Finance and Ethics: between vice and virtue

Finance profited from the euphoria years (characterized by an euphoric obsession with the economic above all else), more so than any other activity. The time has now come for a measured examination of the practices, modes of remuneration’s and organizational conditioning, starting from the premise of concern for the common good and of responsibility freely accepted. Such an exercise should ideally start from within, predicated on a thorough understanding of the technical and regulatory construction of professional practices. Only by establishing harmony between how responsibility and concern for the common good are experienced and applied within enterprises, and the ethical aspirations and convictions of their staff can the financial sector rediscover respectability. Finance can only exist where there is confidence.