The Beauty of Ethics : Towards Re-Establishing Trust in the Financial Sector

There is beauty in ethics, which in one of its declinations can be translated into this concept: there is beauty in undertaking the right action, even when nobody is watching. Within this, we can see an antidote to past failures, and an element necessary to attract the change that laws and regulations can only ever be partially successful in achieving. What would a client look for in the financial system in order to hold it trustworthy? The underlying question to be addressed is to what extent laws and regulation are adequate in furthering ethical conduct and decision-making within the financial industry upon which trust rests. The focus is on the importance of ethical decision-making to uphold a client's rights. The paper considers the role of ethics within financial institutions, and how codes of conduct encourage ethical behavior, explaining the nexus that often exists between a firm's culture and a country's tradition and ideologies. The last section discusses the role of ethics at the individual level, focusing on the conduct of the professionals working in the industry