See the full video of the Event here:

  the full press release is found on www.ethicsinfinance.org

Ethics & Trust in Finance – Global Prize

6th Edition 2016 / 2017

Nominated Essays

En route pour la deuxième décennie / Opening the second decade

To download the review

Editorial

En route pour la deuxième décennie / Opening the second decade
Josina Kamerling, Paul H. Dembinski

Sixth Edtion 2016/2017 : Global Jury

Part I : New and Old Frontiers of Ethics

• Ethical Leadership and Ethical Legacies
  Bibi Mehtab Rose-Palan, Mauritius (Third Prize ex-aequo Winner)

• The Ethical Challenge of Systemic Financial Distrust
  Friedemann Bieber & Dr. Juri Viehoff, Germany (Second Prize Winner)

• Ethics at the New Frontiers of Finance
  Martin Foo, Australia (Finalist)

• Objectivity – a Pipe Dream ?
  Mariusz Maziarz (Finalist)

Part II : What Ethical Harness for Technology

• Hard Coding Ethics into Fintech
  Brett Scott, South Africa (Third Prize ex-aequo Winner)

• The Digital Panopticon: a Chance for Ethical Change
  Charmaine Fernandes, UK (Finalist)

• Bringing In the Underbanked
  Tara Annison, Spain (Finalist)

• The blockchain Revolution
  Witold Gromala, Poland (Finalist)

Part III : Avenues for Action

• When Banks do not Always Know Best
  Babatunde Valentine Onabajo, UK (Frist Prize Winner)

• Financial Services as a «Common» Good
  Camille Meyer, France (Finalist)

• Finance ethics with a Massive Open Online Course
  John Francis Diaz, Philipines (Finalist)

Ethics in Finance – Robin Cosgrove Prize

5th Edition 2014 / 2015

Nominated Essays

Sense of urgency / Le sens de l’urgence

To download the review

Editorial

Le sens de l’urgence / Sense of urgency
Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Paul H. Dembinski

Fifth Edtion 2014/2015 : Global Jury

Part I : Regulatory & Conceptual Considerations

• Behavioural Ethics and the Next Generation in Finance
  Ross Murdoch (Frist Prize Winner)

• Can Complex Firms Be Ethical: an Argument for Simplicity of Financial Institution
  Christian Buckson  (Third Prize Ex Aequo Winner)

• Is Moral Hazard Always Immoral?
  Emilia Klepczarek (Finalist)

• Dirty Hands and Dirty Money: Towards a Framework for Fighting Pollution in Finance
  Mar Pérezts (Finalist)

• Big Data in Finance: Ethical Challenges
  Alicja Choma (Finalist)

Part II : Implementation & Applications

• Visually Enhanced Ethical Thinking
  Christóbal Miguel Gómez Gutiérrez (Finalist)

•  Can Design Thinking Help Enhancing Empathy in Finance
  Anshuman Mehta (Third Prize Ex Aequo Winner)

• Moving Upwardly: Lessons from Mobile Payments in Kenya
  Josh Glendinning (Special Commandment of the Jury)

• Blockchain Technology for Reputation Scoring of Financial Actors
  Brett Scott (Finalist)

• Making Ethical Innovation in Finance Ethical
  Anne Godbold (Second Prize Winner)

• Will e-Government Reduce Corruption in Public Tendering? The South African Case Study
  Chiedza Musvosvi & Marlyn Anthonyrajah (Finalist)

The International Monetary Fund co-host of

the “Ethics in Finance – Robin Cosgrove Prize”

Award ceremony

On the 21^st of September the International Monetary Fund has co-hosted the Award Ceremony for the 5^th edition of the global Ethics in Finance Robin Cosgrove Prize at its headquarters in Washington.

See the full video of the Event here:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/seminars/eng/2015/cosgrove/

Prior to the Award Ceremony itself, Mrs Christine Lagarde met with the winners and with Dr. Carol Cosgrove Sacks and Prof. Paul Dembinski, co-Presidents of the Prize.

Mrs Christine Lagarde – Managing Director of the IMF – had the opening words to the Ceremony stressing the importance that ethics has to play in changing the culture of a sector through which the crises started. Mrs Lagarde also praised the initiative of Ethics in Finance – Robin Cosgrove Prize for its longstanding commitment (10 years) to stimulate young professionals and academics to think in an innovative way about ethics in finance.

