Financial Institutions and Markets (N1634)

15 credits, Level 4

Spring teaching

On this module, you'll explore the role of financial institutions in society, including banks, insurance companies and investment managers. You’ll gain an understanding of major financial markets and products, examining how they connect with the institutions covered earlier in the module. You'll also discuss the behaviour of financial institutions and ethical principles of finance.

Topics include:

• introduction to finance, its purpose, and origins
• commercial banks: risks, capital adequacy, regulation, deposit insurance and Islamic finance
• investment banks: market roles, divisional analysis, shadow finance and leasing
• insurance: life and health, principal-agent problems, regulations and market crises
• investment managers: mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity,and venture capital
• debt markets: term structures, leverage cycles, rating agencies and consumer protection
• equity markets: stock exchanges, corporations and capital raising
• real estate: REITs, mortgages, securitisation, and boom-bust cycles
• securitisation
• financial crises and regulation: historical and recent crises, and regulatory reforms.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 117 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.