Finance

Chair: Dr. Ahmed Sair Alanazi, Ph.D.
Ph: +966 11 215 7703
E: ahalanazi@alfaisal.edu

Web address: http://cob.alfaisal.edu/programs/accounting    
 

General Department Information

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed many ambitious plans toward achieving its 2030 Vision. Saudi Arabia is transforming the whole nation’s economy from oil-dependent economy into a more diversified economy. In line with this, the College of Business offers a major in Finance, which aims to provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of finance. In finance, students will have the opportunity to explore major finance dimensions of corporate finance, investment, and banking management. The future is bright for finance graduates in Saudi Arabia.

Classes

FIN 201: Principles of Finance

This is a core second-year course for all students in the College of Business. The course introduces students to the role of financial markets. Basic principles of ratio analysis, the time value of money, valuing fundamentals for financial assets such as bonds and shares will be explained.

FIN 310: Financial Modelling

This is a third-year core unit for Finance major students. This course uses spreadsheets for financial analysis, risk analysis, valuations, investment management, credit analysis, scenario analysis, budgeting, sales forecast, financial projections, and project evaluation. The use of Excel as a tool for modeling, basic skills in recording, writing, and using Macros in Excel is also covered.

FIN 320: Corporate Finance

Corporate finance involves the financial management and value of business entities. In this course, the students investigate how managers make investment, financing, and dividend decisions. Investment decisions are based on discounted cash flow techniques and their extensions.

FIN 330: Financial Planning

This course is about making sure that values line up with how people spend and save. This course presents the basic theory and structure of individual financial planning and will analyze managing assets, credit, insurance needs, and investments, focusing on investments in stocks, bonds mutual funds, ETFs, and real estate. The course will also focus on insurance needs analyzing income and tax issues as they relate to investments. It will cover the development of lifelong financial, retirement, and estate planning. Students are required to develop an automated financial plan in MS Excel.

FIN 340: Contemporary Financial Issues

This course examines current financial issues that are shaping the global financial environment. This course discusses and debates the relevance of traditional financial models in contemporary financial events. The unit further includes the analysis of business cycles from a finance perspective.

FIN 350: Financial Markets and Institutions

The course explores the structure and activities of various financial institutions in the global financial system. The course examines the growing importance of Central Banking actions and policies on achieving macroeconomic objectives. The changing regulatory environment facing commercial banks since the global financial crisis of 2008 as well as the Saudi Mortgage Law are also covered in detail.

FIN 377: Fixed Income Securities

This is a basic course in the analysis of fixed income securities. The course focuses on the modern valuation techniques for a variety of fixed income securities based on an observed term structure of interest rates. Recognized topics include bond pricing, the Treasury Market, bond portfolio and risk management based on duration and convexity, yield-curve trading strategies, term structure estimation, and credit risk modelling.

FIN 380: Corporate Governance:

This course examines the relationships between corporate managers, the boards of directors, and investors. The course reviews the responsibilities of the board, including financial statement approval, CEO performance assessment, executive compensation, and succession planning. With global brands at risk and mistakes instantly transmitted via the internet and social media, the reputational stakes are very high.

FIN 410: Investments

This is a final year support class for students majoring in Finance. The course examines the theory and practice of portfolio management and security analysis through the implementation of advanced regression and Excel tools for empirical research and quantitative problem-solving. Students are required to develop an automated trading model in MS Excel.

FIN 420: International Finance

This course examines international financial markets, and the opportunities they present for achieving risk management and asset allocation objectives. The principal focus will be on assets traded in liquid markets: currencies, equities, bonds, swaps, and other derivatives. Analytical tools for risk and return measurement, portfolio management, and hedging will be examined.

FIN 450: Financial Trading Strategies

This course aims to introduce students to the global markets including international stock markets and indices, commodities, and currencies in the spot market. Students will learn the difference between fundamental and technical analysis and be able to make trading decisions. Moreover, the course provides the students with basic chart reading and analysis.

FIN 467: Banking Management

The course aims to introduce students to the banks and their services. Topics cover issues such as organization and structure of banks; financial statements of a bank; measuring and evaluation of bank performance; asset and liability management, hedging against interest rate risk, duration gap. Basel Agreement on International Capital Standards and regulations and reform will be introduced.

FIN 498: COOP Training Internship

This course requires students to complete a four month placement as an internee in various local and international organizations across various sectors and industries in KSA. This is an important part of the BBA degree requirements which bridges the gap between theory and practice. Students have the opportunity to get hands-on experience in a variety of areas related to mutual funds, alternative investment, asset allocations, portfolio management, risk management, corporate banking, Investing banking, venture capital, financial statement analysis and corporate valuation among many other finance applications.