Banking (MBA and Postgraduate Diploma)

Overview
Structure
Study materials
Fees
Assessment
Requirements
Leaders

Is this programme for me?

These programmes are tailored for professionals with careers in the banking sector and provide training in the principles underlying good banking practice.

Programme aims

These programmes provide banking sector professionals with a wide range of skills and knowledge to equip them to meet the constantly changing challenges facing the modern financial sector. They are especially valuable for people holding a professional qualification (including accounting, finance or related professions) who are employed in banks or other financial firms.

Programme summary

	You study	Study period	Cost (2013)
MBA	6 courses	2-5 years	£7,960
Diploma	4 courses	1-5 years	£5,345
Individual Professional Courses	You can take up to three individual courses from this distance learning programme. Each course lasts eight weeks and you are registered for two years. The fee per course is £1,230.

Prestige

The programme has been developed by academics at the Centre for Financial and Management Studies (CeFiMS), a postgraduate research and teaching department within SOAS, University of London. Staff at CeFiMS have international reputations and are involved in researching their subjects at the very limits of current knowledge.

Career progression

These programmes provide a sound foundation for career progression in banking and the financial sector.

Comprehensive study materials and support

You will be given all of the learning materials that you need to complete each course. These will typically include:

The Study Guide, a core text specially written for the course. This takes the form of a looseleaf binder containing eight ‘course units’. The units are carefully structured to provide the main teaching of the course, defining and exploring the main concepts and issues, locating these within current debate and introducing and linking the further assigned readings.
Textbooks and collections of key journal articles and book extracts.
Online and multimedia tools. You will have access to the Online Study Centre (OSC), which is a web-accessed learning environment. Via the OSC, you can communicate with your assigned academic tutor, administrators and other students on the course using discussion forums. The OSC also provides access to the course Study Guide and assignments, as well as a selection of electronic journals available on the University of London Online Library. In addition, some courses materials will also include video lectures on DVD, CDs of case studies, and econometric software.
A Welcome Pack is available online, which provides you with resources and tips on effective distance learning. We will also send you a Study Skills textbook to help you manage your studies.

Your time commitment

This will depend partly on choices you make, but most students take three years to complete an MBA and two years to finish the Postgraduate Diploma. The study calendar consists of five sessions per year. Each session is devoted to a specific course and lasts eight weeks (with the exception of the first session which runs for 10 weeks). During each session you will need to allocate between 15-20 hours per week to complete the programme.

Summary of key dates

Application deadline	3 September 2012	19 November 2012	8 April 2013
Programme starts	November 2012	January 2013	June 2013
Examinations	October

MBA: 6 modules (5 core modules plus 1 elective)
Postgraduate Diploma: 4 modules

MBA structure

Five core modules

Bank financial management

This course concentrates on the principles of bank management of assets and liabilities. You will learn about the principles of bank balance sheet management and money market operations as well as liquidity ratios and capital adequacy ratios. You will also study issues of bank supervision and regulation.

Unit 1: Banking Innovations and Risk
Unit 2: Bank Accounts: A Useful Tool if Handled with Care
Unit 3: Bank Valuation
Unit 4: Bank Risk Management - Liquidity Management
Unit 5: Bank Risk Management - Interest Rate Risk Management
Unit 6: Cost of Funds and the Funding of Operations
Unit 7: Bank Risk Management - Credit Risk
Unit 8: Capital Management

Financial law

This course provides an understanding of the essential elements of financial law. The course complements the finance course Risk management: principles and applications by examining the legal approach to dealing with risk. These courses give a comprehensive and coherent understanding of the financial and legal aspects of the subject.

Unit 1: Introduction to Financial Law
Unit 2: The Needs of Finance and the Character of English Financial Law
Unit 3: Bank Deposits and Accounts
Unit 4: The Law Relating to Money and Payments
Unit 5: The Law Relating to Loans and Credit
Unit 6: The Law of Secured Finance
Unit 7: The Law Relating to Financial Instruments
Unit 8: Questions of Liability

Risk management: principles and applications

This course examines the techniques and the foundation of risk management in corporations. It covers the use of derivatives, portfolio allocation, the value of risk, and the management of credit risk and operations risk. The course includes cases and applications.

Unit 1: Introduction to Risk Management
Unit 2: Portfolio Analysis
Unit 3: Management of Bond Portfolios
Unit 4: Futures Markets
Unit 5: Options Markets
Unit 6: Risk Management with Options
Unit 7: Value at Risk
Unit 8: Credit Risk

Corporate finance

This course will provide an overview of corporate finance in both a domestic and an international setting. It will explain the valuation of real investments and their financing as well as the dividend decision. By developing an understanding of international capital markets, the course will identify the main trends in mergers and acquisition activity. Students will be able to apply the main principles of financial theory to contemporary commercial problems and understand the problems of investment appraisal and the relative merits of different approaches. This will enable them also to evaluate the consequences of a proposed takeover or merger, and to analyse the current state of financial markets.

Law and regulation of electronic finance and internet banking

In taking this course you will gain a grounding in the legal and regulatory issues concerning electronic banking and finance in different jurisdictions, including in the UK and at EU level. You will also acquire an understanding of the impact that this has on financial services in general and their transactional and contractual aspects in particular.

Unit 1: Introduction to Electronic Finance and Internet Banking
Unit 2: Basic Legal Concepts and Foundations of Electronic Banking and Financial Activities
Unit 3: Electronic Finance and the Globalisation of Financial Markets
Unit 4: Prudential Regulation and Supervision of Electronic Finance and Banking
Unit 5: Law of Electronic Banking in the United Kingdom
Unit 6: Regulation of Securities Activities over the Internet
Unit 7: EU Law - The Financial Services Action Plan
Unit 8: Cross-Border Electronic Contracts

PLUS one elective from the following

Macroeconomic policy and financial markets

This course focuses on the relation between macroeconomic factors, macro economic policy and financial markets and institutions. Financial markets and institutions are treated as the central elements in the transmission of macroeconomic policy.

Unit 1: Macroeconomics and the World of Finance
Unit 2: Saving and Finance
Unit 3: Investment and Financial Markets
Unit 4: Monetary Policy and the Central Bank
Unit 5: Fiscal Policy and Government Finances
Unit 6: Expectations, Inflation, and Interest Rates
Unit 7: Foreign Exchange Markets and Foreign Trade
Unit 8: International Capital Flows and Financial Markets

Banking and capital markets

This course examines the underlying principles and characteristics of banking and financial markets that are the foundation for understanding both their normal role in economies and the headline events. It concentrates on the theoretical and empirical scientific knowledge produced by modern research on banking. Since such knowledge is never fully established or ‘proven’, it enables the student to examine opposing points of view and to discuss the published studies.

Unit 1: Bank-Based vs Market-Based Financial Systems
Unit 2: Why do Banks Exist?
Unit 3: Why Banks Exist: Explanations Based on their Lending
Unit 4: Banks vs Capital Markets
Unit 5: Credit Rationing and Overlending
Unit 6: Bank Runs and Regulatory Responses
Unit 7: Financial Crisis
Unit 8: Portfolio Analysis

Banking regulation and resolution of banking crises

The recent banking crisis has motivated heightened discussion of the merits of bank regulations used to minimise the risk of bank distress and intervention tools to mitigate its effects. In this course you will study technical aspects of bank regulation, supervision and intervention to resolve crises.

Unit 1: Principles of Bank Regulation
Unit 2: Banking Supervision & Regulation
Unit 3: The Prudential Supervision of Banks
Unit 4: Banking Crises: Weak Banks and Lender of Last Resort Support
Unit 5: Restructuring Failed Banks and Protecting Depositors
Unit 6: The Institutional Structure of Financial Regulation
Unit 7: Regulation, Supervision and Financial Stability
Unit 8: Issues in International Supervision and Regulation

Postgraduate Diploma

Four modules from the following

Corporate finance

Bank financial management

Risk management: principles and applications

Macroeconomic policy and financial markets

Financial law

Law and regulation of electronic finance and internet banking

Banking regulation and resolution of banking crises

How you study

Without leaving your job or home you can study, write and submit assignments, receive expert guidance from your CeFiMS tutor and advice from the student support team. In addition to printed study materials, the Online Study Centre allows students to work with course materials, send queries to tutors and submit assignments via the Internet.

