Well last month Sir Richard Lambert’s Banking Standards review board report was issued and we now have an answer. A new professional body is about to be born - the Banking Standards Review Council (BSRC).
The ACT wholeheartedly supports this positive development. We were one of the 200 or so contributors to the earlier consultation paper and believe that public recognition of good works - improvements in behaviour and professional competence in our banking industry - are vital if they are to be continuous in nature.
A century ago saw both the start of the Great War and the advent of the Scout Association’s National Good Turn week. Latterly this became known as “bob-a-job” week. The initial scheme was to assist the blind and over the years has come to represent the price of doing an old fashioned good turn and delivering something socially worthwhile, whilst simultaneously encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. One good deed deserves another. A century later and the world wide scouting movement is globally respected. Its simple scout law can be recited by millions worldwide, and contains many of the values which society is now demanding of its banking leaders and their institutions, e.g. Rule 1: A scout is to be trusted.
The planned BSRC budget is the equivalent of a shilling, or a bob, a day for each of the 450,000 UK bankers (cost £7-10m p.a). It is a small price to pay and with other regulatory measures and initiatives in train will be great value for money, but only if supplemented with real training and learning and development support for banking staff. However, this will take a generation to achieve.
We all have a duty to demand higher standards. Remember the standards you walk past are the standards you accept. It is no longer enough to stand by and criticise poor standards. Treasurers, we must all ask ourselves do we deserve better? I encourage you to take action to help rebuild the reputation of the financial markets. In the future if you come across examples of exemplary practice and behaviour do let the ACT know. I have said many times we all want our financial markets like Wenceslas’s snow - whiter than white….and deep, crisp (functioning) and even. Surely it is not enough to rely upon regulatory woggle-tightening, although, errant bankers - be prepared.
All the best
