanding of global banking businesses and market structures.

It also sets out a framework for international comparison, which will be drawn upon to analyse critically the challenges facing the financial services sector. The framework also enables you to evaluate how strategic forces affect the operational structures of banking institutions and the industry's relationship to its key customer segments.

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Corporate Finance

This module looks at the efficient and effective management of firms so to achieve their objective, namely shareholder wealth maximisation. This module discusses strategic and financial decisions faced by financial managers and their links to firm value.

The module gives you a comprehensive exposure to key areas in corporate finance: how to select investment projects, how to finance firms and when and how to reward shareholders through dividend payments. You will also be exposed to more advanced topics in strategic management, including mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring. The module includes some technical points such as event studies, real options, portfolio theory, and company valuation.

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Bank Risk Management and Regulation

This module aims to introduce internal and external influence on risk taking and execution of business. The costs and benefits of risk taking and reward are different for institutions and society, with regulation responsible for ensuring society’s interests are met.

The module establishes and explains internal and market controls on risk and regulation frameworks.

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Economics

The module aims to provide you with the economic knowledge and analytical skills necessary to contribute to the strategic thinking and planning of a business unit. The module includes the microeconomics of a business in the context of its immediate industry and region, and the macroeconomics of the wider environment.

The module introduces a broad set of concepts important in understanding the economic environment from the perspective of financial institutions and their stakeholders. You will consider financial and business cycles, and learn to bring a critical approach to interpreting key economic performance statistics and indicators. The module provides a clear focus on business/credit cycles, the varying analyses of these cycles and the policy responses to them.

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Leadership in Financial Services

This module aims to provide you with a detailed understanding of the issues and challenges faced by those leading and managing people in the financial services sector alongside the potential solutions needed to address them.

The topic is explored from different aspects, recognising the roles of people as individuals and in teams and organisations, relationships with the HR function, and interactions with external parties. This requires a detailed understanding of what organisations seek to do to manage, develop, and support their staff. The module aims to improve your abilities to lead and manage people as well as understanding others’ perspectives, especially that of the HR Department (or its equivalent).

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Research Methods and Dissertation (10,000 words)

This module equips you with the tools to plan and undertake a research project. It gives you the opportunity to put this learning into practice through designing and undertaking an extended study, working independently.

The module provides you with the foundations of research methods in business, from defining the research question, understanding different theoretical perspectives and doing a literature review through to identifying sources of primary and secondary data, and understanding ways of collecting and analysing data.
The dissertation offers the ultimate opportunity to engage with potential employers and build industry contacts as research is undertaken and analysed. Students are encouraged to start considering their research subject as soon as they begin their studies.

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Commercial and Corporate Banking

This module focuses on the range of financial solutions that a small business customer – from a sole trader to a medium-sized enterprise – might require. SMEs’ financial needs extend beyond lending products, and encompass a broad range of other financial products to support their business objectives. These include trade finance and instruments to manage exchange rate fluctuations for small importers/exporters, debt factoring or leasing products, different kinds of derivatives, and other areas covering the relationship between banks and their small and medium enterprise customers.

In addition, the module looks more widely at the corporate (large business) market, exploring financing and relationship management issues from a global banking perspective.

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Investment Management

This is a specialised finance module that provides the theories to support modern investment and risk-management techniques, as well as their application in practice. The past three decades have seen rapid and deep changes in the investment industry, with new trading strategies resulting from developments in IT and communication.

The module covers the pricing and trading of financial assets (equity, debt, and derivatives), using concepts of valuation and return as well as fundamental and technical analysis. The module also explores risks and risk-assessment methods, particularly the analysis of yield spreads, interest-rate risk, and currency risk.

Modules assessment