The curriculum of the unit Fundamentals of Bank Management is focused on the financial institution environment, the financial statements of banks and measuring their overall performance. An understanding of the different risk areas that banks are exposed to and the application of different financial models and methodology to manage these risks are regarded as important learning outcomes. Within this context, it is a well-known fact that financial institutions like banks have to manage their balance sheets and income statements to generate a return on assets and return on equity - similar to any other type of business. The exception is that banks act as financial intermediaries and therefore they differ from other businesses in terms of asset and liability structures, income generation and cost of capital.

The purpose of the assignment is to expose students to real published financial information of three banks in the countries where the students are studying this unit in order to enable them to integrate the theory in the unit material with the real application of it in the banking industry.

Write a paragraph introduction about the aim of the assignment and the significance of the information in the assignment answers.