International Banking and Finance BSc (Hons) - Completion Award
2 Years full-time or 3 years sandwich | September Start

This module is designed for business students to develop a non-technical understanding of the key aspects of corporate financial theory and practice. The module covers the core aspects of raising capital and determining financing, though to investing capital in major corporate decisions, and finally returning value to shareholders.

Specifically you will study in the module; Sustainable Value Management, Stock Market Efficiency, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Portfolio Theory, International Cost of Capital, Capital Structure Decisions, Dividend Policy, Corporate Valuation and International Merger & Acquisition activity.

The module has a focus on business responsibility of all of those areas, concentrating on professional codes of conduct in areas such as the banking industry, accounting and similar finance areas, and the types of dilemmas that graduates could face in professional practice. This module will develop you as a critical and reflective practitioner. In the module you will become more aware of the issues that responsible businesses face when attempting to implement financial concepts and theories into practice.

On completion of this module you will have produced a reflective learning journal (in the form of a Blog) based on your evaluation of theory to real world scenarios. As part of that journal will have watched and reflected on appropriate financial documentaries and movies which explore responsible financial management issues. Finally you will be apply your academic knowledge to a real world case and be able to critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth.
critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth.

In this module you will learn about the capital risks faced by financial institutions. These include credit risk, risks from securitisation exposure, market risk and liquidity risk. You will study the specific areas of credit, market and liquidity risk in the context of the relevant regulatory framework (The Basel Accords) and draw on case study material provided by high profile banks and financial institutions. You will be expected to develop an understanding of the nature of these interlinked risks as well as to understand how they are measured and managed in line with regulations. The module will cover topics such as:
• A typology of risk in banking and financial institutions: definitions; types; and importance.
• International banking regulation and capital adequacy.
• Credit, market and liquidity risk regulatory framework under the Basel Accords.
• Credit Risk: Consumer/commercial credit risk and credit decision making; Measuring credit risk through credit scoring models and modern advanced techniques; counterparty credit risk using examples of the loan and derivative networks, including how to calculate counterparty credit risk via the credit valuation adjustment.
• Market Risk: Measuring market risk through Value-at-Risk models (variance-covariance, historical simulation and Monte-Carlo simulation models); the move toward expected shortfall; other contemporary regulatory models.
• Liquidity Risk: Market and balance sheet sources; measurement techniques; stored vs purchase management styles.

In this module you will focus on the specific area of treasury risk arising from interest rate and foreign exchange rate risk. You will also explore the ever-changing world of operational risk within financial institutions. You will investigate how the risks faced by financial institutions are linked via systemic risk and learn which institutions may be more susceptible to shocks. You will also learn how to measure and manage aspects of these banking risks with the help of case studies set within banking and finance institutions. Further, a key aspect of the module is to determine why an effective fraud risk assessment framework is essential to financial institutions to avoid financial Loss and reputational damage. Prominent real-life financial disasters will be examined to demonstrate how these issues can impact upon banking and financial institutions. The module will cover topics such as:
• Interest rate risk: the level and movement of interest rates; term structure theory; sources of interest rate risk to the banking book; measurement models (repricing gap, maturity and duration models); asset and liability management; Regulatory requirements.
• The impact of foreign exchange rate on financial institutions.
• Operational risk: sources; measurement models; operational risk management policies and procedure; regulatory implications.
• How to develop a Fraud risk assessment and execute it within the global and digital banking environment.
• The concept of systemic risk within the financial system and the macroprudential regulations developed to mitigate such a risk.

The module aims to provide you with an opportunity to integrate the knowledge acquired during the programme and apply this to a consultancy project for a real organisation. This consultancy project provides a vehicle for participants to develop and demonstrate key employability skills, to relate theory to practice, and to undertake a significant piece of assessed work commensurate with a capstone module.

You will work on behalf of an external organisation, which has identified a business problem or question, requiring a solution, working in small group of typically 4 individuals (you will select their own team members), participating in group and individual activities. The host organisation will provide a project briefing, and review; students will be supported by appropriate academic input and guidance from Newcastle Business School in the form of a mentor and via the Business Clinic.

