Please note! Course description is confirmed for two academic years, which means that in general, e.g. Learning outcomes, assessment methods and key content stays unchanged. However, via course syllabus, it is possible to specify or change the course execution in each realization of the course, such as how the contact sessions are organized, assessment methods weighted or materials used.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The aim of the course is to get acquainted with the regulative framework for securities and financial markets and to gain an understanding of the cooperation between legal and business economic factors affecting various forms of corporate finance. Among the practical objectives of the course there are various skills of market related corporate finance, such as an ability to evaluate the influence of legal rules for the choice of optimum forms of corporate finance and skills to produce and interpret information provided in legal rules for securities markets.

Credits: 6

Schedule: 14.01.2021 - 22.02.2021

Teacher in charge (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022): Matti Rudanko

Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Matti Rudanko

Contact information for the course (valid 21.12.2020-21.12.2112):

Responsible teacher: Matti Rudanko, prof. emer. (matti.rudanko@aalto.fi) 

CEFR level (applies in this implementation):

Language of instruction and studies (valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022):

Teaching language: English

Languages of study attainment: English

CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD

Content
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    The contents of the course include legal rules of listing, disclosure duties of issuers of securities, legal duties related to public bids, regulation of insiders and market abuse and the customer relationships of investment service firms. Also green finance and sustainability as well as financial technology (Fintech) and its implications to law are discussed.

  • Applies in this implementation:

    In the
    course, we will get acquainted with the role of regulation in financial
    markets, especially its impact on the markets as one of the market mechanisms. Our
    focus will be in observing how regulation aims at promoting its main
    objectives, ensuring smooth and effective functioning of the markets and
    investor protection – and how these goals are achieved in practice.

    Our main
    goal is to understand market mechanism by the help of examples from most
    general everyday presence of regulation in the markets, like disclosure and insider
    rules, as well as from more sophisticated special phenomena regulated in law. These
    observations should also enhance our practical skills as actors in financial
    markets, e.g. by facilitating “financial literacy” to understand financial
    reporting and other market information. Topics discussed include securities
    markets, banks, investment firms and many others. And, perhaps most
    importantly, there is – literally –a vital interest of being aware of the current
    status of sustainable finance, as it is reflected in regulation.


Assessment Methods and Criteria
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Essay (individual or group) and presentation (individual or group), 40 %

    Class activity, 10 %

    Exam, 50 %

     

    OR

     

    Exam, 100 %

  • Applies in this implementation:

    The course is
    completed as follows:

    1. Lectures 20
    hours.

    Acceptable
    completion of lectures can replace one exam question. Lectures can be completed
    by a lecture examination or by a separately agreed case analysis, which the
    student gives at the lectures in addition to following the lectures. The
    lecture examinations are held on the second last and last lectures.

    2. Exam.

    The course will
    be held as remote meetings on this MyCourses platform using the Zoom meeting
    tool. No face-to-face meetings will be held.

    More detailed
    information on the course and structure of the course will be added soon.

    These websites
    will be completed until the beginning of the course (and beyond). You should
    follow the development of the pages (which can be a bit slow at first) - and
    contact me to give content and implementation tips and to find out the issues
    related to completing the course: matti.rudanko@aalto.fi.


Workload
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Lectures 16 h

    Seminar 4 h

    Exam 3 h

    Independent work 137

     

    OR 

    Lectures 16 h

    Exam 3 h

    Independent work 141

  • Applies in this implementation:

    1. Lectures 20 hours. Acceptable completion of lectures can replace one exam question. Lectures can be completed by a lecture examination 
    or by a separately agreed case analysis, which the student gives at the lectures in addition to following the lectures. 
    The lecture examination is held on the second last and last lecture.