Followed a video message by The Most Rev. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury who stressed the responsibility that goes with power and size of institutions and also underlines the dangers of a temptation of a “box ticking” culture of compliance which prevents ethics rather than encourages it.

Then a panel discussion took place on the theme “Role of Ethics in Finance” moderated by Sean Hagan, General Counsel of the IMF and with participation of :

• Sarah Dahlgren, Executive Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
• Sally Dewar, Managing Director, JP Morgan
• Lee Buchheit, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb
• Paul H Dembinski, Professor University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Director of Fondation Observatoire de la Finance

The Award part of the Ceremony was introduced by Dr. Carol Cosgrove-Sacks – mother of Robin Cosgrove and professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) who has cooperated with the Observatoire de la Finance since 2005. The first edition of the “Ethics in Finance – Robin Cosgrove Prize” was launched in 2006.

The 5^th edition 2014-2015 attracted more than 300 expressions of interest and more than 100 papers. In the final phase of its work the Jury (http://www.robincosgroveprize.org/about-us/the-jury/) composed of 22 world class personalities, worked on a short list of 11 papers, from which it awarded 5 prizes.

The essays have been published in a special issue of Finance & the Common Good / Bien Commun, review of the Observatoire de la Finance. Click here to access the editorial to the collection of essays.

The winners essays can be accessed below:

• Behavioural Ethics and the Next Generation in Finance
  Ross Murdoch (Frist Prize Winner)

• Making Ethical Innovation in Finance Ethical
  Anne Godbold (Second Prize Winner)

• Can Complex Firms Be Ethical: an Argument for Simplicity of Financial Institution
  Christian Buckson  (Third Prize Ex Aequo Winner)

•  Can Design Thinking Help Enhancing Empathy in Finance
  Anshuman Mehta (Third Prize Ex Aequo Winner)

• Moving Upwardly: Lessons from Mobile Payments in Kenya
  Josh Glendinning (Special Commandment of the Jury)

The other essays of the Finalists are to be found here:

• Big Data in Finance: Ethical Challenges
  Alicja Choma (Finalist)

• Blockchain Technology for Reputation Scoring of Financial Actors
  Brett Scott (Finalist)

• Will e-Government Reduce Corruption in Public Tendering? The South African Case Study
  Chiedza Musvosvi & Marlyn Anthonyrajah (Finalist)

• Visually Enhanced Ethical Thinking
  Christóbal Miguel Gómez Gutiérrez (Finalist)

• Is Moral Hazard Always Immoral?
  Emilia Klepczarek (Finalist)

• Dirty Hands and Dirty Money: Towards a Framework for Fighting Pollution in Finance
  Mar Pérezts (Finalist)

The Strategic Partners of the Ethics in Finance – Robin Cosgrove Prize are:
               

Papers were invited to address the topic of “INNOVATIVE IDEAS FOR ETHICS IN FINANCE”, by the closing date of 15^th April.

The competition for the fifth edition of the Prize attracted more than 300 Expressions of Interest from some 61 countries around the world.

The co-Presidents of the Prize Jury (Dr Carol Cosgrove-Sacks and Dr Paul Dembinski) jointly assessed the entries for the Prize and identified some 40 papers for evaluation by the distinguished Global Jury. The evaluation process, which is totally anonymous, is currently in process and it is anticipated that a short-list of nominated Papers for the Prize will be agreed by the end of July.

The Prize ceremony will take place at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington, USA, on Monday 21^st September.

Dr Christine Lagarde, the Executive Director of the IMF, will congratulate the Prize Winners.

The overall quality of the papers is encouraging. The 2014-2015 Prize was supported by the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA Global), the CFA Institute, and Accenture. Through their activities the Prize was well-promoted throughout the world; many other organizations as Friends of the Prize also disseminated information.

The Nominated Papers will be published in a special edition of the review: Finance & the Common Good/Bien Commun in advance of the Award ceremony.

Pdf file download

La lecture du rapport que le FMI consacre tous les 6 mois à la stabilité financière ne manque pas d’étonner. L’institution qui vient de tenir la semaine dernière son assemblée de printemps présente son analyse de la (in)stabilité financière du monde tout en nuances, hypothèses et scénarios. C’est dire qu’elle est très prudente dans ses affirmations. Il n’en demeure pas moins que d’entrée de jeu le FMI affirme qu’en dépit de l’amélioration des perspectives économiques dans les pays avancés, la stabilité financière du monde se trouve confrontée à de nouveaux défis.

