CIMA panel puts ethics to the test.
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Experts clashed over the question
"Is global ethics a myth" at a CIMA debate chaired by broadcaster Jon Snow in London.
Andrew Nell, publisher of Press Holdings Group, argued that the financial crash had been caused by firms that had claimed to be ethical. "In the US they do things better and I think a number of bankers will go to gaol for a long time," he said. "In the UK nothing will happen to them and, sooner or later, they'll all start doing the same things again."
As a Scot, Nell was particularly upset by Bank of Scotland's demise. "It's the only Scottish institution that predates the Act of Union and it has all been swept away in a month. That is unethical," he said.
Noreena Hertz, a globalisation expert, was more optimistic, arguing that the crisis would encourage regulators to penalise unethical acts. "Trust has been seriously eroded, so the press and public will be more vigilant. Organisations must be concerned about being tarred with the same brush as banks," she said, citing legal cases in New York and the Netherlands challenging firms' actions overseas. "Those that show good ethics will win not only our hearts and minds, but also our wallets," she predicted.
Speaking from personal experience, entrepreneur and investor James Caan said that it was short-sighted for a firm to sacrifice its ethics to win business anywhere in the world. "If you do this, you'll pay the price in customers, employees and government action. I hope we come out of the crunch with much stronger ethical values," he said.
Caan blamed the credit rating agencies for the crisis, while Nell blamed the banks, but Nina Barakzai FCMA, global privacy officer at Towers Perrin, took a different view. "Everyone is blaming everyone else, but we must all make our own choices," she said. "It's easy to say someone else told you to do it, but ethics has a shared language across the world via common professional standards. If you ignore these, you can't say it's someone else's fault."
Margareta Pagano, business editor of...
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