Financial Intermediaries Assignment 1 | University College Dublin (UCD)

Assignment 1: Financial Intermediaries (30%)

Objective:

This assignment aims to assess your understanding of financial intermediaries and your ability to critically evaluate their role and impact on society. You are expected to integrate and synthesize course concepts, apply relevant theories, and use real-world examples to support your analysis.

Task Description:

Address the question:

“Have Financial Intermediaries been of benefit to society?”

To support your argument, focus on one financial corporation (e.g., banks, insurance companies, investment firms, or FinTech organizations). You are encouraged to use examples that best illustrate your points, whether from developed or developing economies.

Guiding Questions

Use the following sub-questions to structure your analysis:

1. What Are Financial Intermediaries, and What Role Do They Play in the Economy?
Define financial intermediaries and explain their general function within the financial system. Establish the foundation for understanding their importance before assessing their societal impact.

2. How Have Financial Intermediaries Contributed to Economic Growth and Development?
Examine their positive contributions to corporate finance, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), infrastructure development, and household finance. Use data or case examples to illustrate your points.

3. What Risks or Negative Impacts Have Financial Intermediaries Had on Society?
Critically discuss potential downsides such as systemic risk, moral hazard, financial crises (e.g., the 2008 global financial crisis), and social inequality arising from unequal financial access.

4. How Have Technological Advancements Changed the Role of Financial Intermediaries?
Analyze how FinTech, digital banking, blockchain, and related innovations have reshaped the traditional role of intermediaries. Consider whether these changes have enhanced or diminished their benefits to society.

5. What Regulatory Measures Have Been Introduced to Maximize Benefits and Mitigate Risks?
Discuss relevant financial regulations, reforms, and consumer protection measures designed to enhance stability and ensure financial intermediaries operate in the public interest.

Submission guidance:

Submit your assignment in a Word document or PDF format.

Clearly list all your group members with IDs on the cover page.

Use proper formatting, citation, and referencing according to the academic style guide (e.g., APA or Harvard).

Ensure that your report is well-structured, clear, and free of grammatical errors. (Use double line spacing with Times New Roman font size 12 in the main text.)

word count: 2500 words (excluding tables and bibliography)

If GenAI is used, add the prompts used $listofprompts$ in the appendix.

Penalties for late submission:

Where work is submitted up to and including 7 days late, 10% of the total marks available shall be deducted from the mark achieved. Where work is submitted up to and including 14 days late, 20% of the total marks available shall be deducted from the mark achieved. Work submitted 15 days late or more shall be assigned a mark of zero.

Acknowledging Use of Gen AI

In this assignment, Gen AI may be used for pre-task activities such as brainstorming, outlining and initial research. This level focuses on the effective use of Gen AI for planning, synthesis, and ideation, but assessments should emphasize the ability to develop and refine these ideas independently.

You may use Gen AI for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should be your own work, and no Gen AI content is allowed.

Technology requirements:

The transcript should start with the following statement:

“This is to certify that the work we are submitting is our own and has been done by us solely and not in consultation with anyone else. Neither we, nor anyone else have submitted this work for assessment, either at University College Cork or elsewhere. We have read and understood the regulations of University College Cork concerning plagiarism. Where breaches of the declaration are detected, these will be reviewed under UCC student conduct and plagiarism policies. Any breach of the examination rules is a serious issue and can incur penalties.”

If Gen AI is used, you should also add the sentence “I acknowledge the use of [insert AI system(s) and link] for planning, idea development, and research.”

I reserve the right to ask any student to discuss their assignment orally with me after submission with AI usage.