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Document Details :

Title: Trust and Integrity in Banking
Author(s): BOATRIGHT, John R.
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 18    Issue: 4   Date: 2011   
Pages: 473-489
DOI: 10.2143/EP.18.4.2141844

Abstract :
No one disputes that trust and integrity are important in banking, but it is more difficult to delineate clearly what trust and integrity mean with regard to banking and what role they play. Toward this end, I explain, first, how the distinctive features of banking, which differentiate this activity from other kinds of business, create a particular need for trust and integrity. Despite this need, however, I caution against placing too much reliance on morality or ethics as a means of ensuring the proper functioning of the banking system at the expense of other important factors, which include market forces, government regulation, and institutional design. Finally, I describe some of the implications for trust and integrity from the changed nature of modern banking, which I identify as the division of the value chain, the new business as usual, and the phenomenon of financialization.

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