ObjectivesOn completing the programme, students should have: a good understanding of banks and other financial institutions and their place in the economy; a good understanding of the structure and behaviour of financial markets; and the ability to use a wide variety of analytical techniques for finance.
Entry requirementsEntrance Requirements At least a lower second class Honours degree from a UK university, or an equivalent qualification. The qualification need not be in economics, banking or finance: most subjects are acceptable. Applicants with lower qualifications or special circumstances are also considered if they have relevant work experience.
Academic titleBanking and Finance (MSc)
Course descriptionStructure and Content
Students take four taught modules in the autumn, from September to December, and four more taught modules in the spring, from February to May. Then students write a dissertation in the summer, from June to August. In the Autumn Semester all students take the following modules:
Economics for Business and Finance: This introduces economics as a discipline. It focuses on aspects most relevant to later modules in the programme and to a career in banking and finance. Banking and Financial Institutions: This module introduces the concept of money and the money stock, financial instruments, modern banking systems and the key features of international money flows.
Corporate Finance: This module provides an understanding of the major decision areas of corporate finance – how to raise funds and how to invest them. It examines both the theory and the practice of corporate financial decision-making and the interaction between decision-making and capital market behaviour.
Financial Reporting : This explores the underlying assumptions and limitations of accounting information along with the measurement and reporting problems in financial reporting. It also introduces methods available for interpreting reported accounting information.
In the Spring Semester students take two more compulsory modules:
Money, Banking and the Economy: This module explores developments in the banking sector, how this sector interacts with the rest of the economy, monetary policy and bank regulation.
Quantitative Methods in Finance: This provides students with the statistical and computing skills which are necessary to understand fully modern banking and finance operations.
In the Spring Semester students take two optional modules chosen from:
Issues in Corporate Finance: This module provides a deeper understanding of the theoretical and methodological basis of empirical research in corporate finance and its potential limitations.
Security and Portfolio Analysis I: This module examines the valuation of equities and the management of equity portfolios. It includes modern portfolio theory, asset pricing models, performance measurement and equity derivatives.
Security and Portfolio Analysis II: This module examines security valuation and portfolio management, focusing on fixed interest securities, forwards, futures and the foreign exchange markets. It also covers swaps and it provides an introduction to the foreign exchange market and the instruments traded on it.
International Corporate Finance: This module examines key areas of finance within an international environment with a focus on: the foreign exchange market; the relationship between exchange, interest and inflation rates; foreign exchange risk and its management; and the use of derivative securities in international finance.
International Finance and Emerging Countries: This module introduces the main issues in the areas of money and finance in emerging and industrialising countries. It covers topics such as trade finance, the risks and opportunities associated with investing in emerging countries and emerging countries in the international capital markets.
Modern Banking Theory and Practice: This module introduces students to modern banking theory and practice, including bank functions, bank risk, bank competition, bank failures and bank regulation.
Emerging, Transition and Islamic Banking: This introduces students to the nature and the role of the banking sector in emerging, transition and Islamic countries. It explains how the theory and practice of banking depends on the economic, social, political and religious features of an economy.
Dissertation: In the summer students complete a dissertation on a programme-related topic approved by the Programme Director and supervised by a member of staff from one of the two Departments that provide the programme.
Delivery and Assessment
Modules are taught by a combination of lectures and small group teaching, in the form of seminars or workshops. The quantitative methods module includes teaching in a computing lab. Assessment in most modules includes assessed coursework, often a mid-semester test, and an end of semester examination. Resit examinations are available.
Career Opportunities
There is an excellent employment record among graduates, many of whom now work in financial institutions in the UK and abroad.