Economia degli intermediari finanziari A e B - eng

FINANCIAL MARKETS AND INSTITUTIONS

Class A: Prof. Vincenzo Capizzi
Class B: Dr. Paola Zocchi

Course Code: EA016
Subject Code: SECS-P/11
8 ECTS – 64 hours
Location: Novara


Course language

Italian


Course topics

The course deals with topics related to standard banking and finance undergraduate courses, such as the structure and regulation of the financial system, the organization, structure, and performance of the financial markets and institutions, the typologies and contractual features of the main typologies of financial products and services. The emphasis of the course is both on the theoretical understanding of key concepts and on computational issues related to the different financial instruments.


Course textbooks and other teaching material:

-    Customized version for the University of Piemonte Orientale of the book: Nadotti, Porzio, Previati, “Economia degli Intermediari finanziari” Mc Graw-Hill, 2015 (this customized version correspond to the second edition of the original volume with the exclusion of the following chapters: 3, 11 e 13)
-    The instructors will provide other compulsory teaching material by the course official web page at the following link: https://eco.dir.unipmn.it. The login to the web page requires a password. Please contact the instructors to get the password.
-    Other suggested reading:
Mishkin, "Financial Markets and Institutions", 7th Edition, Pearson, 2013.
The instructors are willing to indicate a study plan in English for Erasmus and free mover students.


Teaching goals

The course aims at:
-    analyzing the structure, actors and goals of the financial system, considering its major pillars constituted by financial markets, banks and financial institutions, financial instruments and regulatory authorities;
-    explaining goals, products and services, strategy, organization and economics of the main typologies of financial institutions;
-    understanding the technical and contractual features of major financial products and services;
-    describing the structure, organization and functioning of the capital markets and their major segments;
-    explaining the major risk management strategies and showing how to use the financial instruments for hedging purposes.


Prerequisites

Students must have passed the exam of following courses: Business Administration, Accountancy.


Teaching methods

Face-to-face lessons, lectures and exercises. During the course some guest speakers coming from the banking and finance industry will be invited to share with the class their professional experience.

Other information

Class participation is not compulsory.


Course evaluation

One compulsory written exam (closed books and closed notes) constituted of 6 questions (open questions, multiple choice questions and exercises) with a 60 minutes duration, covering the whole course program. During the period of teaching at the end of the course all students may sit for a partial test covering, respectively, the first and the second part of the course contents.


Course syllabus

- Course Introduction: teaching goals, contents, teaching methods, course evaluation
- The financial system: pillars, actors, and functions
- The financial instruments: technical and contractual features; risk-return profiles
- The financial markets: major segments and distinctive features
- Theory of financial intermediation: information asymmetries, transaction costs, agency costs
- Banks and financial institutions: business models, products and services, performance measures
- Direct and indirect finance: competitive and complementary relationship between capital markets and banks
- Regulation and supervision of financial markets and institutions
- Checking accounts, repurchase agreements and other bank liability contracts
- Domestic and international payment instruments: from banking currency to virtual currency
- Short and medium-long term lending facilities: unsecured credit lines, mortgage loans, mezzanine finance
- Issuing securities in the primary capital market: the role of investment banks
- Trading securities in the secondary capital markets: the role of brokers, dealers, market makers
- Government and corporate bonds: valuation, yield and rating
- Mutual funds and principles of asset management strategies
- Insurance companies and pension funds
- Derivatives contracts and risk management strategies