PHILADELPHIA, PA (October 3, 2019) –
Financial industry professionals can demonstrate their
commitment to ethical behavior by pledging on the RMA website to live
by The Risk Management Association’s Principles of Ethical Conduct.
The Risk Management Association is known for setting important
standards in the financial industry, and for assisting institutions and
practitioners as they strive to help people and businesses achieve their goals
in a manner that is beneficial for all stakeholders. By making the RMA Ethics
Pledge, professionals demonstrate to their customers and their institutions
that they are part of the solution—and help to improve the reputation of an essential
industry.
To make your pledge, simply visit this web page, read
the Principles, and click to register your intention to honor them. The pledge
is a voluntary statement of intent to act ethically and responsibly and would not
conflict with any institution’s code of ethics or conduct. In fact, the RMA
Principles can be a resource for organizations intending to create a new code or
supplement an existing one, and practitioners who demonstrate their eagerness
to live by the Principles reflect positively on their institutions and the
industry.
“Negative headlines have plagued the
financial services industry since the financial crisis of 2007-08,” said RMA
President and CEO Nancy Foster. “Many of these headlines resulted from bad
behavior by individuals on behalf of their employers—behavior that has had
huge consequences not only for the potential victims, but also for the individuals
and institutions involved. For our entire industry, in fact.”
The Principles are nine “rules of reason” intended to encourage honest conduct,
fair dealing, proper handling of conflicts of interest, full disclosure and
compliance, and the protection of institutions’ legitimate business interests.
They include and elaborate on the following guidelines:
- Act with
integrity.
- Report wrongdoing.
- Be dedicated to
stakeholders.
- Avoid conflicts
and the appearance of impropriety.
- Report information
accurately.
- Maintain
confidentiality.
- Compete fairly and
honestly.
- Promote inclusion
in the workplace.
- When in doubt,
seek counsel.
“Ethics impact the bottom line. But there
is also value to conducting business ethically for its own sake,” Foster said. “In
this world, there is so little we can control. But we can control our own
behavior, and take pride in it being a positive reflection on ourselves and our
industry.”
The entire Principles document is available here.
About RMA
Founded in 1914, The Risk Management Association
is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose
is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services
industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses
on credit risk, market risk and operational risk. Headquartered in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 1,900 institutional members that include
banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. They are
represented in the Association by 18,500 individuals located throughout North
America, Europe, Australia, and Asia/Pacific.
Media Contacts
Stephen Krasowski,
215-446-4095, skrasowski@rmahq.org
Frank Devlin, 215-446-4137, fdevlin@rmahq.org