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Overview of the course. Entry Qualifications for the course. Coursee Structure. The rules and regulations for the course. The course syllabus. How to enrol for the course. Doenloads applicable to the course.

Qualifications

Certificate in Financial Services - Information for Schools

Course Syllabus

The Certificate in Financial Services offers the following subject units:

To be awarded the "Certificate in Financial Services" qualification it is necessary to pass three of the above subjects and one of these must be "Introduction to Financial Services".

* Candidates may register for Legal Environment either under the Scots legal system, or under the law as it applies in England and Wales. Candidates will be examined according to the jurisdiction which they choose upon registration. Please note that only one version may be counted as a credit towards a qualification.

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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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Legal Environment

Please note that there is also a version of this subject which covers the law as it applies in England and Wales. The syllabus is the same for both subjects but, obviously, the course content is different.

  • Introduction to Law: nature and formal sources of law, criminal and civil law, outline of court structure, European Union law.
  • Contract Law: formation, offer and acceptance, constitution, error misrepresentation, breach/termination of contract, extinction of obligations.
  • The Financial Services Act 1986 and Financial Services Markets Act 2000.
  • Negotiable Instruments: cheques, cheque cards, credit and debit cards, electronic banking.
  • Banker-Customer Contract: obligations and rights of banker and customer, opening and closing accounts, statutory intervention, Consumer Credit Acts, the Financial Services Ombudsman.
  • The Banking Acts of 1979 and 1987: general philosophy and main terms, Bank of England.
  • Origins and Evolution of Building Societies and their Law: the Building Societies Acts, formation of a building society, supervision of building societies

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Basic Accounting and Taxation

  • The Accounting Framework: rules on disclosure; accounting conventions; accounting concepts.
  • Assets, liabilities, capital and revenue: introduction of capital; purchase of property, equipment and vehicles; new sources of finance; disposal of surplus assets; trading at a profit; payment of expenses; introduction to the balance sheet.
  • Accounting Transactions: the accounting equation; accounts and account balances; trade debtors and sales revenue; trade creditors and purchases of stock; trade debtors and trade creditors; control accounts and personal ledgers; extracting a trial balance.
  • Year end adjustments and provisions: accruals; prepayments; trade debtors - bad debts written off and provision for doubtful debts; accounting for fixed assets - depreciation and gains or losses on disposal; accounting for stocks - using cost of sales and using purchases; the Journal and Journal entries.
  • Final accounts preparation: updating the general ledger; trial balance - revised; profit and loss account; balance sheet.
  • Published accounts: internal management accounts; disclosure standards; contents of published reports and accounts; directors’ report; auditors’ report; notes to the accounts.
  • Basic personal taxation; income tax assessment for individuals; schedules of taxation; allowances and allowable deductions; income tax and the saver and investor; tax efficiency of savings and investments; tax system for income from savings and investments.

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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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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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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.

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International Services

  • Foreign notes and Travellers Cheques; open credits and bank drafts; personal cheques; foreign dividend warrants; travel facilities; Sterling and foreign currency notes; credit, debit, charge and electronic purse cards; SWIFT and other bank international payments; emergency cash; travel insurance; service for companies with staff who travel abroad.
  • Vostro accounts for Sterling transactions; nostro accounts for currency transactions; dealing in foreign currencies; currency exchanges; exchange rates: spot rates; exchange rate margins; exchange rate fluctuations; effects of currency fluctuations on foreign trade; invoicing in Sterling; forward contracts; currency options; customers’ currency accounts; currency borrowing and investment.
  • International monetary settlements and payments; open account; factoring and credit & political insurance; invoice discounting; documentary letters of credit; standby letters of credit; specialised types of letters of credit; collections: types and documents against payment/cash against documents; collections: documents against acceptance/clean collections; payment in advance; short term finance for the importer and longer term finance for the exporter and importer.

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Call Centre Operations

  • The Development of Call Centre Operations : evolution of the call centre; reasons for setting up a call centre; distribution channels and remote banking; delivery channels; growth of telephone banking; impact on the branch network.
  • Customers of Call Centre Operations: bank customers; markets and segments; customer characteristics; customer responses; telephone banking customers; customer concerns; Special needs customers; changing profile of the telephone banking customer; customer expectations.
  • Staff in a Call Centre Operation: location; building requirements; staffing requirements; service levels; staffing a telephone banking operation; recruitment and selection; training; communication training; product knowledge; features and benefits; systems training; scripting conversations; sales skills; cross-selling; performance management; coaching; empowerment; call centre culture.
  • Products and Services: money transmission accounts; savings accounts; mortgages; insurance and investment products; personal loans; balance enquiry; last few transactions; address change; statement request; cheque book orders; stop cheques; transfers between accounts; bill payments; standing orders; direct debit amendments and cancellations; share dealing service; arranging an overdraft; travel services; third party payments; product information; developing new services.
  • Technology and telephony.
  • Future Developments: development of the financial services industry; choosing a distribution strategy; developing telephone banking; customer lifestyles and expectations; accessibility of technology; mobile technology; Internet and PC banking; interactive television; voice recognition; banking in the future.

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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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Credit Union Practice

  • Introduction to Credit Unions - Origins and development of credit unions, mutual benefit and democratic nature, industry structure and recent developments, prospects for credit unions.
  • The Regulatory Environment - The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, regulatory framework and regulatory bodies, self-regulation, FSA Key Principles, money laundering, data protection.
  • Regulation of Credit Unions -Credit union legislation, regulation, corporate form, common bond, constitution, version 1 and version 2 credit unions, the credit unions sourcebook .
  • Constitution, Management and Administration - Formation and registration, constitutional framework, budgeting and budgetary control, policies and procedures, duties of directors and officers, human resources management.
  • Finance - Financial accounts, statutory returns, liquidity ratio, large version 1 and version 2 credit unions, auditor’s statement, management and officers .
  • Savings Membership, shares, products, regulation, dividends, taxation, loan Eligibility, savings administration, opening and closing an account.
  • Lending - Lending policy, loan application, lending contract, The Consumer Credit Act, loan administration, loss provisioning.
  • Insurance