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INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING YOUR
ESSAY
COURSE COORDINATOR AND LECTURER
DR. MAMIZA HAQ
SEMESTER 1, 2020
JUNE 3, 2020
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“FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND RISK”
SUBMISSION DEADLINE : JULY 3RD, FRIDAY AT 5:00PM.
Assignment Overview
This assignment is designed to:
• Deepen your understanding on risk management of financial institutions including
commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies.
• Expand your understanding on financial institutions behaviour in a real world setting
along with academic developments.
• Develop your academic research and writing skills
An economy relies on financial institutions to act as specialist in risk measurement and
management. The importance of this was demonstrated in the aftermath of the financial
institutions’ failure to perform the critical functions during the global financial crisis. When
financial institutions failed to perform their critical risk measurement and management
functions, the result was a crisis of confidence that disrupted financial markets. This
assignment involves:
a) Researching media articles, official websites and government reports about a
financial institution’s overall risk, risk measurement and management. Possible issues include
systemic risk, credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk, off-balance sheet risk, operational
risk.
b) Undertaking some research of the scholarly banking literature on this topic. In
your written assignment, you will apply insights you found in the scholarly literature to the
issue you investigated through your research of media articles and documents.
c) Preparing a maximum of 2-minutes video recording where you will present your
findings and recommendations to a financial institution’s board of directors.
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Task Description:
This assignment requires you to write an analysis of issues related to financial
institutions’ risk, risk measurement and management. To complete the assignment, you will
need to undertake two major research tasks in preparation for writing your assignment. The
final task is to prepare a two-minute video recording, in which you are presenting your
findings and your recommendations to a financial institution’s board of directors. The research
tasks are described below followed by a detailed outline of the requirements for writing your
assignment.
(a) Research Task #1: Financial institutions and risk- real world articles
You must find around twelve (12) documents concerning risk issues in financial institutions.
Documents include media articles (NO BLOGS), official websites (e.g.; Bank of England,
Bank for International Settlement, Central Bank of Malaysia, European Central Bank,
Federal Reserve Board, People’s Bank of China, Reserve Bank of India) and government
reports.
Examples of suitable issues, which you might like to research, include:
• The impact of 2007/2008 global financial crisis.
• Developments after the 2007/2008 financial crisis to avoid potential crisis.
• Coordination and steps taken by financial institutions and regulators (APRA, regulatory
body of other countries, Bank for International Settlement) in relation to risk
measurement and management.
• Risk and risk measurement and management in COVID 19 environment- both at banklevel and regulatory and supervisory level (APRA, regulatory body of other countries,
Bank for International Settlement).
• Financial institutions role in developing a risk management, measurement framework
to create a culture of transparency, awareness, personal responsibility through
reporting, collaboration, discussion.
• Financial institutions and industry performance.
• Competition and risk in the financial institution environment.
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• Coordination between financial institutions and regulators, depositors and shareholders,
which may include capital forbearance, too-big-to-fail policy, prompt corrective actions
in reducing asymmetry information (i.e.; moral hazard problem).
Note that the aforementioned issues are not an exhaustive list. You are not restricted to issues
on this list. Other issues can be investigated as long as they concern financial institutions risk
and risk management. Also, note that the issues listed above are not independent.
(b) Research Task #2: Financial institutions and risk- academic journals
You must find three scholarly articles published in academic journals which relate to
risk issue you have identified. Your articles must be published in journals on the approved list
of journals including:
Journal of Banking and Finance,
Journal of Financial Intermediation and,
Journal of Financial Stability.
You do not need to choose your three articles from three different approved journals. However,
you cannot choose an article from a journal not on this approved list. These journals have been
chosen because they represent high quality, peer reviewed scholarly research in the field of
financial institutions.
(c) Write Up of Your Assignment
Once you have completed the two research tasks, you should complete the following written
assignment. The assignment has five sections, as outlined below.
Section 1: Introduction (100 words)
You must write an introduction outlining the topic of your assignment and stating the approach
you are going to take in discussing this topic.
Section 2: Real world Evidence on Risk (400 words)
Use media articles and other documents to describe financial institutions relevant risk issue.
Be sure to explain how the issue you identified affects the financial system/economy. This
section must not contain more than 10% of direct quotes from the media articles and other
documents (i.e. 40 words)
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Section 3: Academic Evidence on Risk (500 words)
Demonstrate your understanding of management evidence on risk based on the three articles
you found during your research of the academic literature published in journals.
This section should be structured into three paragraphs with one paragraph written on each
journal article. You must write 165 words on each article discussing the insights it offers into
risk. You should avoid merely summarising the content of your articles. Rather, you should
analyse what you learned about risk from the reading the article and from your seminars.
When writing your essay, paraphrase the author’s ideas and insights into your own words. The
following approach can help. What research question is the author(s) investigating in their
article? What are their findings? How are their findings interesting and relevant to financial
institutions risk? What new insights does the article offer?
Each paragraph must not contain more than 10% of direct quotes from the journal articles
(i.e. approximately, 16 words).
Section 4: Application of Evidence to Issue (650 words)
In this section, you should explain how insights from the journal articles on risk can be applied
to understand how CEOs, managers, regulators, policymakers, shareholders and other
stakeholders respond to a risk issue. In this section, you must combine your understanding on
“Real world Evidence on Risk” and “Academic Evidence on Risk”. Your application should
include a discussion of:
a. the challenge and strengths financial institutions face in practice or how real financial
institutions and managers deal with risk;
b. where risk was recognised and managed and measured well and where it required
improvements
c. how academic evidence can help financial institutions to recognise and manage risk or
how to ensure academic financial institution articles/journal inform better practice in a real
world settings;
d. concrete recommendations for managing risk for future crises.
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You may like to use Osiris or Capital IQ databases to do some analysis using risk and return
ratios. This section must not contain more than 10% of direct quotes from the media articles,
documents and journal articles (i.e. 65 words).
Section 5: Recommendations (350 words)
In the final section of your assignment, you should reflect on what you have learned from
writing this assignment. Recommendations on the following:
a. what would you recommend or what would you do differently to recognise, assess and
manage risk of your financial institution?
b. given the current economic and financial outlook, what actions would you recommend
to your financial institution?
You MUST avoid any type of repetition from previous sections. You may use additional
references to support your reflections, if you desire.
(d) Presentation: Your assignment must be structured using the following sub-headings and
word counts:
Section 1: Introduction (100 words)
Section 2: Real world Evidence on Risk (400 words)
Section 3: Academic Evidence on Risk (500 words)
Section 4: Application of Evidence to Issue (650 words)
Section 5: Recommendations (350 words)
Your assignment should be 2000 words.
Use the template ( A word .doc version) available on the course Blackboard site. Please
note the template includes a Cover Page – please fill in your name and student ID.
Please do not forget to provide your feedback on this assignment. Your assignment
must be presented using the sections as sub-headings (note: each section does not need
to start on a new page).
It should be written in formal style in third person voice.
Be sure to use double-spacing, 12 point font, page numbering and 2.5cm margins on all
sides of the page.
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Include in-text referencing, followed by an alphabetised reference list using the
Harvard, APA or AMJ referencing style. More information on referencing is included
on the course blackboard site.
Please proofread your assignment for spelling and grammatical errors. If English is
your second language, you can receive support for writing in English from UQ’s
Academic and English support services.
(e) 2-minutes video recording
• Once you have completed your report, you will now summarise your findings and
present it to a financial institution’s Board of Directors.
• The recording MUST NOT exceed more than 2 minutes.
• The recoding must be done or converted into MP4, in order for it to be uploaded
properly using Kaltura on the Blackboard. For more information on how to upload
recording using Kaltura please click the following link:
https://web.library.uq.edu.au/library-services/it/learnuq-blackboard-help/kalturamedia/submit-video-or-audio-assignment-kaltura
Referencing and Citing:
• Assignments must be substantially your own work. If you wish to report another
author’s point of view you should do so in your own words, and properly reference in
accordance with an approved referencing style. Direct quotations should be used
sparingly, form a small part of your work, and must be placed in quotation marks and
referenced.
• Students are encouraged to discuss issues that arise in this course together, however,
the written work you submit must be entirely your own. Similarly, you must not help
another student to cheat by lending assignments (present or past).
• For more information on referencing styles, visit the library or see:
https://web.library.uq.edu.au/research-tools-techniques/referencing/referencing-styleguides.
• If you do not reference correctly, you could be found guilty of academic misconduct.
Please see this link for more information: https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and
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services/manage-my-program/student-integrity-and-conduct/academic-integrity-andstudent-conduct.
Criteria & Marking:
Please refer to the rubric posted on the Black Board.
Submission:
You must submit your written document via Turnitin under Assessment section of the course
Blackboard site. Please ensure you receive a Turnitin submission ID and retain this number as
proof of submission. If you do not receive proof of submission, you should regard your
submission as unsuccessful and take steps to address the issue. It is your responsibility to ensure
the assignment has been successfully submitted. Any requests to waive the late submission
penalty without proof of submission will not be considered under any circumstances.
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