When you take a CeFiMS distance learning course you will be sent everything you need to complete your studies. A typical set of course learning materials would include:

The Study Guide, a core text specially written for the course. This takes the form of a looseleaf binder containing eight ‘course units’. The units are carefully structured to provide the main teaching of the course, defining and exploring the main concepts and issues, locating these within current debate and introducing and linking the further assigned readings.
Textbooks and collections of key journal articles and book extracts.
Online and multimedia tools. You will have access to the OSC, which is a web-accessed learning environment. Via the OSC, you can communicate with your assigned academic tutor, administrators and other students on the course using discussion forums. The OSC also provides access to the course Study Guide and assignments, as well as a selection of electronic journals available on the University of London Online Library. In addition, some courses materials will also include video lectures on DVD, CDs of case studies, and econometric software.
A Welcome Pack is available online, which provides you with resources and tips on effective distance learning. We will also send you a Study Skills textbook to help you manage your studies.

Online Study Centre

Created by CefiMS to provide additional resources and support, the Online Study Centre allows students to:

access study materials that complement printed texts
submit assignments
communicate with tutors
contact support staff regarding administrative queries
access online resources provided by the Univeristy of London Library including full-text journal databases of JSTOR and EBSCO.

Note: Students who are eligible to use the OSC are automatically contacted by CeFiMS staff and given information about how to access the system for their course.

Fees

You have the option to pay for some or all of your course fees at the outset (thus avoiding any subsequent rise in fees) or you can pay for one course each time you enrol in a study session.

Course fees	2013
Registration fee (MBA)	£ 1,090
Registration fee (Postgraduate Diploma)	£ 765
Fee per module	£ 1,145
Total MBA	£ 7,960
Total Postgraduate Diploma	£ 5,345
ConvertGBP x 1

Note:

The University reserves the right to amend previously announced fees, if necessary.

All fees must be paid in pounds sterling, which may be paid either by a credit card recognised by MasterCard International or by the Visa group OR by banker's draft, cheque or UK postal order.

Other costs

Where students are following the programme under arrangement with a local institution offering tutorial facilities, there may be some variation in the fees quoted to cover local administration costs. Besides the fees payable to the University, you should also budget for the fee levied by your local examination centre to cover their costs.

Academic Requirements

In order to be considered for registration applicants must have:

A recognised professional qualification (accounting, banking, CFA, or related professional qualifications

A Bachelor’s degree in economics, business administration, accounting or a related discipline, from a UK university or other institution acceptable to the University, or an equivalent international qualification.

And

Three years relevant work experience.

Minimum computer specification

Hardware
PC or Mac
· 64MB (RAM) minimum
· Minimum screen resolution of 600 x 800
· 56k modem or higher

For some courses you will require a CD drive and DVD player. Also, please note that you will need to have access to a PC rather than a Mac if you are using econometric software such as EViews.

Operating Systems and browser compatibility

Please visit the EduGarage website [external link] to find out which browsers, plugins and operating systems best support Blackboard 8.0 for the Online Study Centre.

You are required to have internet access to participate in this programme.

Language Requirements

For awards at FHEQ level 7, students must provide satisfactory evidence showing that they have passed within the previous three years a test of proficiency in English at the following minimum level:

IELTS with an overall grade of at least 6.5 with a minimum of 6 in each sub test; or
TOEFL with a score of 600 of 250 on the computerised test plus a Test of Written English (TWE of at least 4.5); or
a test of proficiency in English language from the prescribed list published by the University.

Where an applicant does not meet the prescribed English language proficiency requirements but believes that they can demonstrate the requisite proficiency for admission the University may, at its discretion, consider the application.

Note: Some programmes will require greater proficiency in English language; these requirements will be reflected in the relevant programme regulations.

Banking (MBA and Postgraduate Diploma)