Ethics: the Key to Credibility

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It is in the very midst of gloom and disappointment that genuine opportunities for success most often come to the fore. Players are forced to sharpen their focus, and chaos puts them more thoroughly to the test. The very feeling that they must redesign the stage rather than abandon it in mid-crisis allows efficient ideas that are capable of exploring hitherto ignored avenues to flourish.

As the world wallows in an economic crisis of historic proportions, the moment has come to take a new look at financial operators’ motives and guiding principles. Faced with the evidence that the origins of the present slump lay in financial markets, the press and, to an alarming extent, governments have repeatedly denounced professional practices in the sector. Such a climate of tension merely underlines how important it is to identify the true causes of today’s global collapse and take steps to deal with them.

Yet, regardless of its origins, the main factor that is now causing stagnation in the financial sector (and related areas of the economy) to persist is the lack of credibility among its players. Potential creditors and debtors are trapped in a web of profound distrust that is preventing such essential mechanisms as the financing of exports and capital goods from operating as they should.

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