Program Overview

Law, Financial Regulation and Compliance

Description

The course "Law, Financial Regulation and Compliance" provides students with an in-depth understanding of the legal issues that arise in banking regulation and law. The course aims to investigate the recent developments in banking law, with the new legislation put in place at the international, European, and national level. The course could ideally be divided into three sections with different subject areas that disentangle the rationales and main elements of financial regulation into three components: the "why", the "who", and the "how".

• During the first section (the "why"), the reasons behind regulation and supervision of banks are dealt with.
• During the second section (the "who"), the financial regulatory system, with the regulatory authorities and supervisory functions at the national level, at the European Union (EU) level, as well as at the global level, are identified and explained.
• During the third section (the "how"), focus is on substantive banking regulation.

The course covers also Financial Technology (FinTech) and crypto law. By building on the knowledge gained through the course, this part aims to display and examine how financial technology is impacting traditional finance and business transactions. Topics such as virtual currencies and crypto assets, peer-to-peer lending, blockchain technology, ICOs, NFTs will be dealt with. Finally, the course is examining professional ethics and the best practices in the financial sector, in particular by taking into account the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.

Objectives

This course offers an overview of the major legal and regulatory challenges concerning international, EU, and Swiss financial and banking markets. The objective of the course is to enable students to navigate the current financial regulatory framework and understand its recent developments, mostly driven by technological innovation and sustainability issues. Students will be provided with the legal tools to identify the regulatory risks the daily business practice of a bank is exposed to, branching out into retail banking, private banking, wealth management, or investment banking. The course covers compliance topics, such as anti-money laundering prevention, conduct of business rules, the prevention of insider dealing, emphasizing the increasing relevance of ethical behavior and of corporate culture in the financial industry.

Teaching Method

• In-presence teaching
• Teaching will primarily be practice-oriented and interactive, thereby focusing on a number of current real-life cases.
• Students are encouraged to actively contribute to in-class discussions and they will furthermore be required to deliver a few mandatory written assignments (e.g., reaction papers, discussion of cases) during the semester.
• Participants are not required to buy a specific textbook.
• Reading materials (e.g., scientific publications, policy papers issued by International Organizations, excerpts from the leading international financial press) will be provided.

Examination Method

• Final written exam (open questions)

Program

• Master of Science in Economics in Finance, Lecture, 2nd year
• Master of Science in Economics in Finance, Lecture, Elective courses or Field Project or Semester abroad (Digital Finance), Elective, 2nd year
• Master of Science in Economics in Finance, Lecture, Elective courses or Field Project or Semester abroad (Quantitative Finance), Elective, 2nd year

Study Trips

• FINMA - Swiss Financial Markets Authority, 01.12.25 - 01.12.25 (Optional)

Information

• Semester: Autumn
• Academic Year:
• ECTS: 3.0
• Language: English

Campus

• Campus Lugano
• Campus Mendrisio
• Campus Bellinzona