Value Systems in Banking Need, Importance and Implications of Training for Young Managers

It is necessary for all executives and nonexecutives in the banking industry to know the meaning of ethics and the value systems that flow from these, and how to deal with the concept in its various nuances. This is because in today's business environment, ethical shades and meanings are difficult to pin down. By this it is meant that ethics is not something which can be seen in stark black and white colors; there are intervening shades of gray that make the concept of ethics difficult to define at times, and also make its practice, quite tricky.

From the perspective of training, the paper will be relevant for managers handling this function, in constructing modules which can be incorporated in the induction programs for new executives, perhaps based on what comes out from the contents of this paper. It is felt that in this day and age, and especially from what comes out in the press, this will be of critical value to new executives.

This paper looks at the meaning of business ethics and value systems as defined by various proponents. It also looks at these as applicable to non-banking industries, and then goes on to elaborate on what ethics meant to the writer when he worked as a young banker in a multinational bank, over three decades ago, where banking ethics (no one called it by that term in those days) were drummed into him by strict bosses, of the old school banker variety, both from and outside India.