The Observatoire de la Finance is a Partner of Building Bridges, taking place in Geneva from November 29 to December 2 2021. For this occasion, we organize a Round Table on Can sustainable finance break the tragedy of horizons?, Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 10h-1130 (CET), Forum Genève – Akashi Room.
Inequalities seem to accelerate in every part of the world due to Covid and otherwise. Unlike in the climate debate, in social issues we do not have a proper threshold for catastrophe. This leads to a possible overestimation of social resilience and leaves the issue as such largely untackled. Drawing on the particularities of your region or on your area of expertise, what should/can be done in priority?
Observatoire de la Finance wishes you a mask-free Happy New Year 2021.
The 8th edition of the global Prize Ethics & Trust in Finance for a Sustainable Future is officially launched online on 2 June 2020 at 2 pm (CET). For this occasion, two Round Tables will explore the role of ethics and trust in shaping a more sustainable and resilient financial system for the post-pandemic world.
Angel Gurría
Josina Kamerling, Paul H. Dembinski
It is a great honor, but also a pleasure to be given this opportunity to share with this distinguished audience of the 31st Asian-Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues some thoughts and concerns about the role of ethic in the unfolding digital age.
Special thanks for this invitation to SGH-Warsaw School of Economics, and more personally to prof. Anna Karamanska, the magic hand behind most of what we are going to experience during these two days.
Digital age is the age of changing relations between two layers of reality: the virtual reality made of information flows, databases and networks, and the hard reality – for lack of a better word. The first one is entirely man-made, while the second, has been there forever, and is only transformed by human efforts and activities.
Until recently – before the dawn of the digital age – the word “virtuality” was used to describe the picture, the model or the representation of the hard reality. Virtuality was only a derivative, derived from the hard reality, and thus passively dependent on this reality. Digital age has brought change into this relationship. Virtuality not only became to a large extent autonomous, but also started shaping reality. This is, in my understanding, what makes the digital age so fascinating. In the last analysis, virtuality still depends on hard reality, on electric power supply, on the proper functioning of the hardware and on the performance and limits of the synchronizing devices that command the proper working of the net. In recent years we have real life experiences of breakdowns of local “systems” such as airports. When virtual reality break down, hard reality suffers and often turns into chaos.
The digital age is also the age of global organizations which are built as interfaces between the hard reality of goods and services and the virtuality of payment and information flows. Indeed, the two components – sides – of reality never totally match, they are never fully in tune. In consequence tensions and conflicts are common and normal because: virtuality is about numbers and homogenous categories while reality is about the uniqueness of persons, places and situations. For this reason, virtuality is where “rational” views set on numbers and homogenous categories prevail while hard reality is where emotions and ethical concerns have their roots.
As virtuality is expanding faster and faster, and as it is shaping reality every day more, the question about ethics in ever more pressing. I will mention three main resons for concern, and in the conclusion, some possible avenues for action.
Digital age, big data breed big and powerful (global) organizations which know more and more about every single one of the clients and customers. In consequence, these powerful players are able to supply each of us with a “personalized” or “customized” or “dynamic” prices – outcomes of complex pricing algorithms geared at maximizing vendors’ proceeds. Paradoxically, every time the client generates new information by manipulating his screen or his mobile, he becomes more vulnerable to this kind of (predatory) targeting. Digital age technologies are feeding the asymmetry in price making power which is a direct threat to a properly working market mechanism and to its promises of efficiency and optimality. More broadly, as demonstrated by Cambridge Analytica, information breeds power, which breeds temptations of misuse.
Without properly acknowledging, it our societies are at risk of drifting into “Big brother’s” territory. Even when Big brother does not materialize in a kind social control scheme, the virtual gigantism can easily be used to exert pressure on the weak party of the relation. Personal ethics, in the sense of self-restraint will probably not suffice, as such extrusion possibilities may attract unscrupulous players. To contain the danger, what is needed are interventions and guidelines at the social ethics level, i.e. regulatory ones. Indeed, the very institution of the market is at risk, with its moral justification of freedom of choice.
