Primum non nocere (first do no harm): can the principles of medical ethics be applied to finance?

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Ethics can be defined as the principles that govern a person’s or a group’s behaviour. Normative ethics is the branch of ethics concerned with what makes an action right or wrong.

Finance professionals frequently face ethical decisions and questions of right and wrong, and must constantly balance risk versus reward and outcomes for clients, the firm and themselves. Recent events suggest that the finance industry has not been getting these ethical decisions right. We are currently experiencing a financial crisis on an unprecedented scale, worldwide growth has stalled, governments are printing an extraordinary amount of money, and confidence in finance professionals is at an all-time low. Record fines have been paid by banking institutions for offences ranging from mis-selling of derivatives and fixing of interest rates to manipulation of commodity markets. The proliferation of peer-to-peer lending sites, cooperatives and credit unions demonstrates consumers’ wish to move away from the financial companies they no longer trust.

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