Bank Of Americ An Ethical Dilemma

The purpose of this paper is to examine an ethical dilemma faced by a company who manufactures critical components for a pacemaker developer. The consequentialist ethical theory of utilitarianism will be used to evaluate the moral implications this company has in continuing further manufacturing for their pacemaker client. An overview of utilitarian ethics will be discussed, focused primarily around 17th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s ideas about ethics. His framework will be used to present factors that influence the transistor company’s business decision. Finally, the Utility Test and Common Good Test will be applied to the company’s predicament to help determine the correct ethical course of action for this

An ethical dilemma is defined as a moral issue, where a situation has two equivalent undesirable alternatives and neither choice will resolve the ethical predicament.

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.

On September 8 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) announced that it was taking an enforcement action against Wells Fargo Bank . Wells Fargo is a Fortune 100 company and one of the "Big Four Banks" of the United States. Investigations conducted by the Bureau revealed that employees of the bank created unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts across the country to meet sales goals. Over the years, the bank’s employees opened over 1.5 million fraudulent bank accounts and 0.5 million fake credit card accounts for customers, to meet sales targets and obtain bonuses. The affected consumers, were being harmed by the associated charges and fees for these accounts. The fees include insufficient funds or overdraft fees for the deposit accounts and annual fees for credit card accounts.

The first stated values, states that Wells Fargo’s value open, honest and two communication, which did open a hotline dealing after the scandal and handle the customer service. Though, I would not consider that company honest, but maybe openness after the fact. The second state values is based on accountable and proud of their conduct and decision dealing with Wells Fargo’s. Though, Wells Fargo is unethical in it business practices still used well known business practices and process to motivate salespeople open multiple accounts without the customer permission. Such as training employee in techniques into frauding customers and a system of rewarding for such behavior. Which shows a totally disregard for the customer financial well being

The news that I found that emphasizes the ethical decisions making is about Wells Fargo. The article name is “Wells Fargo uncovers up to 1.4 million more fake accounts”. This news is all about how the people who are working for Wells Fargo can loose their ethical judgments. This people where trying to get their goals, which was to open certain amount of accounts. They where opening this account behalf of people who are not even present at the branch. This is a news that involves ethical decision making.

Many auditors were too busy checking to see if they were using their merger-related accounting to see if they were showing false inflation ratings instead of looking at their internal books and seeing they were approving loans within the company to executives that were basically using the company as their own personal bank. Kozlowski went to great lengths to keep outside directors from becoming aware of how their business dealings were going within the company. It became clear that he was taking care of the directors within his circle when some were receiving $20 million annually for their fees and he was creating bonuses that were outrageously high (Symonds). Kozlowski and Swartz had given themselves approximately $150 million in illegal bonuses including houses that were paid for by the company and affording luxurious items amongst home décor and even extravagant parties that were all footed under the companies bill. They were also accused of giving themselves loans through the company and then forgiving them to avoid payment back to the company.

Ethics are values and principles that individuals use to govern his decisions and activities. Ethics are about moral judgment of an individual about right and wrong. In an organization, code of ethics refers to set of guiding principles and organizations use these principles in their policies, programs, and decisions for business. Within organizations, decisions are taken by groups or individuals and these decisions are influenced by the culture of the company. Decision making and relevance of ethics may also differ for nonprofit and for profit organizations. In contemporary business environment, organizations must have a clear ethical policy and implement it in proper manner. There are many social, legal and economic outcomes that company has to face in case of any ethical dilemma, so there must be a smart strategy to deal with ethical dilemmas. In this paper, we will address the ethics for nonprofit and profits organizations, ethical dilemmas being faced or faced by each of these companies and the outcomes of these ethical dilemmas. Critique of actions of each of these companies will be provided from the point of view of applicable philosophical theories of organizational ethics.

An ethical dilemma is an incident that causes us to question how we should react based on our beliefs. A decision needs to be made between right and wrong. I have experienced many ethical dilemmas in my lifetime, so I know that there is no such thing as an ethical dilemma that only affects one person. I also know that some ethical dilemmas are easier to resolve than others are. The easy ones are the ones in which we can make decisions on the spot. For example, if a cashier gives me too much change, I can immediately make a decision to either return the money or keep it. Based on Kant’s, categorical imperative there are two criteria for determining moral right and wrong. First, there is universalizability, which states, “the person’s

It’s not very uncommon to see headlines of money hunger CEO’s or even a small group of decision making conducting unethical behaviors in their best interests. Generally, those conducting the unethical behaviors have the opportunity to gain from their actions. In the Wells Fargo scandal, this is not the case. This scandal was not acted out at the top, but yet through the front line employees. This scandal was also unusual due to the amount of

interest was to accommodate a very important client, as Enron paid millions in fees to Merrill

With further losses of $10 billion in CDO’s in 2008, the bank was in serious trouble. With the support of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Thain approached Bank of America’s CEO, Ken Lewis, to discuss a merger. When Merrill's losses proved to be much worse than expected, Ken Lewis became skeptical about the deal, but was persuaded to commit to it as his job would be threatened. Right before the deal closed, Thain paid his traders and executives $3.6 billion in bonuses without informing the shareholders or the public. His intentions for the company were essentially good, nevertheless, his actions sparked controversy later on over whether his behavior was unethical. The deal was finalized and John Thain sold Merrill Lynch to Bank of America on September 14th, 2008 for about $50 billion or $29 a share. Merrill Lynch, now called Merrill Lynch Wealth Management is the wealth management division of Bank of America and is a provider of corporate and investment banking services with more than 15,000 employees and approximately $2.2 trillion in client assets. While the credit and housing crises are certainly to blame for the ultimate failure of the company, it was also Stanley O’Neal’s selfish and narrow-minded leadership that is responsible for Merrill Lynch’s resulting

Well Fargo is currently being sued over 185 Million Dollars and 5,300 were fired for making fake account.

Business ethics encompasses beliefs and values that influence individual and group behavior in an organization. Generally, stakeholders decide these principles, which may

Hiding or divulging information: Goldman bet against their clients several times. They knew material information on certain investment; however, they never communicated that to their clients because they were making money off them.