Know-How is the go-to learning platform for anyone looking to deepen their knowledge of finance and stay ahead of the curve.

With quarterly updated content written by financial experts, Know-How offers everything you need to stay informed, no matter where you are in your financial career.

In this article, we give an intro into some of the most important areas of finance using excerpts from our tutorial overviews.

Click one of the sections below to learn more about the individual tutorials.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• AI Ethics
• Business of Banking & Finance
• ESG Risk Management
• Private Wealth Management Products & Services
• Interest Rate Mathematics
• Introduction to Sustainability & ESG
• European Regulation

Who is Know-How for?

Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, Know-How offers invaluable resources for building your expertise. From foundational topics to the latest trends, Know-How equips you with the knowledge you need to excel as a financial professional.

What makes Know-How stand out?

One of Know-How’s strengths is its content. Here’s what makes it exceptional:

670+ tutorials:

Covering a wide range of financial topics, from the basics to more advanced subjects like AI and ESG.

60+ hours of video:

Engaging, clear, and concise video content that brings complex financial topics to life.

Regular updates:

Every quarter, new tutorials and updates are released, ensuring that the content reflects the latest trends and insights.

Why choose Know-How?

Know-How tutorials are designed to go beyond theory, providing actionable knowledge you can use in your day-to-day work. The platform’s interactive videos, quizzes, and scenarios cater to all learning styles, ensuring everyone can benefit.

Plus, we’ve made accessibility a priority, so everyone can engage with the content, regardless of their learning needs.

When should you use Know-How?

Whether it’s adapting to new regulations, understanding emerging technologies like blockchain and AI, or navigating changes in the industry, Know-How gives you the tools to stay informed.

How does Know-How deliver results?

Know-How is designed with real-world application in mind. The content is structured to help you put what you learn into practice right away, improving your performance and deepening your understanding of key financial concepts. And with a dedicated support team, you’ll always have help when you need it.

This section of the article gives an overview of some of our latest tutorial updates.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI & GenAI – An Introduction

Computer scientists have been attempting to create intelligent machines for decades, leading to the development of ever-more sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) systems. But the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 represented a major leap forward as it demonstrated publicly AI’s ability to engage in human-like dialogue and its potential to be used to perform tasks across many domains, unlike earlier task-specific AI systems. Since then, countless other generative AI (GenAI) tools have emerged and interest in the area has surged, as have concerns around moral and ethical issues, as AI technologies continue to evolve and develop.

This Know-How tutorial provides a detailed overview of the different types of AI in detail . It describes concepts and technologies that are critical to understanding the field of artificial intelligence today.

AI Ethics

AI Ethics – An Introduction

Ethics in the field of AI is a critical concern as AI systems become increasingly integrated into various aspects of society. Without appropriate ethical standards, guidelines, and regulation, AI has the potential to cause harm and undermine trust in technological progress in this field. One of the most important challenges the AI community is facing at the moment is to develop AI ethics to the same level of sophistication as AI itself in order to design and build algorithms that can contribute to individual and social wellbeing. This tutorial provides a high-level overview of ethics, with a particular focus on AI ethics and why they are essential for ensuring that AI systems serve us in a way that is fair, transparent, and aligned with societal values.

AI Ethics – Key Principles

AI ethics is a very new field, so there is no common framework similar to that for other areas of practical ethics. However, a number of AI ethics “codes” have been developed, along with some attempts to find commonalities among them. Starting with the classic principles of medical ethics (which have become classic principles of practical ethics), this tutorial describes in detail the most important principles for AI ethics.

AI Ethics – Key Issues

The field of AI has developed largely disconnected from ethical concerns. As AI has advanced and its applications have proliferated, the need for ethics has become palpable. Time and again, AI has resulted in unnecessary harms that could have been prevented if the technology had been designed and deployed with ethics in mind. This tutorial focuses on the key ethical issues surrounding the use of AI algorithms, such as bias/discrimination and data privacy and security, and the regulatory and industry response in that regard.

AI Ethics – Bias & Discrimination

For AI algorithms to be well designed, they should perform as the designer/programmer wishes them to. But algorithms are complex tools, and it is easy to inadvertently insert ethically problematic biases in them. These biases skew algorithms away from what they should be. This tutorial looks in detail at the issue of biases in algorithms and when such biases amount to discrimination. It also examines the potential solutions to avoiding these biases.

AI Ethics – Data Privacy & Security

Data privacy and security is an ethical issue because the lack of it leads to wrongs, harms, and risks for individuals, institutions, and society at large. These issues can occur as a result of a hack, a leak, or a data transfer, among other ways. This tutorial looks at the importance of ensuring that data is kept private and secure from an ethical viewpoint.

Business of Banking & Finance

Banks & Banking

Banks play a vital role in the smooth running of a modern economy. The stability of the banking industry affects the financial markets as well as the real economy, the part of the economy concerned with the production and consumption of goods and services. This tutorial provides a high-level overview of banks and banking.

Business of Investment Banking

Investment banking is the business of raising capital for companies and providing advisory services on financing and merger activities. This tutorial looks at the typical structures associated with investment banks and their key activities and sources of revenue, namely M&A advice, underwriting, sales and trading, asset management, and prime brokerage.

Business of Consumer (Retail) Banking

The consumer (or retail) banking sector is perhaps the least glamorous part of the banking world. However, consumer lending can often be more important to a bank than the corporate equivalent.

This tutorial looks at the role of modern consumer banking institutions. The key issues addressed include the structure of the sector, the product offerings, the drivers of profitability, and the role of regulation.

