BFC3170: Management of financial intermediaries

When you hear the word management of financial intermediaries I guess you think that this is a very content driven subject. It is, which can get a bit dry, but I appreciated how relevant the content is to working in a bank or large financial institution. Some of the regulations, such as Basel capital regulations are pertinent in today's economy, so it is a good idea to take this unit if you imagine yourself working in a big bank, insurance fund or superannuation fund, as all of these firms need to adhere to requirements taught in this unit.

That being said, the content can be a bit dry due to all the regulation being taught. However, it is not excessively difficult, so is a good subject to take in semester 1, especially if you are looking for a finance related job in the future. Topics covered included liquidity & liability management, capital adequacy requirements, interest rate risk, off balance sheet risk, loan risks & securitisation risks. All of these are critical for any large financial institution, so to have this in your notebook will help significantly in working in the finance field in the future.

- 60%. Again run as a Moodle quiz, the exam consisted of 40 multiple choice questions and 4 short answer questions. It mainly covered topics from the second half of the semester. Due to it being a Moodle quiz, like the mid-semester test, I did not feel pressed for time, as being in an online format made the timeframe far more manageable for me. The short-answer questions did stray a bit beyond lecture content, but as long as you have the textbook accessible in some form you'll do fine.

- Also chief examiner and unit coordinator. Hassan took all 12 lectures, and although he was late to every one of them he more than made up for it in the delivery of the content. Despite speaking to an empty lecture room each week, his explanations were on point and made sense considering the content taught. He also frequently ran overtime, and always recorded extra supplements which were uploaded to Moodle within 1 week of the lecture running. Hassan has plenty of experience in terms of lecturing the content, and it showed, as he always went beyond the lecture slides to provide comprehensive explanations for students.

Delivered as a Moodle quiz, the mid-sem consisted of 15 multiple choice questions and 4 short answer questions. Most of these were similar to the quiz questions delivered in the semester, and the short-answer questions were only theory based. Given that, the MST was not excessively difficult, and due to it being open book was also able to be relatively easily completed in the timeframe given (1hr 10 mins including reading time). This made it preferable compared to doing it in-person, so having the opportunity to do it online took a lot of stress away

- 15%. These were two online quizzes run on Moodle. They were each open on a Thursday, one in week 5 the other in week 10. Between 7am and 7pm you had 1 attempt to take each of these quizzes on Moodle. Both quizzes were fully multiple choice. This made them easy and difficult, as although multiple choice does give you the answer, the questions were phrased in a way that tricked me quite a number of times. This led to most of the cohort being tricked in Online Quiz 1, which was revised for quiz 2, meaning most of the cohort did far better in quiz 2. That being said, this is special to the 2020 calendar, so for next year I expect these quizzes to be replaced with a group assignment, as only that would be a far more demanding assessment compared to the quizzes.

No exams provided at all. Not as relevant anyways this semester as the exam was a Moodle quiz, but very difficult to obtain exams for this subject usually.

4.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

- These were standard finance tutorials, running for 1 hr each week. The tutor would just go over tutorial questions posted on Moodle. The questions were that short that they usually ran for less than 1 hour. However, they were useful in going over tricky concepts that were covered in the lectures in minimal detail.
Hassan is also very generous and helpful, so it was great to have him teaching the content, as he set a course structure that was very fair and relevant to bank regulation today. Due to this, I would recommend this subject if you are looking for something that will help lead to a career in bank management. Having knowledge of bank risks under your sleeve will ensure that you can find strategies to help mitigate these risks, as you have already been taught about them in the past.

1x 2hr lecture per week
1 x 1hr tutorial per week

Semester 1, 2020