The aim of the course is to provide basic knowledge on markets, instruments, financial intermediaries and supervisors. It will analyse all the elements that make up the financial system, the regulatory and supervisory system that characterizes it, particularly at European level. The central part of the course is dedicated to an analysis of the technical characteristics and economic and management profiles of financial instruments and payment services. In this context, suitable reading keys will be provided to describe the characteristics and functions of the main financial instruments and services and their markets. The different types of financial intermediaries will then be analysed in terms of operational and management, with particular attention to the risks they bear. Further learning objectives of the course are to define a set of skills and skills aimed at identifying and evaluating the relationships between the functions of use of financial instruments and customer needs; to discuss economic reasons-management and regulatory constraints underlying the choices of specialization of the financial activity and finally to use the knowledge acquired to distinguish operating logic and balance of management of the different categories of financial intermediaries.

The following is also a summary of the training objectives and details of the expected learning outcomes following the Dublin descriptors:
1) Knowledge and understanding (knowledge and understanding);
The educational objectives and the related learning outcomes are such that students are able to develop and/or apply ideas typical of a research context related to the topics of the behavior of Financial Intermediaries.
2) Applied knowledge and understanding (applying knowledge and understanding);
The educational objectives and the related learning outcomes are such that students can use the knowledge learned to solve new issues with reference to the identification of appropriate financing and investment solutions.
3) Autonomy of judgment (making judgements);
The educational objectives and the related learning outcomes are such that students are able to make judgments on the basis of a limited set of information and to express assessments also taking into account social responsibility criteria.
4) Communication skills (communication skills);
The educational objectives and the related learning outcomes are such that students are able to represent their knowledge, related to the topics of banking intermediation, to an audience of specialist and non-specialist interlocutors
5) Ability to learn (learning skills).
The educational objectives and the related learning outcomes are aimed at developing first and at evaluating in a second step an autonomous learning ability of the students. This autonomous learning ability is particularly stressed through the proportion of articles and case studies related to the issues of financial markets and institutional investors.