Etica ed economia: il ruolo delle banche 1993
The events of 1992, although characterised by the enhancement of European economic unity, have shown that basing the growth of a new supranational entity on the economy by focusing on increasing consumption does not automatically lead to real progress. Consequently, the need for ethics to guide economic activity and, above all, to integrate the quality of services and products and the relations between economic actors while safeguarding the right profit margin has become more pressing in this enlarged and complex scenario, prompting the opening of an articulated debate. In the banking sector, this interest in ethics has recently emerged with greater force, reflecting on the path to achieving higher levels of quality in service management.
This research, among other data, analyses the results of the survey carried out by Eurispes on a sample of 300 bank branches or agency managers to assess the ethical behaviour and values of the figures in the world of credit institutions who take most of the decisions.
Index
Introduction
by Gian Maria Fara, President of Eurispes
The revival of interest in ethics
Ethics outside the chatter
The places of ethics
Part 1
Chapter 1. Ethics and economics
Smith, Marx and Weber
The failed ethic: state socialism
The work ethic
Legal equality and economic equality
Freedom and freedoms
Chapter 2. Business Ethics: Lessons from the Past
Foreword
The genesis of economic science and the place of ethics
The marginal shift and the ethical impoverishment of economic science
Criticism of conventional microeconomics and the return of ethics
Towards a new neutral observer?
Business ethics as a social convention
Chapter 3. Banks in the coming century
Historical and cultural roots of the demand for ethics
Ethics and economics
The banking enterprise
The cost of money and conflict of interests
Banks, Ethics and Development
The Challenge of Ethics and Quality for the Italian System
Final remarks
Chapter 4. Banks in the Mirror: A Survey of Credit Agency Managers
Foreword
What is a bank?
The ethics of banking
Is there a conflict between ethics and economics?
What ethics for the bank?
Quality in Italian banks
Is there a difference in ethical behaviour between banks?
Banks and illegality
The behaviour of banks in the face of illegal situations
Banks and customers
Allotment and corruption
Statistical Appendix
Part 2. Interviews
Preface
The interviewees
Methodology
Themes
The interviews