Dans son analyse d’ensemble, le FMI s’attache à envisager diverses modalités que les banques centrales pourraient utiliser pour ramener  leurs politiques monétaires à la normalité, c’est-à-dire à ce qu’elles étaient avant la crise.  Quelle que soit cette modalité, elle devrait entraîner une remontée des taux dits « hors risque » et donc à rendre « l’argent plus cher ».  C’est bien ce dont le monde a besoin pour éviter la déflation couplée avec une récession.  Toutefois, le FMI le dit à plusieurs reprises, les banques centrales jouent ici avec le feu. En effet, si d’aventure les marchés se mettent à anticiper de manière trop abrupte une telle normalisation, les prix des actifs financiers existants pourrait subir un choc dont les conséquences sont difficiles à prévoir et potentiellement très graves.

Selon le FMI, une augmentation des taux directeurs  d’un point de pourcentage (100 points de base) pourrait faire trembler les bilans d’une part importante des acteurs financiers. En clair cela signifie, qu’une  augmentation des taux – somme toute légère – pourrait déclencher à la fois une correction boursière et un plongeon des obligations émises à des taux bas. Il en résulterait une baisse substantielle de la valeur des actifs financiers et donc un appauvrissement comptable de leurs propriétaires. Or, en vertu des règles comptables en vigueur – le fameux « mark to market », ces pertes devraient être immédiatement répercutées  sur les bilans correspondants. Ainsi, une part  importante, bien qu’impossible à anticiper, des fonds d’investissement, d’assureurs et de fonds de pension devraient faire face à des pertes dépassant leurs réserves. Ils se trouveraient ainsi en situation de faillite avec  les effets de dominos à la clé. Le problème deviendrait donc systémique et la situation d’arrivée  pourrait s’avérer pire que celle de départ.

Pour étayer cette analyse le FMI rappelle que les bilans des institutions financière restent très fragiles et que la période de l’argent bon marché n’a pas été utilisée pour les restructurer et les affermir. Le matériau étant inflammable,  la moindre étincelle du côté des banques centrales pourrait provoquer l’embrasement.

Que dire au terme d’une telle analyse ? A l’évidence  l’économie mondiale a atteint un niveau d’interdépendance tel, que les acteurs – même les plus puissants – ont perdu toute marge de manœuvre. Le risque systémique continue à planer, puisque tout mouvement un peu brusque est susceptible de provoquer la catastrophe. Or, à l’instar d’un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine, un mouvement est, par ailleurs, inévitable puisque la persistance des taux négatifs risque – elle aussi – de plonger le monde dans une récession durable.  Entre les deux maux – accélérer la restructuration des bilans ou augmenter les taux – notre éléphant de banque centrale ne sait que faire. Par défaut l’immobilisme semble pour l’instant être de mise. Mais pour préparer l’avenir, peut-être serait-ce le moment, de repenser le bien-fondé du principe de la comptabilisation à la valeur de marché ? Ce pourrait être un moyen pour desserrer un peu l’étau des interdépendances et donner un peu de mou aux acteurs financiers aux bilans fragiles, dont parallèlement il faudrait augmenter la surveillance.

Beyond the Financial Crisis, Towards a Christian Perspective for Action, Paul Dembinski and Simona Beretta, The Caritas in Veritate Foundation Working Papers, June 2014.

The financial crisis and its many developments have brought to the forefront a sea change most people were unaware of in 2008. The financial economy had from the mid-1980s overtaken the real economy and expanded so much to become pervasive. All kinds of goods and commodities are transformed into financial assets or securities and sold on global exchanges. Especially debts—consumer credit, mortgages, credit cards, etc.—were appealing. Thus, over the last three decades financial assets became increasingly and silently part of our everyday life. So much so, that a total collapse of financial markets would actually be akin to a reboot of our way of life and of most of our institutions.

This working paper addresses this change and gives a well-developed and informed understanding of how we came to this. But most of it is dedicated to another point: which path is open today out of the crisis? What lies beyond the crisis? The return to ‘business as usual’? Have we learned nothing?

Financial markets are not evil per se. They do have a social function, but must work for the Common Good if they want to earn to it. What does this concretely mean? Drawing upon Catholic Social Teaching, Paul Dembinski and Simona Beretta reassert forgotten truth and explore new and challenging perspectives.

Website of the Caritas in Veritate Foundation