Course Content and Delivery

Teaching Aims

1. Module introduction and objectives

This graduate-level course is a practitioner-developed and practitioner-orientated programme of teaching that will enable students to develop a sound level understanding of the core principles, policies and processes of commercial banking, as practised by banks around the world. Students will become familiar with management of key processes and risks in banking.

Synopsis of the curriculum:

Banking business model

• Products, rates, net interest margin, the yield curve
• Customer service, ethics and good conduct
• Relationship management

Bank risk management

• Credit risk management
• Operational risk management

Bank asset-liability management (ALM)

• Capital, liquidity, funding and market risk
• The ALM Committee (ALCO)

Governance and Committee best practice

2. Intended subject specific learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will:

• Be familiar with the commercial banking model
• Demonstrate knowledge of, understanding of, and the ability to implement concepts of good customer service and treating the customer fairly
• Be aware of how to manage customer relationships
• Understand the terms and conditions of bank loan and deposit products
• Be able to interpret the shape of the yield curve
• Understand policy for a bank’s liquidity risk management
• Understand key principles of loan origination and credit risk management
• Apply knowledge and techniques learned in the module to understand ALM risk
• Review and assess the effectiveness of corporate governance practice in a bank, and the role of the bank asset-liability committee (ALCO), and make recommendations for improvement
• Understand the importance of good “risk culture” in a bank, and how best to ensure this

3. Intended generic learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be able to demonstrate:

• An ability to work in groups and teams.
• Problem solving and decision-taking skills.
• Numeracy and quantitative skills.
• Research skills in the finance and banking area.
• An ability to work with complex material including bank management information (MI).
• Communication and report- and policy-document writing skills.
• An ability to work and analyse independently and objectively
• An ability to present MI and policy to a group of peers and executives
• An ability to analyse and interpret data and recommend improvements to policy.
• An ability to work independently and formulate objective policy

4. Teaching structure

Course teaching will comprise six lectures, delivered every Tuesday at 1730 UK time for six weeks. Lectures will be streamed live online and recorded for later viewing as desired. Each lecture will be 3 hours in length (includes 30-minute post-lecture seminar and Q&A).