Financial accounting is often referred to as the Language of Business (LOB).   Financial statements have been the primary tool to communicate an organization's performance to shareholders, customers, suppliers, banks, and regulators.   Historical financial information has become a key ingredient in forecasting future performance.  However, sustainability has also become a global business issue over the years.  The international accounting firm PwC acknowledges that sustainability is fast becoming the lens through which a business is judged by its customers, workforce, society, governments and event its investors.  Financial institutions were also identified as key enablers for businesses to get their sustainable initiatives off the ground resulting in the introduction of sustainable finance.  At the same time, cybersecurity has been receiving significant attention as crucial for corporate success.  For these reasons, the traditional LOB course is being reinvented and is now called the New Language of Business (NLOB) which is an integration of financial accounting, sustainability, sustainable finance, and cybersecurity.  Under NLOB, financial accounting  and cybersecurity topics will be discussed not only from the traditional approach but also from a sustainability lens using the ESG (environment, social, and governance) framework.  The overarching objective is to develop business leaders who are knowledgeable in analyzing and reporting company performance from both financial and sustainability perspectives.  In addition, students will also learn about sustainable finance products such as sustainability-linked loans and nature-based solutions.

Topics to be covered: 

Sustainable Finance
Islamic Finance
Perspectives on the Role of Stock Exchanges in Advancing Sustainable Finance
Sustainable Tourism
Law and ESG
Emerging Tech on Sustainability
Sustainable Marketing

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