Publisher's Synopsis
In the world s developed economies, an average of four of the ten most highly capitalised firms are now from the financial sector. Their economic significance and market scope are growing as rapidly as the volume of personal and public funds under their management. Correspondingly, the range and complexity of financial products and services is expanding. Deregulation and globalisation has increased the competitiveness and volatility of the sector, placing a high premium on professionalism in its management. Yet the management issues associated with the industry sector whose stock-in-trade is the means of exchange for all other sectors are unique.
Tom Valentine and Guy Ford have drawn together the articles which best explore and explain these management complexities and their corresponding managerial techniques. The readings have been chosen for their clarity, authority and practical management value. To ensure a comprehensive and balanced coverage, they comprise both benchmark articles reproduced from their original international sources, and fresh articles commissioned for the text.
The readings are structured into parts on the pressures on the modern financial institution, performance measurement, costs and strategies, pricing of financial products, lending, capital management, regulation, asset/liability management, and trading operations. Within that structure are addressed such critical topics as price decisions, risk management and the impact of technology on the finance sector.
Each section of readings is exhaustively introduced by the editors, with the chosen issues drawn out by discussion questions. Designed for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in bank or financial institution management, this excellent collection is also an indispensable resource for practitioners in the financial sector, drawing together as it does the best of its professional literature.
TOM VALENTINE is Professor of Banking and Finance at the University of Western Sydney and a director of the Australian Financial Institutions Commission. GUY FORD is a lecturer in banking and finance at Charles Sturt University and a visiting fellow with the School of Banking and Finance at the University of New South Wales.