Operating and Financial Reporting Issues in the Financial Services Industry

3 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines how accounting in the financial services industry – banking, insurance, investment industry, and real estate – actually operates. Students learn about underwriting and pricing in each sector, investment processes and controls, incentive-based profit sharing, risk management, and the factors that contribute to profitability. Students learn what financial statements reveal about estimates companies make regarding liabilities and, more generally, what they reveal about how companies deal with uncertainty associated with predicting and measuring financial results. Students examine the controversy over employing Fair Value Accounting across sectors and learn about other sector-specific accounting requirements.