How do you create an ethical banker? Not by hugging them
New research suggests that banker-bashing only makes matters worse, and that regulators should ‘focus on good behavior’. I’ve got a better idea
Bankers need more cuddles. They should be hugged and kissed and taken gently by the hand, and led to a room full of bouncy balls and bean bags, and told that they are clever and beautiful and kind, and that Mummy is proud.
These aren’t quite the words of a new report, by PricewaterhouseCoopers and London Business School, into “unethical conduct” in banking, but they’re not a million miles off. The report is called Stand Out for the Right Reasons, which can’t help adding to the feeling that an ethical banker is about as common as a white rhino. The subtitle, which has a slightly threatening edge, is: “Why you can’t scare bankers into doing the right thing”.
The answer, according to the report, is to acknowledge the fact that “a get-tough approach to poor performance in financial services is creating a climate of fear”. And when bankers get scared, apparently, they don’t just cower in corners. When bankers get scared, to paraphrase the report, they go all red and hunched and clenched, and scowl at their screens as they plot new ways of bringing the world down. When bankers get scared, in other words, and particularly when they think they’re going to get in trouble, they start behaving even worse.
The answer, apparently, is for “rule makers” to “create a more positive climate”, and for leaders to “foster the right kind of competitive culture”. This, presumably, is not the kind of competitive culture you saw in emails from Barclays employees who said things like “I’m like a whores (sic) drawers” and “Done … for you big boy” as they rigged the Libor rate – and sealed the deal with champagne and slapped thighs. The kind of culture, in fact, that has led Barclays, JP Morgan, UBS, RBS and Deutsche Bank to pay fines of up to £1.7bn.
The report, which is illustrated with photos of a beautiful Asian woman, a handsome Asian man, an efficient-looking white woman in glasses, and just one pale male as a token gesture to banking in the world that actually exists, says that regulators should “focus more on the good behaviour they want to promote than the bad behaviour they want to stamp out”. By presenting competition “in a more positive way”, it says, “leaders can create a culture of excitement rather than fear”.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/03/ethical-banker-bashing-regulators
Top 3 Campaign Contributers to George W. Bush's 2004 campaign
Morgan Stanley $604,280
Merrill Lynch $558,804
PricewaterhouseCoopers $508,500
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres04/contrib.php?cid=N00008072
= new reply since forum marked as read
I wonder if the same proscription would be recommended for all those "thugs," "gang-bangers" and 12-year-olds the media like to tell us had it coming when the cops choke or gun them down in the street.
The sign speaks for me:
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