ECIF22 - ECONOMICS OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES

The course contributes to the main objective of the bachelor degree of providing a solid background in firms management, including financial firms. In particular, the course aims at analyzing functions and components of financial system (financial institutions, products, markets, regulation). In particular, it focuses on management, riskiness, profitability of financial institutions as well as on the relations with financial markets. Such analyses consider both the features of real economy and regulations of different financial intermediaries. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of the course students will be able to know the theory underlying the functioning of financial intermediaries and markets and to acquire specialist skills necessary to operate within banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries, as well as in corporate finance functions of non-financial firms. In order to contribute to the training of professional figures envisaged in the bachelor degree, students will be able to hold positions that require knowledge on risk management, on the lending activity, and on financial products. Students will also be able to address financial decisions in contexts characterized by an increasingly rapid regulatory evolution. The objectives of the course aim at transmitting to the students the knowledge/skills necessary: - to recognize the peculiarities of the management of each type of financial institution; - to select financial instruments/products with respect to financing /investment/ risk coverage needs; - to recognize the main regulatory framework of financial system; -to recognize the impact of monetary policy on the financial system. To this end, the course aims at transmitting the following skills and knowledge in terms of particular objectives: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABILITY - to distinguish the different nature, activity and functioning of the intermediaries; - to distinguish the different nature and purpose of the financial instruments and of financial markets APPLIED KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABILITY - to apply the learned knowledge to real cases and to identify the most appropriate solutions to concrete problems concerning the functioning of financial markets and institutions. AUTONOMY OF JUDGMENT: - to read information sheets by drawing critical considerations on the economic conditions of the loans/investments; - to read financial market regulations by drawing critical considerations on the risk-return conditions of negotiated instruments COMMUNICATION SKILLS - to express, with appropriate technical language, analytical and synthetic considerations on the fundamental aspects of the course also through interdisciplinary links. ABILITY TO LEARN - to carry out research on specific aspects of the course; - to compare acquired skills with the most recent trends (usable tools: scientific publications, Bank of Italy and European Central Bank publications)