Core Classes | First Year Students
The exceptional reputation of Pacific Coast Banking School has been built on a program consisting of:
Relevant cutting-edge courses developed by leading faculty, top industry consultants and
senior bankers in the United States.
Rigorously selected and evaluated world-class faculty.
Full-length courses which go hand-in-hand with our students' experience, education,
and the
goals of their organization, focusing on the principles and
strategies needed to manage a
financial institution.
The first year at PCBS is designed to equip students to rise into leadership by providing
a broad foundation in bank management, including economic, financial, and leadership courses. The curriculum
is entirely comprised of core (or required) courses. The in-depth information provided is then utilized in
the five extension assignments throughout the year between the first and second sessions.
Analysis of Business Conditions
Analysis and interpretation of the macro-economy. Consideration of national monetary
and fiscal policies designed to promote employment, price stability, and economic
growth. The course builds knowledge of the international, national, and regional
macroeconomic environments in which bankers do business. It will foster understanding
of the recent and future performance of the U.S. economy. Current and future national
and international policies and their implications for the macroeconomic environment
will be addressed.
Credit Risk Management
Prior to 2007, credit risk management primarily focused on the administration of
individual borrower relationships. A bank's loan policy and supporting credit administration
and underwriting procedures were designed to ensure that lenders said "yes" to individual
loan request that "made sense" on the merit of the request.
Bank regulators closed 515 banks between 2008 and 2015. Why did these institutions
fail? In the pursuit of increasing profit and growth, they assumed repayment risks
far beyond their ability to manage. Business development strategies emphasized growth
and profit. Boards and senior management were willing to invite more repayment risk
into the bank to support growth and profit. Lending concentrations grew, transaction
by transaction, and management lost perspective of loan portfolio dynamics.
This class is designed to accomplish multiple objectives. Students will be given
the opportunity to accomplish the following:
- Define their bank's lending risk tolerance.
- Determine their bank's current lending culture.
- Develop a "risk profile" for their bank's loan portfolio.
- Review and evaluate their bank's loan approval process.
- Study the components of strategic loan portfolio management.
- Determine their bank's vulnerability to costly mistakes in loan portfolio management.
- Measure their bank's lending processes against loan portfolio management best practices.
- Analyze their bank's loan pricing practices in view of building a competitive advantage.
- Discuss the impact of the current regulatory environment on their bank's lending
function and ability to compete.
- Review tools available for better management of their bank's loan portfolio.
Dynamic Leadership
Dynamic Leadership provides participants with an opportunity to explore, develop
and enhance many of the critical leadership attributes, qualities, skills and competencies
needed to create and sustain dynamic organizational success. This program will challenge
the participants to build on their established skills and competencies and to exchange
ideas and experiences in a way that enhances their leadership effectiveness.
Practical Finance for Bankers
Increasing transferable value of the firm is the central idea of finance and its
application in financial management.
Banks are in the business of taking deposits and making loans and as such, banking
involves many of the most fundamental tools and techniques in modern finance. This
course is designed to present these tools and techniques and to show you how they
are used in practice to value financial instruments and to understand what drives
value and how it is created. The goal of all good business decisions is to build
value, so a strong foundation in the determinants of financial management and value
creation is critically important to bankers and business clients alike.
Valuation, like lending, involves understanding cash flows and quantifying risk
and uncertainty. As part of this process we will value financial instruments including
stocks, bonds and annuities, and discuss how they are valued in competitive capital
markets.
Second, we will use what we have learned to understand the determinants of valuing
public & closely held companies, including what cash flows are relevant for valuation
and how to identify and forecast them and gain an understanding of discount rates
and multiples to value these cash flows.
Lastly, we will work through an extension assignment, using a case study of a valuation
of a real company, putting into practice the materials covered in class.
Managing Bank Financial Performance
Topics covered include financial structure and financial performance of banks;
sources of information for measuring financial performance of banks; analyzing and
evaluating bank profitability; analyzing and evaluating financial risk of banks;
and analyzing bank rating services. The most important concepts that students learn
from this course include how to integrate financial reports on the banking industry,
how to pin-point the weaknesses and strengths of a financial institutions by going
through information provided in the UBPR, and how to evaluate a bank's financial
performance and find solutions to improve bank performance.
