Learning objectives
At the end of the course students will be expected to have developed:
1.the knowledge necessary to understand the principles of bank management and a critical awareness about the complex impact of fintech developments on banking;
2.the ability to apply knowledge in order to solve bank management problems;
3.the ability to define the aims of a bank and to undertake the decisions to reach them;
4. the ability to use a correct technical language;
5. learning skills through problem solving method.
Prerequisites
This course assumes some previous knowledge of financial economics. Successful completion of "Financial Markets and Institutions" is suggested before attending this course.
Course unit content
The course illustrates the conditions of the economic and financial equilibrium of a banking/financial services institutions, analyzing their strategic positioning, managerial policies and competitive strategies. The second part of the course deals with the FinTech challenge in the financial, payments, banking and insurance sectors.
Full programme
First part: Understanding the financial services industry
- Financial regulation and supervision
- Organizational Structure
- The Financial Services Distribution Channel Model
- The balance sheet
- Risk Management
Second part: Understanding the market structure and its digital transformation
- Incumbents and new competitors
- New tools and processes
- Enabling Technologies (artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data, IoT, and blockchain)
- Implications of fintech developments for financial supervisors
- Possible future scenarios
Bibliography
• Ruozi R., Economia della banca, III Edizione, Egea, 2016
• With regard to the emerging area of FinTech/Insurtech, further study material (articles, teaching notes, lectures and slides) will be available in Elly.
Teaching methods
Theoretical lectures, seminars, guest speakers.
• Knowledge and understanding: lectures, seminars and guest speakers.
• Applying knowledge and understanding: group assignements.
• Making judgments: students will be induced to judge strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the fintech ecosystem.
• Learning skills: every topic will be discussed beginning from the illustration of the problem and then analyzing the given solution.
• Communication skills: the meaning of each term used by the financial community will be explained.
Assessment methods and criteria
Written examination.
Making judgement, the acquisition of knowledge and technical language, the ability to apply the knowledge and learning skills will be assessed through 5 open-ended questions, each evaluated up to 6 marks.
The fulfillment of the final examination can be replaced by the successful completion of two partial written exams, delivered during class hours.
Each partial exam will be on the program of the specific part of the course just concluded. In this case the grade will be obtained computing the average between the grades obtained in the partial exams.
Partial exams can only be taken by attending students (but they are not compulsory). Students are considered "attending" if they fulfil the course attendance requirements established by the teacher.
Other information
Slides and other readings (available in Elly) should not be considered as a substitute for the course textbook, but - if anything - they are an integral part of it.
