Two recent articles highlight bad behaviour among professionals – a source of serious concern in our society and especially for banks. On 4 February the Financial Times had a detailed article regarding a settlement between McKinsey and a variety of US jurisdictions regarding McKinsey’s work for pharmaceutical companies relative to opioids. Perhaps the most telling comment was from the Colorado attorney general who noted: “The partners who tried to cover up their actions placed profit over responsible behaviour and acted reprehensibly.” Although his remarks related to the coverup which included potential destruction of evidence, the core of the message relates to professionals who put profit before responsible behaviour.
A similar story of profit before propriety was seen in a Financial Times article covering issues at Credit Suisse in its private bank. In this case the information came to the surface only by accident when a clerical error allowed a confidential report of the Swiss market regulator, Finma. Normally those reports are not publicly available but this one surfaced most likely as part of a lawsuit. As noted in the FT article: “About a dozen senior Credit Suisse executives — including top management — were aware of concerns over Lescaudron and repeated rule-breaking by him, the report said.” Perhaps that is the reason the report like other Finma reports are not made public. One could ask why a governmental body such as Finma is allowed to hide this information from the people who pay for its services.