Business of Asset Management

Asset management is the management of portfolios of assets by professional firms serving institutional, high net worth (HNW), and retail clients. This tutorial provides an overview of the structure and activities of a typical asset management firm, including its clients, products, and services. The current state of the global asset management industry is also discussed.

Business of Wealth Management

This tutorial introduces and defines the concepts of private banking and wealth management. It identifies the general activities of private banking and wealth management businesses, the different types of business and their value proposition, and the various fee structures and revenue models. The tutorial also outlines the evolved history and current trends in the industry.

Shadow Banking & NBFIs

Shadow banking entities – also known as nonbank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) – provide services similar to traditional banks but operate outside the regular banking supervisory framework. This means they may not be subject to the same regulatory scrutiny, capital requirements, or risk management practices, which can lead to excessive risk-taking and financial stability impacts. This tutorial describes the activities of NBFIs in detail as well as the regulatory approach to managing the risks associated with them.

ESG Risk Management

ESG Risk – An Introduction

Identifying, assessing, and managing ESG (environmental, social, and governance) risks is now a key aspect of banks’ risk management operations. This comes against a backdrop of increased scrutiny by governments, regulators, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the general public on climate change, the environment, and various socioeconomic and corporate governance issues. This tutorial provides an overview of ESG risk factors and the challenges banks face in managing them, as well as the approaches they are taking to do so. (Note that, while the impact of climate change is a significant element of ESG risk, this is covered in more detail in separate “Climate Risk” tutorials).

ESG Risk – Measurement

ESG risk measurement requires meticulous assessment and analysis focused on identifying how environmental, social, and governance factors could potentially impact a bank’s operations, sustainability, and overall success. However, the nature of ESG risk, and its many different components or risk factors, means that measurement is a complex and challenging task for banks. This tutorial describes these challenges in detail, as well as the various risk measures that have emerged for each of the components of ESG.

ESG Risk – Management

ESG risks can potentially impact a bank’s business strategy, product and service offering, and the long-term sustainability and viability of the organization. However, understanding and managing ESG risk factors is still a challenge for many risk managers and other banking staff. This tutorial provides an overview of the approaches banks are taking to managing ESG risk, as well as the associated reporting and disclosure frameworks and requirements.

Private Wealth Management Products & Services

Private Wealth Management – Banking & Deposit Services

This tutorial looks at the key services provided by private banks and wealth management firms in the areas of deposit-taking and transaction banking. It also explores the range of banking and other wealth services to high-net-worth clients who live and work abroad or have substantial business dealings overseas.

Private Wealth Management – Credit & Lending Services

This tutorial provides an overview of the key loan types and structures used to extend credit to private wealth clients. The tutorial also explores the general lending environment in the private wealth management industry and regulatory and compliance issues associated with such lending.

Private Wealth Management – Investment Services

This tutorial provides an overview of investment services for private wealth clients. It examines the importance of investment support and portfolio management as well as fiduciary and custody, and specialist investment services.

Private Wealth Management – Alternative Investments

Alternative investments are those that are not included in the traditional investment classes and typically include investments such as private equity, hedge funds, and real assets. This tutorial looks at the benefits and risks of alternative investments and associated strategies for private wealth clients and describes the main sub-classes in this category.

Private Wealth Management – Financial Planning

This tutorial provides an overview of financial planning for high-net-worth clients. We examine in detail the steps in the financial planning process and examine regulatory and industry developments in financial planning for private clients worldwide.

Private Wealth Management – Estate Planning

Estate planning is a key phase of a client’s wealth journey and centers on the transfer of wealth to the next generation of heirs and valued beneficiaries, or to philanthropic purposes. This tutorial looks at the benefits and risks of estate planning, the main steps in the estate planning process, and other key estate planning issues such as regulatory compliance and taxation.

Interest Rate Mathematics

Interest Calculations

Although the calculation of interest might seem straightforward, there are a number of factors that can make a significant difference to the growth of an asset or liability under different interest rate environments.

This tutorial looks at the subject of interest calculations in detail, beginning with simple and compound interest before moving on to more difficult calculations involving the comparison of investments with different compounding bases.

Day Count Conventions

The use of different day count conventions in the bond and money markets coupled with the use of different compounding frequencies can make a significant difference to the amount of interest paid or received on an investment or debt instrument.

This tutorial looks at how to calculate interest on a bond and market basis and convert from one basis to another, allowing for the use of different compounding frequencies where necessary.

Present Value & Future Value

In financial markets, there are many examples of cash flows that occur at some point in the future but which need to be evaluated today. A cash flow in the future has a value today called the present value. This tutorial describes the concepts of present value and future value, and the relationship between them.

NPV & IRR

This tutorial provides a framework for analyzing different investments using the fundamental concepts of present value and discounting, and the decision rules of NPV and IRR.

Introduction to Sustainability & ESG

Decarbonization

Many scientists warn that, if left unchecked, rising carbon emissions present catastrophic risks to the planet. Decarbonization, in its simplest terms, is the concerted attempt to halt or reverse this process. This tutorial provides a high-level overview of decarbonization and how banks can help to drive it.

European Regulation

PSD3 & PSR

The third Payments Services Directive (PSD3) and related legislation overhauls payment services legislation in the EU.

This tutorial provides a high-level overview of PSD3 and the related legislation. It discusses how, among other things, the legislation aims to increase consumer rights, strengthen protection for users of payment services, and improve the function of open banking.

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