Survey of the Financial System
10-Week Graduate Course
Terms taught: Autumn 2019, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Autumn 2024
Course Description: This postgraduate course provides a broad overview of financial markets and instruments. The first part covers the financial system and its core functions, interest rates, and term structure. The second part examines central banking, short-term interest rates, bond markets, equity markets, mortgage markets, and foreign exchange. The third part explores derivatives, risk management, financial intermediation, and market microstructure. The course includes interactive polls, case studies, and weekly academic paper readings. Students should have completed intermediate finance courses and possess strong quantitative skills.
Figure: The Flow-of-Funds Diagram
Notes. The flow of funds diagram illustrates the two primary channels through which funds move from lenders (surplus units) to borrowers (deficit units) in the financial system. The upper path shows indirect finance, where financial intermediaries such as banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and mutual funds collect funds from lenders and channel them to borrowers. The lower path depicts direct finance, where borrowers obtain funds directly from lenders through primary markets by issuing securities like bonds and stocks. Secondary markets provide liquidity by allowing lenders to trade these securities among themselves. The arrows indicate the direction of fund flows, with funds moving from left to right through either the intermediation channel or the direct finance channel.
Student Evaluations
| Year | Rating | Responses |
|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 4.9/5 | 68 |
| 2023/24 | 4.8/5 | 86 |
| 2022/23 | 4.9/5 | 116 |
| 2021/22 | 4.7/5 | 66 |
| 2020/21 | 4.8/5 | 86 |
| 2019/20 | 4.7/5 | 95 |
Rating is the mean of the lecture items (“Lectures with Rory Mullen”) in the WBS module feedback, on a 1–5 scale; Responses is the number of students who completed the feedback (2025/26 from the summary notification: a 16% participation rate of roughly 182 students).