Business School
BANK3011: 2021 semester 2, Business School 1

Research project description: BANK3011 Bank Financial Management

General:
The aim of this project is to overview the current academic literature in areas of banking of your choosing
and to develop elementary skills for academic research. This is an individual project.


Topic:
Open. As a first step, search for a research topic that suits your interests. As long as the chosen topic
falls within the banking related topic, it is acceptable. The list of academic journals for your reference is
as follows.
• Journal of Finance
• Review of Financial Studies
• Journal of Financial Economics
• Review of Finance
• Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
• Management Science
• Journal of Banking and Finance
• Journal of Corporate Finance
• Journal of Financial Markets
• Journal of Money, Credit and Banking

Project progress report
Once a topic is selected and initial background reading is done, prepare the project progress report
summarizing the progress made and difficulties, if any. The progress report should be typed with double
or 1.5 spacing and not exceed 1000 words (excluding footnotes and references). The progress report
must be submitted electronically via Turnitin in CANVAS (only a PDF format document will be accepted).

The progress report should contain following sections:

• Title
• Short description of the topic
• Outline of the issues to be discussed
• References

The project progress report is due 5pm Fri 24 September 2021.
*The report will not be graded.


Final Report
As a final step, prepare a research proposal. The proposal should be typed with double or 1.5 spacing
and not exceed 2000 words (excluding footnotes and references). Your project must be submitted
electronically via Turnitin in CANVAS (only a PDF format document will be accepted).
The final report should contain, as a minimum, following sections:

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction + Literature review
• Hypothesis + Methodology
• References

The final report is due 5pm Fri 29 October 2021.

Business School
BANK3011: 2021 semester 2, Business School 2

Breakdown of marks:

Final report
4 areas assessed for a total of 20 marks

1) Research question and its importance clearly explained (6 marks)
1=remotely addressed, 3=OK but little effort shown, 4=Good effort, 6=Totally exceeded expectations

2) Literature appropriately selected and evaluated (6 marks)
1=remotely addressed, 3=OK but little effort shown, 4=Good effort, 6=Totally exceeded expectations

3) Appropriate selection of research method (data, analysis, etc.) (4 marks)
1=remotely addressed, 2=OK but little effort shown, 3=Good effort, 4=Totally exceeded expectations

4) Presentation and structure of the report (4 marks)
1=remotely addressed, 2=OK but little effort shown, 3=Good effort, 4=Totally exceeded expectations


Referencing:

List of references used and in-text citations must follow the Harvard referencing style
http://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/content.php?pid=160012&sid=1510179


Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is a breach of the University of Sydney Code of Conduct and will be dealt with by the Business
School.
http://sydney.edu.au/student_affairs/plagiarism/index.shtml

Be sure to acknowledge all of your source materials and provide proper citations for any quotes.
Checks for similar contents (web materials, other students’ projects, etc.) and plagiarism will be conducted
by TURNITIN and the projects with a similarity index significantly above an acceptable level will be
reported to the business school and this may result in a zero mark being awarded for the assignment.