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MAA250 – Ethics and Financial Services
Trimester 2, 2018
Assignment 1
DUE DATE AND TIME: Friday August 10th, XXXXXXXXXX:59) - Week 5
PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 20% of the overall assessment
MARKS: 20 marks
RUBRIC: A marking ru
ic is available on the CloudDeakin site.
Learning Outcome Details
Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO)
ULO 1 - Apply ethical principles and decision-
making models in a
iving at a responsible and
ethical judgement in routine and complex finance
decisions
ULO 2 – Communicate the responsibilities of
professionals in relation to stakeholder interests
ULO 3 - Integrate and communicate knowledge of
ethics and professionalism in financial services
from corporate and individual perspectives in
national and international setting
GLO1: Discipline specific knowledge and capabilities
GLO2: Communicate impact of professional
esponsibilities from a stakeholder perspective
GLO8: Global citizenship – global comparative
ethical behaviour and cross cultural knowledge
Assessment Feedback
Students who submit their work by the due date will receive feedback on the CloudDeakin site within 15
working days of submission.
Requirements
Assessment 1 requires students to write a research essay on the recent Australian Royal Commission into the
anking and finance sectors.
This is an independent research task which
oadly aligns to Topic 2 on Corporate Governance, however
forward reading of your lecture notes, the textbook and the sourcing of information from newspaper articles
is also required. Topic 2 will form the underlying basis of your discussions, however detailed research is
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equired by students to gain specific insight into the Royal Commission, the rationale for it and the interim
findings to date.
The format of the assignment is to be in essay form (report style not required), sub-headings are encouraged,
12 font cali
e or times new roman styles are recommended and use of the Harvard style of referencing is
also required (please seek assistance from the li
arian if required).
You are to write a 2000 word essay, using a minimum of 10 different references. Specific requirements
include answering the questions within Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D. Parts A, B and C relate to GLO1 and
Part D relates to GLO8. Each of the 4 parts comprise of ¼ of the assignment. The overall marks will be out of
100 marks (and then adjusted to equate to an overall 20% weighting toward your final grade for the Unit)
with 25 marks dedicated to each of the 4 parts. Each part should comprise of approximately 500 words. Some
suggested minimum prompts are included below each part, which MUST be addressed and fully discussed.
Extensive additional student research is required, as the lecture materials only
iefly address the
oad
concept of corporate governance. However, the requirement for this assignment is to provide a detailed
overview of the Australian Royal Commission into the banking and finance sectors, to date. A thorough search
of related newspaper / media articles (in addition to what is already provided under the news / media section
of the Cloud site) is also required.
Part A – Background, impetus, rationale, momentum and support and/or resistance:
• What is the purpose of corporate governance in big business and discuss whether it been successful
in our banking and finance sector in Australia?
• Describe what is the purpose of a Royal Commission?
• What were the reasons a Royal Commission into the Australian banking and finance sectors was
called?
• Was there any resistance to the Royal Commission being called? If so, who from and why?
Part B – Interim findings, revelations, conflicts of interest and corporate culture:
• What have been the key findings of the Royal Commission to date? Discuss specific examples of banks
and/or financial institutions / providers which have been identified as having
eached professional
and ethical standards
• What conflicts of interest are apparent?
• What impact does corporate culture and remuneration have on the behaviour of those who work
within the banking and finance sectors?
• Have there been examples of government organisations and/or banks where the corporate culture
has been evaluated as co
upt? Provide specific examples and rationale for why the culture may be
co
upt and how improvements in corporate culture can be made. What impact does corporate
culture have on an organisation, bank or financial institution?
Part C – Rewards / punishments, recommendations, likely reforms and impact:
• Communicate the impact of the Royal Commission, aligned to notions of the responsibilities of
professionals in relation to stakeholder interests / expectation and from the perspective of
professional responsibilities in the banking and finance sectors to all stakeholders and why
• What are the links between rewards and punishment? Consider the role of ASIC, APRA and propose
any likely regulations and penalties to be imposed by a failure of corporate governance at the
leadership, Board and CEO levels
• What recommendations should the Commissioner make based on the findings to date?
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• What impacts and reforms are likely as a result of the Royal Commission, including discussion of self-
egulation etc. Will these reforms be positive / negative and who will they most likely impact, and
are they the true cause of the cu
ent state of the finance and banking sectors?
Part D – Global awareness, globalisation, cross-cultural awareness and comparisons in global financial
markets:
• Given that the banking, finance and accounting sectors are global professions, how do you see the
ethics and levels of professionalism varying between countries? Are the issues that have been
exposed in this Royal Commission unique to Australia, or are they typical issues faced by our
profession, regardless of culture, nationality and background? What standards should Australia be
upholding based on what mechanisms and controls and how do these compare with overseas? Use
some overseas countries as comparative examples, perhaps considering issues such as regulation
versus de-regulation, legislation, government involvement / intervention and remuneration. Discuss
using some international comparative examples.
The essay is to be submitted to the Assignment 1 drop box, on the Cloud site.
You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked assignment has been
eturned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced, you will need to submit
your backup copy.
Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion
and/or plagiarism.
When you are required to submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email
to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your
assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment drop box folder after upload, and check for, and keep,
the email receipt for the submission.
Notes
• Penalties for late submission: The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an assessment
task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from available marks
for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than five days after the due date will
not be marked. You will receive 0% for the task. 'Day' means working day for paper submissions and
calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where
it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date.
• For more information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and
assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in
this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide of the Resources area in the CloudDeakin unit site.
• Building evidence of your experiences, skills and knowledge (Portfolio) - Building a portfolio that
evidences your skills, knowledge and experience will provide you with a valuable tool to help you
prepare for interviews and to showcase to potential employers. There are a number of tools that
you can use to build a portfolio. You are provided with cloud space through OneDrive, or through
the Portfolio tool in the Cloud Unit Site, but you can use any storage repository system that you like.
Remember that a Portfolio is YOUR tool. You should be able to store your assessment work,
eflections, achievements and artefacts in YOUR Portfolio. Once you have completed this assessment
piece, add it to your personal Portfolio to use and showcase your learning later, when applying for
jobs, or further studies. Curate your work by adding meaningful tags to your artefacts that describe
what the artefact represents.