CFU: 12

Year: 1

Semester: II

Instructors: Sara De Masi and Federica Ielasi

 

Corporate Governance - Sara De Masi

The recent financial crisis and corporate scandals have put the light on how companies are managed.

Corporate governance deals with the set of policies, process and customs by which an organization is directed. This course aims to provide a deep understanding of the fundamentals of corporate governance from a variety of angles - the board of directors, senior management, investors, media, regulators and society ñ and from an international perspective. After a highlight on the main corporate governance systems (Anglo-American, German and Italian), relevant theories and issues of corporate governance practices will be analyzed (e.g. ownership and control, conflict of interests, board of directors, institutional environments). Students will gain skills required for understanding corporate behaviors. They will be introduced to issues in corporate governance through lectures, class discussions and cases study.

Course overview:

Definitions of corporate governance; main theories; corporate governance systems around the world (outsider systems versus insider systems); Boards of directors: roles and functions, composition and gender diversity, CEO compensation and stock options, Corporate governance codes, Corporate governance in banks.

Tricker B., 2012, Corporate Governance. Principle, Policies and Practices, Oxford University Press.

Goergen M., 2012, International Corporate Governance, Pearson ed.

 

Financial Insitutions - Federica Ielasi

"The course aims to give a complete view of the financial system and the recent innovations in the national and international regulation concerning financial institutions and focusing on banking system.

The first part provides a straightforward approach to understand International banking and it covers all the traditional banking topics: the structure of their balance sheets, credit analysis, debt crisis and international supervision. It also presents a deep overview of International investment and commercial banking.

In addition, the second part concerns the analysis of the main risks faced by financial institutions: credit risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk, and insolvency risk and it explores the recent financial crisis and the way financial institutions have faced it, with specific reference to Basel II and III capital requirements.

The last part of the course, looking at the fundamentals of financial markets and institutions, analyzes the main financial intermediaries: commercial banks, pension funds, investment companies.

In this way, the course takes a cross-disciplinary approach of the topic pointing out all the connections between financial institutions, banking system, economic policies and risk management.

The objectives of the course are to strengthen: the knowledge about financial markets and institutions with a focus on banks, the skills associated with the comprehension of the function of financial markets and their recent evolution, both in the national and international field, and the knowledge about models for measuring and managing financial risks.

Saunders, Cornett, 2015, Financial Markets and Institutions, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill