Financial Skills: Treasury: Introduction to the City

Course Overview

The City of London continues to maintain its position as a focal point for the world's financial markets and is home to the UK's financial services industry. This entry level programme is designed for both new entrants into finance and those who are new to the City and financial markets. We will attempt to de mystify the jargon, discuss financial service providers, banks and the key financial instrument and how they work. The markets continue to evolve, and new initiatives are looked at. The future of the City should be of concern and interest to all. No prior knowledge is assumed.

Course Outline

THE CITY OF LONDON

• How the City developed -from goldsmith banks to investment banks
• Geography of the 'Square Mile'
• Canary Wharf and other location
• Global Finance Centres- NY, Chicago, Tokyo, HK, Singapore
• Time zones and the daily trade cycle

THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR

• Buy and sell side institutions
• Banks, brokers, prime brokerage
• Hedge funds, portfolio/asset managers
• ~Insurance - Lloyds, Swiss Re
• Information vendors - Bloomberg, Reuters
• The London Stock Exchange
• Electronic exchanges - ICE, LME, Eurex, Euronext Liffe

BANKING FOCUS

• The Bank of England
• The banking sector - retail vs investment banks
• How banks make money
• Structure of a major bank - front office, middle office, operations
• Why regulation is critical - the role of the FSA

KEY AREAS OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS

• Debt markets - money markets, medium term finance, bonds
• Equity markets - shares and indexes
• Foreign exchange markets - spot and forward
• Derivatives - futures, options, swaps

MARKET INITIATIVES

• Straight Through Processing (STP)
• E-commerce
• Move towards electronic trading, order driven/quote driven
• Demise of 'open outcry'
• What the future holds

Financial Skills: Treasury: Introduction to the City / FS-TITC