Course 2017-2018 a.y.

Classes: 31 (I sem.)

Instructors:
Class 31: ANNA EUGENIA OMARINI

The aftermath of the global financial crisis and the digital disruption are reshaping the retail banking landscape significantly (payments, money transfers, lending, and investment management).
The role of finance has changed from being a provider of financial products and services to an enabler for them (such as robo-advisers, peer to peer lending, etc.).
The influence from new non-bank competitors and the increasing number of financial technology firms FinTechs - is growing in the market. The FinTech phenomenon has evolved from startups that want to take on and beat incumbents, to a broader ecosystem of different businesses looking in many cases also for partnerships with financial institutions.
The aim of the course is to provide an adequate representation of strategies, actions, tools, and the main critical thinking factors needed to develop human-digital platforms for developing and delivering value in banking.
The setting of the course is interdisciplinary, to take account of the different profiles relevant to managing both the banks and the FinTech companies as business services.
The course is focused on providing professional knowledge and effective tools. A dual perspective of analysis is assumed both for

• Those working within banks (especially retail banks) and FinTech companies, and
• Those who, for various reasons, are called to collaborate with banks as external partners (consultants, technology vendors, and others).
  

The course aims to achieve three levels of knowledge.

• Understanding the banking business.
• Main scope and content.
• Competitive advantage and critical analysis.
• Market trends in Europe and other foreign markets.
  

• Understanding the market structure and its digital transformation.
• Supply-demand value chain.
• Incumbents and new competitors.
• Business models in banks and FinTech companies.
  

• Achieving an integrated vision of the possible scenario.
• Bank and Fintech perspectives: competition versus collaboration.
• Business model innovations: open banking and financial platforms.
• Regulatory framework as is and future evolution.
  

In order to propose a close link between theory and practice, exposure to fundamental theoretical concepts will be supported by examples, business cases and class discussions thanks to the presence of professionals from different institutions (banks, FinTech companies, consulting firms and supervisory authorities). Each of them bring their own particular perspective to the course.

No mid-term exam is scheduled.

For attending students
The exam is oral. The contents refer to the textbook and the material made available on the course website (teaching notes, lectures and slides), in addition to the evidence from the guest speakers, which is an integral part of the course and therefore the final exam.
The final evaluation takes into account

• Written/oral exam (50%).
• Work project (30%).
• Active class participation (20%).

There is a formal presentation of the best work projects. And in addition, there is a company visit to Banca Mediolanum (which is the Course donor). During the visit there is a company presentation, and meetings with managers to evaluate the possibilities of internships within their organization.

For non attending students
The exam is written and it is not possible to integrate marks obtained in group work, which can only be carried out by attending students. The contents refer to the textbook and the material made available on the course website (teaching notes and slides).

For attending and non-attending students

• A. OMARINI, Retail Banking. Business Transformation and Competitive Strategies for the Future, Palgrave MacMillan, 2015, selected chapters.
• A set of articles and teaching notes available on the course website.

It is suggested that students have attended the basic course in Financial Markets and Institutions in order to fully exploit the value of the course.