A seminar class on Financial Regulatory Challenges was offered by Professor of Accounting Mikhail Pevzner during the 2020 Winter Session. During this intensive course, students had the opportunities to visit agencies and hear from professionals from the Maryland Insurance Administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), The Federal Reserve Board of Governors (The Fed), The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the self-regulatory organization FINRA, also known as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

During the off-campus lectures students were learning more topics like the capital markets, crypto currency, monetary policies, risk and insurance, banking regulation and prevention of bank failures, and much more.

“Taking our students to these financial regulatory agencies exposes them to the realities of what their current or future firms comply with every day,” said Pevzner. “I am so thankful that our students can see these agencies in action. Each agency shared with us applicable information, and for that I am grateful for their knowledge and hospitality.”

Want to know more? See what some of the students had to say about their visits to the agencies.

Maryland Insurance Administration

I especially found the fraud sector interesting. Forensic accounting is something I have a newfound interest in and would like to hear more about it. It would be fascinating to trace the numbers in a criminal investigation.”

Overall, I went into today’s visit not very educated on insurance and came out with a wealth of information. I thought it was interesting that in 2022, there will be 300,000 available jobs in the insurance industry. I can understand this as not many college students have the insurance industry within their career path choices. It is beneficial for the MIA to be partnering with various high schools in order to educate students early about the possible career path. – Josephine Jensen

The Fed

The visit provided us with an extensive and detailed information about the responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System and their importance in the government regulations. The Federal Reserve has one of the most essential functions of a national development, and specifically, they provide tools for stabilizing an economy and ensuring balanced macroeconomic growth and financial strength. Without these two main functions a country and its citizens would have a very hard time existing. The Federal Reserve System is basically the backbone of the economic system, and although many people are not very clear of their role, it is a system that plays a critical role in consumers’ daily existence. Once specific segment of the presentation that resonated with me and reinforced the importance of the Federal Reserve function was the part about the day of September 11, 2001. The two short sentences of the press release on that day “The Federal Reserve System is open and operating. The discount window is available to meet liquidity needs” (www.federalreserve.gov), had such a tremendous effect and carried so much importance that they most likely changed the course of the history. I was not aware of this specific press release by the Federal Reserve and that was something that really stood out from this presentation. This press release was what seemed to be a small but extremely powerful example of the significance of the Federal Reserve System. Also, I must mention the “rap song” by the “Fresh Prince of D.C.” That was very entertaining and it was a real treat. It was a great ending to a fantastic presentation. – Madison Jordan

SEC

“The Chief Accountant Matt Jacques discussion on data analytics playing an integral role in investigations sparked my interest, as in my current job, I deal a lot with data mining and cleaning. It was encouraging to hear from him that the SEC and many companies are pursuing job candidates who have data analytics skills and the ability to read, write, or manipulate code to manage and clean data. Lastly, Jonathan Duersch’s three keys of finding a mentor, become an expert in something, and make as many good relationships as you can, are goals I strive to achieve and maintain in my professional career.” – Brent Thomas

FDIC

The visit to the FDIC was very informative on the important role the regulator has in the financial industry. In emphasizing that importance, our presenter, Kate Fritzdixon, Sr. Financial Economist at FDIC, went over significant changes in the US economy throughout the years. Ms. Kate also walked us through graphs discussing the financial crisis data and its influence on economic growth and eventually recover. Renata Ernst Kerche

FINRA

“I found the discussion about the SRO structure of FINRA interesting – I did not previously realize FINRA was self-sufficient and not tax-funded. This makes me wonder if there are other organizations in the federal government that could successfully operate with a similar model. Typically the public good problem arises and this is not possible, however it would be interesting to see a broader mindfulness of this possibility in public leaders, potentially paving the way for innovators to find ways of creating savings for the taxpayer.” – Joseph Winnard