Tutor Name: David Pearson
Module Code: BFE0012
Introduction to Financial Services
By Martin Chance
U1065521
Deadline: 8/04/2011
Assignment:
Banking: An Ethical Dilemma?
Introduction
In this report, I plan to discuss the question Banking: An Ethical Dilemma? Within this is I will discuss ethical dilemmas in association with banking. I will firstly start by giving definitions of what is meant by the terms: Banking, Ethics, and Dilemma.
From here, I will go on to identify what banks are and what the roles and importance are for the economy. Next, I will go on to explain banking operations and with this identification, I plan to then discuss the ethical dilemmas and show my opinion on the question ‘Banking: An Ethical Dilemma?’
I will
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They main roles are to provide a service to corporate, personal, and private banking to customers. This can include bank accounts for money storage, loans, credit cards, mortgages, and saving as well as many more. Examples of these banks would be; HSBC, Lloyds TSB & NatWest.
Central banks are the main bank within a national, and have many roles, which are vital in the economy. Central banks such as The Bank of England unlike retails banks are need to keep the economy financial stable. The Bank of England’s roles are to; set interest rates, create money supply, lender of last resort, they are the bankers bank and the place of settlement and they have to regulate these to provide paramount service for the economy.
Investment banks are otherwise known as merchant banks. The main purposes of these banks are raising capital for customers, businesses or for the government. This can be achieved by providing services for mergers and acquisitions as well as propriety trading, foreign exchange. Unlike retail banks, investment banks do not take deposits, these banks run from taking equity.
Building Societies are financial institutions, which mainly provide saving accounts and mortgages. Unlike other banks, building societies are mutual which means that their customer are members and can therefore receive information and attending meeting regarding the progress or alterations in operations and have a right to vote on the actions taken. Building societies are run by
A commercial bank is a financial institution that provides services such as credit services (personal loans, commercial loans, personal credit cards, business credit cards), cash management services (automated cleaning house, account reconciliation), services related to deposit (checking/saving deposit, CD), foreign exchange services (wire transfer, travelers check), and safe keeping services (safety deposit boxes). Investment bank is a financial institution that provides services such as asset securitization (asset backed commercial paper, trust preferred), merger and acquisition services (planning and acquisition strategy, memorandum preparation), security underwritings (initial public offerings, secondary offerings), equity private placements (growth capital, recapitalizations
Each student is to select research question related to money and banking and develop a well written paper that provides insight into the topic. The goal is to obtain a better understanding of the topic, while relating the identified topic or concept with real world scenarios.
There are various categories of banking; these include retail banking, directly dealing with small businesses and persons. Commercial and Corporate banking which offers services to medium and large businesses (Koch & MacDonald 2010). Private banking, deals with individuals, offering them one on one service. The last category is investment banking. These help clients to raise capital and often invest in financial markets. Most global banking institutions provide all these services combined. With all these institutions in existence within the same localities and offering similar services, there is a need to regulate the industry so as to protect the consumer and provide fair working environment for all banks (Du & Girma, 2011).
commercial banks Thrift Institution are depository institution, banks basically that offer savings and loan they are mutual savings banks and credit unions.
Banks are institutions in which people put their money for safekeeping, to save, to use to pay their bills, or to earn interest on. Banks are allowed to use that money to make loans and earn interest for the bank's’ owners. Different types of banks offer different types of services. For example, commercial banks originally just served businesses, and savings banks and credit unions were used by individuals, especially those who couldn’t qualify for loans at regular banks. This is no longer the case. Although commercial banks and thrift institutions used to serve different purposes, today they all offer many of the same types of services including bank accounts, loans, credit, certificates of deposits (CDs), and much more.
Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the nation. It is a multinational company and it is recognized by its high revenue value. Unfortunately, Bank of America has endured many complaints and harsh views regarding their lack of ethics. Ethical issues occur when there is a blatant disregard to implement integrity, trust, and responsibility. In some financial institutions, ethical matters are displayed in the way the consumers are treated. Within the past nine years, Bank of America has diminished all of their ethical promises by revealing customer information without their permission; discriminating against consumers based on their race; and manipulating overdraft fees in order to benefit the bank. In order to assess these problems, it is vital to recognize what Bank of America claims to stand for and determine where their most concerning issues are generated from.
One of the most profound impacts the first chapter of Banks' (2008) book has on the reader is in breaking down the different ways of understanding ethics, some of which are at least in part mutually exclusive. Ethical absolutism doesn't take into account differences in cultural values or perspectives, and yet it is easy to see that there are significant differences in perspective and what is considered acceptable, wrong, or even criminal from society to society and even within sub-cultures in a given society (Banks,
Lending institutions have been around since the late 1700’s. Banks are establishments that are authorized by the government to accept deposits, pay interest on deposits, clear checks, make loans, act as an intermediary in financial transactions and provide other financial services to customers.
A Central Bank is a supreme bank in a country which supervises all the economic life of the nation. As the definition states “Autonomous or semi-autonomous organization entrusted by a government to, administer certain key monetary functions”, these banks have a wide range of activities, such as; implementing specific goals such as currency stability, low inflation rates and full employment. Central banks acts as the banker of the government helping in regulating monetary and financial stability, and developing stable payment system. The first central bank was found in the world was the Swedish Riksbank, founded in 1668. Second bank was Bank of England found in 1964, by William Paterson to finance a war. They became a vital part of the world today.
Servicing as financial advisors, banks help customers manage their money by recommending different opportunities and serving as a securities intermediary.
Nowadays, we have modernized banks many in trust their money in. The banks lends money to customers at a higher rate than they pay to depositors or than they borrow it. The difference, known as the margin is kept by the bank. For example, if a bank pays 1% interest on deposits they may charge 6% interest on loans grossing 5% for themselves. Moreover, bank employees from Wells Fargo secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses. Not only is this identity theft, however, it shines even more light on how the love of money is the root of all evil. Lastly, banks
According to Anne Federwisch, ethical issues in the financial services industry affect everyone, because even if you don’t work in the field, you are a consumer of the service. She further stated that the public seems to believe that the financial services sector is more unethical than any other areas of business. She stated that James A. Mitchell believes that the misperception persists for several reasons, mainly because the financial industry is so large, and includes banks, securities firms, insurance companies, mutual fund organizations, investment banks, pension funds, and mortgage lenders
The study is important because it examines the role of ethics in accounting. The research on identified problems is necessary due to vagueness of ethics concepts and its difficulty to
In banking education, the teacher 's roll is to teach and the student 's roll is to just listen. According to Freire, A teacher who used a banking concept in their teachings, usually prepares “lessons in his[or her] study or his [or her] laboratory” and then “expounds to his [or her] students about that object” (6). Friere writes that banking education “confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and her sets in opposition to the freedom of the students” (2). Banking education fails to give students an opportunity to express their
The economic dimension of the dilemma was that he feels responsible for his job duties and wants to ensure good economic indicators for the bank, as well as they both will receive significant bonuses based on the volume of contract. The ethical aspect of the dilemma was that the author didn’t like lying and values honesty and has a fear of negative consequences.