'Bankers more accountable to society'

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'Bankers more accountable to society'

 

 

Express News Service

First Published : 29 Aug 2009 09:56:53 AM IST

Last Updated : 29 Aug 2009 12:46:27 PM IST

 

ANANTAPUR: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Duvvuri Subba Rao today said there was no evidence to show that people in the financial sector were inherently less ethical than people in other professions. However, given the larger temptation and more opportunities, the power of context to be short, there could be greater incidence of unethical behaviour in the financial sector, he remarked.

 

Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural function of a two-day conference on `Ethics and World of Finance’ at Sri Sathya Sai University in Puttaparthi, Subba Rao said: ``Because of the very nature of the financial sector, leaders and the top management in the sector have an extra obligation to be sensitive to larger societal obligations.

 

 

Economics, as an academic discipline, is losing its value base, and conjectured, if that could be at the root of the malaise in the financial sector.’’ In his indepth analysis of the present economic recession and the role of ethics, the RBI Governor outlined how a sense of responsibility to larger societal good underpins on the mandate of the RBI. ``All of us as individuals, families, social communities and faith communities confront ethical dilemmas everyday, and we resolve them in our own ways. We take the value of ethical behaviour to be axiomatic,’’ he observed.

 

 

Subba Rao referred to financial scams that shocked the world and led to the collapse of markets, from Nick Leeson, Bernie Madoff, Dennis Levine to our own Satyam Ramalinga Raju.

 

 

On the RBI role, Subba Rao said the bank had a broad mandate. ``We are the monetary authority, issue currency, regulate banks and non-bank finance companies and the financial markets. We regulate the payment and settlement system. We are the debt manager for the Central and State governments and the gatekeeper for the external sector. What guides us in fulfilling this broad mandate was a sense of institutional values and professional integrity. One of the core aims of monetary policy was to maintain price stability.. By maintaining price stability, we are safeguarding the well- being of the poor in society,’’ he said.

 

 

In recent years, the RBI was concentrating on financial inclusion and financial literacy. The financial inclusion campaign was to provide access to financial services to people in remote and rural areas and poorer segments of society. The financial literacy programme was to educate people on the type of services that they could get from the financial sector, on the rights that they have and on the grievance redressal mechanism, the RBI Governor explained.

 

 

Earlier, Sri Sathya Saibaba formally inaugurated the two-day conference. Former RBI governor YV Reddy, University Vice- Chancellor Viswanath Pandit and 24 chairmen and chief executives of commercial banks, insurance companies, regulatory authorities and a host of academicians and economists attended the

 

Attached photo of Sri Sathya Saibaba lighting the lamp to mark the inauguration of the two-day conference on ‘Ethics and World of Finance’ at Sri Sathya Sai University

With love and light

Sai Ram

 

Deepak

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