Minouche Shafik: From "ethical drift" to "ethical lift" - reversing the tide of misconduct in global financial markets

Remarks by Ms Minouche Shafik, Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking of the Bank of England, Panel Discussion at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Conference on "Reforming Culture and Behaviour in the Financial Services Industry", New York, City, 20 October 2016.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

Misconduct in financial markets has existed for as long as commerce has existed. Thousands of years ago, Chinese merchants found ways to hide trading profits through a variety of financial techniques1. From the great South Sea bubble in the 1720's to the mis-selling of railway stocks in the mid-1800's through to more recent events such as the collapse of Bank of Credit and Commerce International and the failure of Barings in the mid-90's - we have had a long and inglorious record of rogues, fraudsters and embezzlers in the financial services sector.