ECON5026 Strategic Business Relationships Term Paper - Incentives and Conflicts of Interest in Financial Services Firms
The Topic of the Term Paper
The topic Description for the term paper is provided below.
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking,Superannuation and Financial Services Industry wascreated to examine the misbehaviour of financial servicesentities and their agents. In its Final Report, the Commission wrote that:
In almost every case, the conduct in issue was driven not only by the relevant entity's pursuit of proft but alsoby individuals' pursuit of gain, whether in the form of
remuneration for the individual or profit for the individual's business.Providing a service to customerswas relegated to second place. Sales became all
important.Those who dealt with customers becamesellers.And the confusion of roles extended well beyondfront line service staff. Advisers became sellers and sellers became advisers.
This assignment is designed to help you develop yourresearch, analytical, and professional writing skills.Goodwriting skills are one of the most important graduateattributes sought after by employers. You will need tobecome adept at finding relevant resources.
ln this assignment you are to:
1. Discuss how the incentive structure in financial services frms can lead sales to become "all important", with customers "relegated to secondplace".
2.Examine what evidence there is that conflicts of
interest created by incentive structures caninfluence financial advisers and lead to pooroutcomes for customers.
ln answering the question, you should:
Apply the concepts,theories and models that youhave learned in class
Discuss theoretical issues and empirical evidence.Set out a logical argument and draw on relevantevidence when making assertions
Use appropriate referencing where an idea hasbeen drawn from a scholarly source (scholarlyjournal articles, working papers, research booksand other scholarly publications).Referencing
should be complete,comprehensive and consistent.This implies that any reference that you list shouldallow the reader to go to that source and confrmthat the source is correct and the argumentsespoused in the writing are in fact derived fromthat source.Harvard referencing is recommended.