    2. Exam.
    Alternatively, you can complete the exam by writing an essay of 10 to 15 pages on a topic in the course area. 
    More information on how to take the lecture exam and the exam is given at the beginning of the course. 
    The case study replacing the lecture examination and the essay replacing the exam are assessed by applying the rubric 
    used in the assessment of the master's thesis (see the section Assessment of performances).
    Lectures are not compulsory, but completing a course without lectures is likely to increase the workload of self-study 
    more than the time specified for lectures. It takes more than 3 hours to complete the exam with an essay, but the total workload 
    may be reduced because the time for self-study (and essay writing) is usually shorter than the total number of hours calculated 
    for self-study and the exam.

DETAILS

Study Material
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Veil, Rüdiger: European Capital Markets Law, 2017.

  • Applies in this implementation:

    Here are some hints of what could be of main interest in the textbook
    (Veil, European capital markets law) when preparing for the final exam.
    You can focus on these and skip the rest of  the book (the figures
    refer to the contents of the book, i.e. the chapters, sub-chapters and
    sections etc.) : 

    - § 2 (Concept and aims of regulation) , § 7
    Capital markets, § 12 I and II (Sanctions), § 13 (Insider dealing): III
    Concept, IV Prohibitions and VI Sanctions, § 14 Market manipulation: I,
    II and IV (Prohibitions) and VII (Sanctions), § 15 Short selling, § 17
    Prospectus: IV Sanctions, § 19 Disclosure of inside information: I, III
    and V Sanctions, § 24 Takeover law, § 26 IV especially disclosure
    obligations on conflicts of interests.  

    Even the mentioned
    chapters should be read in a "structural" way: the systematic outlines
    (not the details) and market structures are important. And in general,
    the national legislations and supervisory systems can be skipped. 


Substitutes for Courses
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Substitutes course 32E11100 Legal aspects of Finance.

Prerequisites
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    Principles of Business Law (Yritysjuridiikan perusteeti 32A00130) or similar.

Registration for Courses
  • Valid 01.08.2020-31.07.2022:

    In Weboodi. 

  • Applies in this implementation:

    Alternatively, you can complete the exam by writing an essay of 10 to 15 pages on a topic in the course area.

    The topic of the essay can be suggested by yourself or defined together. The essay is structured by subheadings and the information
    obtained from the sources is separated from the own conclusions and reflection by citations, and a list of sources is appended 
    to the end of the essay. You can use the exam book and other material to be announced during the course or added to the website 
    as sources, but you can also search for the sources yourself.

    More information on how to take the lecture exam and the exam is given at the beginning of the course.

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

    8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

    9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

FURTHER INFORMATION

Details on the schedule
  • Applies in this implementation:

    Date

    Meeting

    Subject

    Thu 14 Jan

    lecture 1

    Introduction

    Market
    structures

    Regulation

    Tue 19 Jan

    lecture 2

    Regulation
    as a market mechanism

    Thu 21 Jan

    lecture 3

    Sustainable
    finance

    Fintech and
    blockchain

    Banking disruptions

    Tue 26 Jan

    lecture 4

    Investment
    firms

    Investment
    products

    Thu 28 Jan

    lecture 5

    Heidi Lumme: Presentation on derivatives markets 

    Customer
    relations of investment firms

    Investors’
    duties

    Marketplaces

    Tue 2 Feb

    lecture 6

    Disclosure
    duties

    Prospectus

    Regular
    disclosure obligation

    Thu 4 Feb

    lecture 7

    Ongoing
    disclosure obligation

    Market
    abuse: insider rules and market manipulation

    Tue 9 Feb

    lecture 8

    Business
    secrets and disclosure and insider rules

    Thu 11 Feb

    lecture 9

    Omar Khary and Valtteri Heikkala: presentation on hedge funds

    Investor
    remedies

    Damages

    Tue 16 Feb

    lecture 10

    Lecture
    exam

    Public
    bids

    Mandatory
    bid

    Thu 18 Feb

    Lecture
    11

    Lecture
    exam

    Behavioral
    law and economics