The second reason of ethical concern is the growing “moral distance”. This notion is not new in ethical discourse, it refers to the pressure an ethics question might exert in a given situation. We have all experienced a sense of ethical urgency, when faced with the proximity of an unusual event, happy or dramatic. The feeling of urgency is much more pressing when the event happens in immediate proximity than when we read or watch reports about it. Ethical concern is also stronger in case of proximity. Moral distance is exactly about this. When seated comfortably in a nice office connected to the virtual world, chances are small to feel a strong ethical concern when pressing a key on the keyboard. Real life consequences of our deeds are far away, mediated by number of real or virtual screens. This is the everyday experience of Human Resource departments firing and hiring people remotely, on the other side of the world.
The issue of “moral distance” is not new, it has been clearly identified in Middle Ages, and possibly before. The Lateran Council (XII century) issued a statement forbidding the use of a technology that was new for that time: the crossbow. The argument was that the arrow could reach targets outside of sight for the archer who, in consequence, could not properly appreciate – morally judge – the effects of his deeds. The moral distance was, in this case a sufficient reason to ban the tool.
In modern time, digital technologies are – at least in some aspects – the crossbows of the digital age, and have distant consequences of many financial decisions. A long chain of intermediating screens or steps hide away from our eyes the whole picture of consequences of our deeds. As a matter of fact, our ethical sense is not waken up and, more often than not, we stick to technicalities and prefer ignoring the existence of an ethical problem.
The technological veil created a “moral distance” that has sheltered the financial intermediaries present in the “subprime” market from early reality check. We know the rest as we do the consequences of the delay in acknowledging the ethical issue. More generally, moral distance in times of digital age contributes to lowering of the general ethical awareness in financial and accounting professions. Ethical dilemmas seldom appear as such, in most cases the problem seems, prima facie, to be technical. The ethical roots become visible only after some effort has been devoted to disentangle ethics from technics.
In 1960s, prof. Lawrence Kohlberg has developed a theory of stages of moral development. During the last sixty years, Kohlberg’s typology has been substantiated by hundreds of pieces of empirical research, including also business people and the accounting profession.
The keystone of Kohlberg’s typology is the notion of “convention” – the normal, the prevalent way of doing things, here in conducting business. Kohlberg distinguishes three stages of moral development, which I prefer to call three modes of moral reasoning.
Kohlberg has designed his theory for explaining the moral development of youngsters, I propose to use it to analyze the mindsets of economic and financial operators in the digital age.
Indeed my fear is that the asymmetry of analytical power together with the buildup of moral distance referred to above, may – if these two trends go unopposed – pave the way to what I propose to call “ethical regression” in business, finance and accounting. Ethical regression might well prove to be the unwanted heritage of the digital age.
Ethical regression could be defined as the progressive elimination of post-conventional (ethical) reasoning form the business world. This would, as consequence, leave all the space to less articulated pre-conventional or conventional modes of reasoning.
As organizations grow bigger and more complex, as more and more people are required to follow procedures, the room left for post-conventional thinking shrinks naturally. Under growing uncertainty and pressure to perform, rank employees and management are encouraged to deliver, not to think out of the box. A recent conversation with a group of middle-managers in Swiss companies has clearly showed that organizations are run by sticks and carrots and by acquired herd reflexes. This is what the top expects and welcomes, not more.
The studies about the effects of digitalization on the labour market spot the polarization effect. Very few, highly qualified will innovate and design new extensions of the virtual reality, while the work of “masses” will happen within this virtually set framework. If it really happens, ethical regression, or said differently, the absence of post-conventional ethical reasoning at that top level of organizations might have deeply deleterious, dehumanizing effects on a large scale, for other employees as well as for clients and users of services.
There is no magic answer. The challenge has to be taken earnestly by many players. Universities and business schools as well as professional bodies have to prepare and train their students and members in post-conventional reasoning not only through theory but through real life situations. The post-conventional attitude requires both courage and communication skills. For universities and professional bodies, this is not a secondary task.