The Dissertation module will equip you with the necessary intellectual and practical skills for undertaking an individual student-led, responsible, ethical in-depth investigation into an HRM or Management-related problem or issue of interest to you. Concurrently you will further develop key transferable, employability and enterprise skills including: problem-solving and analysis, creative-thinking, time and project management, negotiation, communication (written, aural and verbal), persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative.
The learning on this module is student-led, experiential and research-based with a focus upon you discovering, probing and questioning key issues. Initial lectures will though provide a refresher of the underpinning knowledge you developed at Level 5, necessary for undertaking individual student-led research. Associated workshops support you in putting this knowledge into practice for your own proposed research project. These lecture/workshop sessions cover the following topics: critically reviewing the literature, researching ethically, quantitative and qualitative research techniques, quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. You will study on the same taught sessions as students taking the Management Enquiry module

Upon completion of the Dissertation module you will be able to:
• Conduct independent and responsible, ethical research involving the application and critical evaluation of appropriate theories and models
• Engage critically with relevant literature to establish a framework in which to analyse and synthesise the findings of your primary or secondary research
• Generate / collect relevant primary or secondary data using an appropriate and justified method
• Analyse your data using appropriate and justified method/s of analysis
• Recognise the ethical implications of your work
• Critically evaluate the source/s of your data and the method you adopted

The Management Enquiry module is a student-led individual project that enables you to undertake a significant piece of assessed work commensurate with a capstone module. The module aims to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate an authentic engagement with managers and/or professionals from within HRM or Management more generally, and to integrate the knowledge you have developed during your programme to explore theory in practice.

The learning on this module is experiential and research-based with a focus upon you discovering, probing and questioning key practice-based issues. Through the module you will be offered the opportunity to develop and enhance key transferable employability/enterprise skills including: problem-solving and analysis, creative-thinking, time and project management, negotiation, communication (written, aural and verbal), persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative.

The module has five thematic areas; explore, review, engage, reflect and connect. These form the key elements of the assessed submission.

Part A (35%, 3,500 Words)
• Explore: Initial discussion a manager or HR professional explore with them the key issues that they feel they are facing in practice. It is expected that you will consider how you approach this conversation, drawing upon suitable forms of questioning and that you will provide evidence of the conversation, typically in a visual format, within the submitted enquiry report. From this conversation you will discern a specific area of focus for your Enquiry
• Review: Critical examination of appropriate literature to support your exploration. You will display your ability to critically assess and appraise the HR and/or management knowledge related to a specific key issue arising from your exploration.

Part B (65%, 6,500 Words)
• Engage: You will display your authentic engagement with the discipline problem/issue you identified in Part A, by collecting/generating and analysing live data regarding your identified problem/issue. This live data may be primary data (e.g. further interviews with, or questionnaire to, managers and/or professionals in practice) or secondary data (e.g. industry data). You will apply appropriate, ethically-considered, research methods and appropriate qualitative or quantitative data analysis.
• Reflect and Connect: You will demonstrate your ability to critically evaluate and reflect on the issues arising from your Management Enquiry. You will use the conclusions you have derived from your findings to develop clear contextualised, prioritised, well-justified, practical and actionable recommendations for change/enhancement/improvement to existing practice. This will include you demonstrating how the recommendations would potentially affect workplace professional decision making. You will demonstrate how you have connected and fed-back your key findings and recommendations to the participants of the Enquiry (usually the manager and/or participants).

A supporting reading list provides you with key references to enable you to undertake a more detailed and in-depth review of your enquiry. You will be expected to keep up-to-date with your project tasks.

In this module you will learn about the context of responsible strategic thinking, how to identify and explore sustainable business opportunities as a source of competitive advantage. You will gain an appreciation of the overarching principles of setting and executing a responsible and sustainable organisational strategy. Within the setting of these strategic objectives, you will understand how the associated responsible decision making will impact on both internal and external stakeholders. Your learning will span across private and public sector organisations, MNEs and SMEs and how each of different organisations and industries interact with the responsible and sustainable business opportunities and challenges.