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Swearing to be Virtuous: The Prospects of a Banker's Oath

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  • John R. Boatright

Abstract

In an effort to restore trust in the banking sector, the Advisory Committee on the Future of Banks in the Netherlands made a recommendation, which has since been adopted, that bank executives be required to swear an oath akin to the physician's Hippocratic Oath. This examination of the prospects of the Dutch banker's oath addresses two broad issues. One issue is the efficacy of oaths themselves as instruments for achieving the desired end. A second issue concerns the extent to which this particular oath is a useful guide to ethical banking practice. One conclusion of this study is that it would be difficult for any oath in banking to serve a role that is analogous to the Hippocratic Oath in medicine because of the many dissimilarities involved, most notably the lack in banking of a singular focus on service. Second, the Dutch oath, while admirable in its lofty exhortations, fails to provide a reliable guide through the many difficult judgments that must be made in banking.

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  • John R. Boatright, 2013. "Swearing to be Virtuous: The Prospects of a Banker's Oath," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(2), pages 140-165, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:71:y:2013:i:2:p:140-165
    DOI: 10.1080/00346764.2013.800305
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Riccardo Rebonato, 2007. "Introduction to Plight of the Fortune Tellers: Why We Need to Manage Financial Risk Differently," Introductory Chapters, in: Plight of the Fortune Tellers: Why We Need to Manage Financial Risk Differently, Princeton University Press.
    2. Raghuram G. Rajan, 2010. "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9111.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sorravich Kingsuwankul & Chloe Tergiman & Marie Claire Villeval, 2023. "Why do oaths work? Image concerns and credibility in promise keeping," Working Papers hal-04209489, HAL.
    2. Utz Weitzel & Michael Kirchler, 2021. "The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-032/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Jakob Moggia, 2021. "Moral Responsibility for Systemic Financial Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 461-473, March.
    4. Madelijne Gorsira & Linda Steg & Adriaan Denkers & Wim Huisman, 2018. "Corruption in Organizations: Ethical Climate and Individual Motives," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, February.
    5. Anthony Asher & Tracy Wilcox, 2022. "Virtue and Risk Culture in Finance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 223-236, August.
    6. Boudewijn Bruin, 2016. "Pledging Integrity: Oaths as Forms of Business Ethics Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 23-42, June.
    7. Ann-Kathrin Koessler & Benno Torgler & Lars P. Feld & Bruno S. Frey, 2016. "Commitment to Pay Taxes: A Field Experiment on the Importance of Promise," CESifo Working Paper Series 6186, CESifo.
    8. Koessler, Ann-Kathrin & Torgler, Benno & Feld, Lars P. & Frey, Bruno S., 2019. "Commitment to pay taxes: Results from field and laboratory experiments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 78-98.
    9. Weitzel, Utz & Kirchler, Michael, 2023. "The Banker’s oath and financial advice," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    10. Brent J. Davis & Tarek Jaber‐Lopez, 2023. "Do voluntary commitment mechanisms improve welfare? The effect of mandatory and voluntary oaths in a social dilemma," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 525-540, April.
    11. Tobias Beck & Christoph Bühren & Björn Frank & Elina Khachatryan, 2020. "Can Honesty Oaths, Peer Interaction, or Monitoring Mitigate Lying?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 467-484, May.
    12. Lisa Herzog, 2019. "Professional Ethics in Banking and the Logic of “Integrated Situations”: Aligning Responsibilities, Recognition, and Incentives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 531-543, May.
    13. Tobias Beck, 2020. "Lying and Mistrust in the Continuous Deception Game," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202030, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    14. Utz Weitzel & Michael Kirchler, 2022. "The Banker's Oath And Financial Advice," Working Papers 2022-13, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    15. Beck, Tobias, 2021. "How the honesty oath works: Quick, intuitive truth telling under oath," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

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