Much could be done at corporate level, for instance, by encouraging workshops where real life dilemmas are discussed with a focus on post conventional answers and thier underpinnings. Possibly also regulators could be more curious about the content of corporate cultures, especially in regulated businesses such as finance.
Last but not least – tools such as The “Tool-Kit of Ethics Self-Assessment” which is launched at this very conference – should be widely promoted and used in all kind of trainings and corporate life (http://esa.sgh.waw.pl/eng/).
Even if ethical regression might be on our doorsteps, it is never too late for a wake-up call
Thanks for your kind attention
Le lancement de la monnaie de Facebook (Libra) annonce une mutation inédite de l’écosystème monétaire induite par un géant des réseaux sociaux. Aussi, il relance le débat sur les avantages et risques des monnaies digitales privées. Cette annonce a suscité des réactions contrastées, l’enthousiasme initial de certains adeptes des « crypto-monnaies » cédant la place à la méfiance des régulateurs.
L’objectif de ce colloque est double : d’une part, il vise à identifier les lignes de rupture et de continuité qu’introduit la Libra dans débat sur la digitalisation de la monnaie et notamment par rapport aux monnaies digitales privées existantes (par ex. bitcoin, ether) ; d’autre part, il incite à s’interroger sur la façon dont cette nouvelle monnaie digitale interpelle les banques centrales et pourrait notamment les pousser à créer leur propre monnaie digitale. Ce double questionnement a un écho particulier en Suisse qui se positionne comme hub de l’innovation avec la « cryptovallée zougoise » et maintenant la Libra à Genève et qui s’interroge, à l’initiative de certains de ses politiciens, sur la faisabilité d’un « crypto-franc » (une monnaie digitale de banque centrale).
L’éclatement de la monnaie
Prof. Paul Dembinski (Université de Fribourg, Observatoire de la finance)
Libra: nature, risques et perspectives
Prof. Sergio Rossi (Université de Fribourg)
Les défis macroéconomique amenés par la Libra
Prof. Cédric Tille (Institut des hautes études internationales et du développement)
Le cash à l’ére digitale
Dr. Virgile Perret (Observatoire de la finance)
Les enjeux juridiques et politiques en Suisse
Prof. Hon. Pierre-Louis Manfrini (Université de Lausanne, IDHEAP)
Discussion – table ronde
Modération par M. Paul Coudret, journaliste, économiste et consultant
Following the financial crisis of 2008, the nature of money and monetary creation have become topics of debate in several countries. In Switzerland, the debate over the creation of an “electronic franc” (ie. a central bank digital currency) will surely gain momentum in the coming years. The proposal gained the support of some elected officials and senior executives in the financial sector who saw in it a credible alternative to the “Full Money” initiative, allowing central banks to retain a sure footing in payments in the face of the rise of private cryptocurrencies, while leaving untouched the freedom of commercial banks to develop credit activities and attract deposits.
On 14 March 2018, the Wermuth Postulate (N° 18.3159) was submitted, asking the Federal Council to elaborate a report on the feasibility and stakes of the creation of a cryptofranc (“Etablir un rapport sur la faisabilité et les enjeux de la création d’un cryptofranc”). Simultaneously, on 15 March 2018, Guillaume Barazzone submitted an Interpellation entitled “Un cryptofranc pour la Suisse?”. The Postulate, accepted by the Parliament, forces the Federal Council to study this topic and provide a report on it.
The question is all the more important since companies like Facebook are now proposing their own private payment system combining big data and cryptocurrencies. The risks, however, are significant with private payment systems combining speculation and use of personal data.
Given the importance of this issue for our payment system and in anticipation of the public debate that will develop, the Observatoire de la Finance has deepened the study of this issue in a report analyzing the opportunities, risks and impacts of central bank digital currencies.
The report, which can be downloaded below in several languages, exists in 2 versions:
An « international version » concerning potentially any state
A « Swiss version » focused more specifically on the Swiss case