Module Directory

This module deals with the bank – customer relationship and banking regulation and supervision. The first part focuses on understanding the essence of banking business and the key notions of a bank and the customer as well as their main rights and duties in the banker-customer relationship.

The second part delves into the role of banks as important economic and social institutions and explores their regulation and supervision in a domestic and EU context. The module adopts a dynamic and pragmatic approach that balances legal policy with rules and principles in statutes, cases, and other sources of law with examples of banking law in practice.

The aims of this module are:

• To provide students with an insight into banks, banking law and the business of banking


• To develop students’ in-depth understanding of the institutions involved in banking regulation and supervision in the United Kingdom and the European Union


• To enable students to understand key banking transactions and their legal implications


• To equip students with an appreciation of the political, social and economic forces underlying the evolution of the financial industry and the attempts to regulate the resulting processes and supervise the relevant institutions


• To provide students with the legal analytical tools for analysing domestic banking transactions and applying the relevant law to scenarios drawn from real-life problems.

By the end of this module, students are expected to be able to:

1. Describe key aspects of the UK banks’ legal regulation and supervision, and of the bank-customer relationship.


2. Systematically explain the structure and operations of the institutions involved in UK banking regulation and supervision.


3. Assess the success of recent banking reforms.


4. Demonstrate an understanding of key banking transactions and their legal implications.


5. Formulate an informed position on pertinent legal issues and practical situations, and compose appropriate solutions to these issues.


6. Communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions concerning banking regulation and the bank-customer relationship to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

This module does not assume any prior knowledge of banking practice, but it does expect that students have a basic understanding of contractual relationships, that they are familiar with basic EU law, and that they will quickly develop a keen interest and curiosity in financial institutions and markets. 

This module is designed to be interactive, allowing students to engage in discussions with their peers and the lecturer concerning recent developments (e.g. Brexit, digital innovation in financial services) and the effect of these developments on the banking sector. This module will be co-taught with LW224–6– Banking Law, which is offered to 3rd year undergraduate students. As such, you will benefit from the interaction with a large cohort.

Syllabus

• Introduction to banks and banking services


• Discovering the 'business of banking'


• UK Banking Regulation and Supervision


• EU Banking Regulation and Supervision


• Introduction to bank-customer relations


• The regulation of plastic money


• Bank's transactional liability


• Bank as constructive trustee


• The Bank's obligations: Anti-Money Laundering legislation


• The Bank's obligations: Duty of confidentiality

This module is taught via weekly lectures and fortnightly tutorials. Specific tutorial questions will be given in advance and will then be discussed in a debate-style conversation. Towards the middle of the term there will be a class discussion of the coursework in order to give students guidance and clarify expectations. The module teaching team will also produce and make available on Moodle short weekly guidance notes. These notes will introduce the material to be covered in the lectures and required readings. The notes will also contain tips designed both to help you navigate the material to be covered in the lectures and to equip you to analyse the required readings. You will be expected to have completed the required readings in advance of your tutorials. Your tutorials will enable you to discuss the material covered in lectures and the required readings, obtain feedback on your pre-class preparation and deepen your understanding of key concepts.