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for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.
| Unit name |
Banking Conduct and Law |
| Unit code |
LAWDM0144 |
| Credit points |
30 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
|
| Unit director |
Miss. Powley |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None
|
| Co-requisites |
None
|
| School/department |
University of Bristol Law School |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Description including Unit Aims
Banking Conduct and Law focuses on the legal issues that arise for banks in the course of engaging with their customers. It has traditionally involved studying the legal relationships that arise between banks and their customers, which rest on well-established rules of common law and statutory provisions. The evolution of the banking sector and changes to banking practice have, however, impacted the development of the law in this area. Increasingly, rules and regulations overlay the scope of the common law provisions that apply in the banker-customer context. The increase in financial crime has led to a plethora of rules that affect how banks treat their customers. Recent changes in terms of technology and innovation in the banking sector are providing new, alternative ways for consumers to access banking services. This unit will enable students to understand the historical development of the law in this area whilst also allowing students to engage with new developments and current debates in the field of banking law and banking conduct.
Topics covered will include:
- The Regulatory Authorities
- Consumer protection: the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Competition and Markets Authority
- The banker-customer relationship
- Payments: cards, fraud and FinTech
- Mandate and mistaken payments
- Duties of care
- Constructive trusts
- Confidentiality and money laundering
- Lending
- Prudential regulation
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
- Discuss the role of law and regulation in the oversight of bank conduct and the banker-customer relationship and explain the relevant legal rules and principles that impact how banks engage with their customers.
- Employ appropriate legal principles from banking law and regulation to assess problem case scenarios.
- Analyse the development of the relevant law and regulation in light of the current challenges that banks and their customers face.
- Develop arguments engaging with complex contemporary debates covering issues that affect the banking sector synthesising various materials, including case law, statutes, regulatory materials and banking industry sources.
- Critically assess the nature of banking law in the UK.
Teaching Information
Teaching will be delivered through a variety of asynchronous and synchronous activities
Assessment Information
2 x summative assessment: 2x Timed Open Book Assessments with a specified word count (50% each)
The assessment will assess all of the intended learning outcomes for this unit.
Reading and References
Textbook details will be released in due course.
For an example of the type of texts referred to on this unit, please see:
- Financial Conduct Authority, Annual Report 2016/17, July 2017. Available at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/annual-reports/annual-report-2016-17.pdf
- Financial Conduct Authority, Our Mission 2017: How we regulate financial services, April 2017. Available at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/our-mission-2017.pdf
- Competition and Markets Authority, Retail banking market investigation: final report, August 2016. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57ac9667e5274a0f6c00007a/retail-banking-market-investigation-full-final-report.pdf (in summary only)
- M Carney (Governor of the Bank of England), ‘The Promise of FinTech – Something New Under the Sun?’, Speech to the Bundesbank G20 conference, January 2017. Available at: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2017/the-promise-of-fintech-something-new-under-the-sun
- H Powley & K Stanton, ‘The post-crisis approach and new challenges to banking regulation’, (2017) Institute of Law Journal (1) 58-80. Available at: https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/130407095/PostCrisisApproach.pdf
See generally:
Students also might find it interesting to listen to one or two of the Podcast episodes of ‘FinTech Insider’, covering the impact of technological innovation on the banking and financial services sector.
