corporate finance

[fh]

What exactly is corporate finance and what would its function be within a city council? Help ive got a job interview tomorrow! Thanks

[Hgrove]

I hope someone else can give you a better answer, but failing that, I think the idea of corporate finance within a city council is to raise funds from banks.  Loans from example.  It could have something to do with setting up a company or a trust to somehow make money for the council.  I think local authorities are highly regulated as to what they can do to raise money following scandals in the 1980s when some local authorities engaged in highly risky high finance operations and lost money.

[ewand]

Good answer Hgrove, and though I'm not involved with city councils, I hope I can add information of value.

At it's most basic, Corporate Finance is essentially about financial decisions by corporations.  Within the realm of corporate financing, two main questions are asked, these being "what investments should a firm make?" and "how should it pay for them?".  Investments could be a certain product line or venture etc. raising cash could be decisions based around loans or stock etc.

This is clearly more apt within a large "profit making" business, though it is also apt within a non-profit  organisation, also, such as a city council, like you mention.  I would imagine that the corporate finance function of this type of role would involve looking into ways of raising funds and the analysis of how to spend them, by assessing the benefits of distribution to schools, police, services etc. (not saying any of these are correct, depends on the council, country and tax makeup etc.).

 

There is a wealth of information available on the internet regarding the topic of corporate finance as a whole, so have a scoot about.  If you need more information regarding something more specific, please repost!