Dr Simon Longstaff, from The Ethics Centre, is today joining a Sydney Banking Summit panel to discuss how to restore trust in the financial services sector.
By way of background, the Ethics Centre acts as an independent advisory to the Banking & Finance Oath (BFO) – which was drafted by Dr Longstaff. The next step for the industry is an Ethical Literacy program which is due to be running later this year.
In light of today’s Summit and the impending Ethical Literacy program, the Ethics Centre is calling on advisers, fund managers and others in the industry to become signatories to the BFO and to familiarise themselves with what the Oath stands for at http://www.thebfo.org.
Those in the industry who become a signatory to the BFO can access programs and events (such as Like Minded Lunches, the Leadership Circle and the Young Ambassador Program) which look to re-assert the ethical foundation of the industry beyond regulation and compliance, by broadening expectations and discussion to include ethics, integrity, honesty and trust.
“There are extraordinary ethical implications in Australia’s approach to superannuation. Successive governments have made it compulsory for wage earners to forego access to part of their salary; directing that it be invested in funds that are, for the most part, run by the private sector – and with no government guarantee that even a cent of the monies invested will be available to the contributor on retirement,” says Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the Ethics Centre.
“The moral obligation that arises from such a policy is a burden that ASIC should not (and must not) be left to carry alone. Instead the wider industry engaged in advising on, investing and managing the nation’s savings must share the load – cooperatively and as a whole.
“Thus, superannuation (and the financial advice industry more generally) is one area where the instinct to compete must be tempered by a proper regard for the public interest.
“It is for this reason that the Ethics Centre and the Board of the Banking & Finance Oath (BFO) have been working with a number of industry partners to develop a common program for ‘ethical literacy’ across the financial advice industry.
“The whole system of Australian superannuation depends on a large measure of trust. Trust of the kind needed cannot be earned through mere compliance with rules and regulations imposed by others. Instead, prudent regulation (and Australia has some of the best in the world) needs to be complemented by a solid ethical foundation adopted and applied by the industry as a whole.
“In this sense, the reputation of the whole is only as good as the substance of its parts.
“We applaud the decision by many industry leaders to support the development of a common ethical framework upon which a competitive industry can be built.”
