European Foundation Certificate in Banking (EFCB)

Course Syllabus

To be awarded the EFCB candidates must complete the following six subject units:

• Introduction to Financial Services (core)
• Economic Environment
• Sales and Service
• Banking Operations
• Introduction to Marketing
• Team Development

Introduction to Financial Services

• Money: cash, bank deposits, legal tender, barter, qualities/ functions of money, development of money, token money, defining money - theory, practice.
• UK Retail Banks: development of UK banking, innovations by Scottish banks, Girobank, retail bank functions, balance sheet aspects, liquidity and profitability.
• Building Societies: development and growth, pressure for change, Building Societies Acts, balance sheet aspects.
• National Savings and Investments: sources/uses of funds.
• Other Deposit-Takers: finance houses, ownership, sources/ uses of funds, merchant banks, functions, balance sheet aspects, overseas/foreign banks, store groups, credit unions.
• Bank of England: development, functions, balance sheet aspects, discount market, institutions, functions, sources/uses of funds.
• Financial Services Authority
• Capital Market: primary and secondary market, types of shares, stock market terminology, institutional investors, insurance companies, pension funds, unit/investment trusts, Lloyd’s Corporation, insurance/risk.
• Market Share of Financial Institutions: liquid assets, banks and building societies, personal products, cheque accounts, deposit/ investment facilities, advances - types, other customer services.
• Money Transmission: cash, cheques, bank giro, regular payments, APACS, ATMs, telephone banking, technology and personal financial products.
• Financial Sector Developments: employment and branches, rationalisation and re-structuring, income - costs - profits.
• Building Societies: current trends and prospects.
• Future Banking: single European banking market, ‘core’ banking activities, cross-border alliances.
• Plastic/Electronic Money: credit/debit cards, charge/store cards, affinity cards, smart cards.

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Economic Environment

• Introduction to Basic Economic Theory and Concepts: nature of economics, methods of reasoning, positive and normative economics, micro and macro economics, opportunity cost, key economic questions.
• Economic Systems: traditional economy, market economy, command economy, mixed economy.
• Production: factors of production, land, labour, capital, enterprise.
• The Price Mechanism: methods of determining price, demand, supply, supply and demand relationships.
• Inflation: retail price index, problems of inflation, control of inflation.
• Types of Business Organisation: sold trader, partnership, public and private company, co-operatives, public corporations.
• The Government and the Economy: managing the economy, weapons of monetary policy, unemployment.
• International Trade: law of comparative advantage, barriers to international trade, balance of payments, the European Union.
• Economics and the Environment: conservation pollution.

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Sales and Service

• Personal Services: features and benefits, sales and selling strategies
• Product Knowledge: current accounts, standing orders and direct debits, overdrafts, commission, statements of account, interest-bearing accounts, high interest accounts, loan accounts, mortgages, budget accounts, cheque cards, electronic funds transfer, credit cards, ATMs, homebanking, travel services.
• The Competitive Environment: building societies, National Savings, unit trusts, investment trusts, local authorities, finance companies, the Stock Market.
• Selling Skills: importance of selling to banks, the role of a sales person, components for success.
• Sales Interviews: preparation, benefits, questions, objections, closing the sale, cross-selling.
• Marketing Objectives: target markets, market segments, socio
• -economic groupings, acorn analysis, life cycle, marketresearch, product development, advertising, databases.
• Customer Service: quality, accuracy, delivery, total quality management, management of service levels, standards, measurement, incentives.
• Code of Banking Practice: principles, content, the code in practice, banking ombudsman.

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Banking Operations

• Banker/Customer Relationships: definition of bank and customer, identification of the various relationships which can exist, the rights and duties of each party.
• Outline of Bank Services: savings and investment accounts, lending facilities, money transmission, payment services, share dealing, executor and trustee, insurance and investment advice.
• Customers: personal customers, clubs, associations and societies, trustees, sole traders, partnerships and companies.
• Operating Customer Accounts, opening accounts, closing accounts; deceased accounts, special considerations needed for accounts of students and minors, control of accounts monitoring methods and information used, purpose of review, remedial action, charges, bad debt recovery.
• Cheques: definition, endorsements, role of collecting and paying banker, various clearing systems.
• Plastic and Electronic Banking: home and telephone banking, EFTPOS and bank systems, plastic cards - debit, credit, charge, store, smart.
• Lending: general principles of good lending practice, canons of lending, purposes and procedures of credit scoring.
• Securities for Advances: reasons for taking security, types of security, features of security, discharge of security.

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Introduction to Marketing

• The Role of Marketing:The marketing concept; marketing mismanagement; evolution of marketing in the banking sector; benefits of relationship marketing; what does marketing involve?; information interpretation; tools for gathering, storing and disseminating information; planning & implementation; service quality; training programmes; marketing environment.
• Understanding Customers: Consumer buying behaviour; consumer buying decision process; influences on behaviour; organisational buying behaviour; decision-making unit; buying process; influences on organisational buying; segmentation and target marketing; market segmentation; bases for segmenting consumer markets; bases for segmenting the corporate market; requirements for effective segmentation; selection of target markets; loyalty and relationship marketing.
• Managing Marketing: Marketing information; internal reporting input; marketing intelligence input; marketing research input; market research process; marketing planning process; corporate plans -vmarketing plans; marketing planning cycle; situation analysis; development of marketing objectives; formulation of the marketing strategy; development of the plan for implementation and control; implementation of the marketing plan; branch marketing plan; situation analysis; business development objectives; business development strategy; development of implementation plan; implementation of the branch marketing plan; rationale and practice for internal marketing; internal market research; internal marketing targets.

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Team Development

• Groups: definitions, types, formal groups or informal groups.
• Group Formation: development and behaviour, theories of group formation, practical reasons for group formation, stages in group formation.
• Group Effectiveness: action centred leadership, needs theories of motivation, Maslow - hierarchy of needs, Herzberg - two factor theory, Vroom – expectancy theory.
• Attitudes: attitude formation, measurement, change. Roles: group member roles.
• Conflict: basic concepts, conflict handling behaviours, personal and interpersonal conflict, intergroup conflict, organisational conflict.
• Management Principles: management skills, decision making and problem solving, management activities and roles.
• Organisational Structures: key terms, bureaucratic structure, product or service structures, geographical structures, trends in structure.
• Decentralisation: cultures.
• Project Management: types of project structure, need for project management, stages in project development, network analysis.
• Time Management: setting priorities, delegation, improving time management.