A survey casts worrying light on the extent to which financial sector professionals feel they are under pressure to abuse standards and keep quiet.

A poll by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants showed that a third of finance professionals worldwide feel under pressure to compromise their professional ethical standards. One quarter say that those who report concerns are seen as troublemakers by their bosses.

Some 37 per cent of those polled feel under pressure and 26 per cent of financial professionals agree that those who report concerns about unethical behaviour are seen as troublemakers, which are worrying figures, according to the CIMA. The findings were shown in the Managing Responsible Business report by CIMA where 2,498 professionals worldwide were polled.

“Profit and ethics are not two opposing aims. A responsible and well-run business is more likely to survive in the long term. The report highlights that we are still struggling to work our way through a crisis of culture within business, and we need to maintain our focus. Our study shows that we can no longer afford to think of ethical performance in business as just a compliance issue,” commented the head of ethics at CIMA, Tanya Barman.

At a time when the financial industry, including the wealth management sector, remains under pressure to restore trust in the wake of the market crash of 2008 and subsequent scandals over affairs such as rate-rigging, such findings will be cause for concern. 

The countries where respondents felt the highest level of pressure to comprise standards of ethical business conduct were Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Pakistan, where 61 per cent, 58 per cent and 54 per cent respectively gave this answer. The countries where finance professionals reported the lowest levels of feeling pressured were in the UK, the US and Ireland. However, compared to 2012 those countries have experienced increases in the levels of pressure. India was an outlier, with respondents saying they felt pressure had dropped, with 45 per cent saying they felt pressure down from 51 per cent three years ago.

CIMA highlighted the responses from UK-based finance professionals where the figures for feeling under pressure and management seeing those who reported concerns as troublemakers were only were slightly lower than the corresponding global figures. When asked in which situation they were under the most pressure, 20 per cent of UK professionals responded working with colleagues from different areas within the organisation, 28 per cent said meeting reporting deadlines and 14 per cent stated when they were working with partners internationally.

In the report, human rights abuse was reported by 68 per cent to be a relevant issue, yet only 13 per cent of firms reported having paid due diligence on human rights when entering new contracts. A majority of 80 per cent of finance professionals said they have a role in managing ethical performance and 78 per cent feel business has a role in addressing global issues such as climate change and poverty. 

“A lost reputation can destroy a business overnight. To guard against this, organisations need to collect and interpret information about ethical performance, so the company can tell when it’s on the right track and when it’s about to walk off a cliff-edge,” Barman commented. However, while a majority of firms have codes of ethics only 36 per cent of finance professionals confirmed that their organisations collect ethical management information.

The survey was conducted in January and February in 2015 among CGMA designation-holders and CIMA students globally.