Responsibility and the Financial Crisis
Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:00:00 GMT
The financial crisis has generated a vast amount of criticism and analysis. A major project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research (AHRC) is seeking to delve deep into the issues, both to understand what happened and to chart a course for a better future.
As part of the “FinCris” project – led by philosophy Professor Tom Sorell, who has recently moved from the University of Birmingham to Warwick – a Philosophers Workshop was held in Birmingham, 16-17 November 2012. The purpose of this workshop was to bring together an international group of philosophers to discuss how theoretical accounts of responsibility can be applied to the financial crisis. The workshop was the first step towards producing a book in 2014.
One of those invited to participate was Director of FEGReG, Professor Chris Cowton. In a presentation entitled “Professional Responsibility in Banking: Potential Avenue or Dead End?”, Chris argued that debate in business ethics tends to omit the role of professions. Paying attention to both the potential of professional bodies to contribute to the public interest and the risk that they might fall short, he recommended that bankers within banks (“sector professionals”) should be re-professionalised, that “gatekeepers” (e.g. auditors) should pay more attention to the special characteristics of banking, and that “embedded professionals” (e.g. in-house lawyers or accountants) should be careful to mind their professional as well as commercial duties.
