FACULTY OF COMMERCE
DEPARTMENT OF BANKING & FINANCE
FINANCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT (BF410)
INSTRUCTIONS
In groups of threes, choose a questions of your choice and research on it. Presentations of these will be arranged on a day to be communicated in class.
1. How do traders in Zimbabwe’s financial institutions manage their financial risk exposures? Evaluate the methods they use and make any recommendations for improvement if current methods are inadequate.
2. Document the bank failures in Zimbabwe over the period 1997 to 2013. What financial risk management lessons can be learnt by other banks from these failures?
3. Evaluate the capital requirements under the Basel III accord and their implications to banks in Zimbabwe. How do capital requirements for Zimbabwean banks compare to those spelt out by the Basel III accord?
4. Discuss the effects of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis on financial risk management practices of banks in developed economies, and the impact of the 2007-2009 global financial crisis on financial institutions in Zimbabwe.
5. Discuss bank regulation and the Basel guidelines relating to market and operational risk management. Your discussion should include possible reasons why bank regulation and Basel II failed to prevent bank failures during the global financial crisis.
6. Explore the financial risk management lessons that can be learnt from the Societe Generale debacle of 2008. What risk management controls are in place in Zimbabwe’s financial institutions to prevent losses of this nature?
7. Survey financial institutions in Zimbabwe and explain how they manage various financial risk factors. You should first identify the relevant risk factors and then articulate on how specific financial institutions manage them.
8. Explore the challenges that hinder financial institutions in Zimbabwe from hedging using Greek letters and the quantification of risks using methods such as the Value at Risk and the Expected