MetLife Australia’s Senior Internal Auditor, Aoife Donnelly, has been named one of The Banking and Finance Oath (BFO) Young Ambassadors for 2021.

Ms Donnelly was announced as a BFO Young Ambassador, along with ten others from across the financial services and banking industries at an event held last night at The Ethics Centre. The event was also attended by Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, John Laker AO, Chairman of the BFO and Simon Longstaff AO, Executive Director of The Ethics Centre.

The BFO Young Ambassador Program encourages and supports students and graduates to adopt a strong ethical foundation as they begin their careers in the banking and finance industry. Ms Donnelly is the only BFO Young Ambassador from a life insurance company.

Having graduated from a finance degree in Ireland as the world suffered the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008, Ms Donnelly says, “I saw first-hand how a community suffered financially through the ethical failings of the financial services system.” This experience guided her career and has inspired her to drive high ethical standards from herself and colleagues.

“As a BFO Young Ambassador, I hope to encourage others to restore trust and confidence in the industry. I also want to learn from other BFO Young Ambassadors by engaging in difficult and thought-provoking conversations to inspire continued change in a post-Hayne environment.”

Commenting on the BFO Young Ambassador Program, Head of The BFO, Cris Parker said: ”Recognising the power of the individual, MetLife has taken the lead within the insurance sector by raising awareness of The BFO and supporting Aoife as a Young Ambassador to demonstrate her commitment to ethics and in turn, strengthen the ethical foundation in their organisation.”

MetLife has a long-standing commitment to the BFO and runs an annual campaign to engage staff with the guiding principles of the BFO, achieving a 40% uptake of the Oath in 2020. MetLife has also led the life insurance industry by encouraging others to take the Oath and advocating for improved ethical standards.

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On behalf of the FASEA board, Chair Catherine Walter welcomed the reappointment of Mark and Simon and acknowledged the integral role they have played in the formation and development of FASEA. The board looks forward to continuing to draw on their expertise in delivering FASEA’s important legislative remit.

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Dr Simon Longstaff

To my mind, Kenneth Hayne was to the banking and finance industry what a building surveyor is to a rickety house. He ripped off the gleaming cladding to reveal cracked foundations, some rotten beams and a few broken tiles that let in the rain.

But he did more. He also afforded us a glimpse of the occupants of the house – the industry’s customers. Most turned out to be fine. However, a few were shown to have suffered real detriment – and they are justifiably hurt and angry – as are the rest of us on their behalf.

The challenge now is to refurbish the structure – which is basically sound.

However, who is to do this work? Do we leave it to the people who failed to notice or ignored the signs of disrepair? Perhaps not. For my part, I’m counting on a younger cohort to renovate the banking and finance industry – for it is they who have most to gain.

If I was one of these young people, then I would be really annoyed that an older generation had allowed my aspirations to be tainted. I would want to mount a ‘guerilla’ campaign to reclaim my industry’s noble purpose; to champion its ideals. I would not target the top. Instead, I would focus on recruiting my peers; I would enrol them in a campaign of change from the bottom. I would use social media. I would stand outside the doors of each head office and sign people up. I would organise meetings in pubs, clubs, wherever … I would mobilise a new generation of people working in banking and finance and drive the change that the current crop of leaders either cannot or will not lead.

So, what would be my manifesto for change?

I would look to The Banking and Finance Oath (The BFO). This is not because I had a hand in its formation. It’s because the tenets speak to an underlying truth; the banking and finance industry is not merely necessary. It as a capacity to do good.

In my experience, today’s younger people are every bit as idealistic as their forebears. Indeed, their natural affinity for ethics is stronger than that of the generations they will supplant. However, they are also limited in their belief that they can make a difference beyond the boundaries of their immediate influence.

What banking and finance needs are hopeful, pragmatic idealists willing to champion and apply the precepts embedded in The BFO. This is a practical task requiring a level of inspiration, energy and commitment that is beyond the reach of those currently running the show. Today’s leadership sincerely embraces the idea of a solid ethical foundation for banking and finance; they just don’t want to (or perhaps can’t) bring the ideas to life at the scale required. To wait for them to get their act together would be to wait forever.

On the other hand, the emerging generation of leaders has everything to gain from seizing the opportunity presented by The BFO. Nobody wants to feel ashamed of their work. People wish to be proud. Nobody wants to do meaningless work. People want to serve a decent purpose.

The world of banking and finance is about to be turned on its head; disrupted to its core due to technological innovation. However, a place will remain for those who understand the human dimension of banking and finance – the essential need for trust, a concern for the wellbeing of those served; and so on.

Great bankers and financiers have always understood money, debt, credit, etc. However, great bankers and financiers have always been concerned about much more. Thus, we speak of the great banking houses of yesteryear. What of the banking houses of today? How do they stand? What of those of tomorrow.

Young people have the opportunity to lay the foundations for the banking and finance industry of the future. To you I say this: please seize the opportunity and break the shackles of conformity. Take on the complacent, rattle a few cages, embarrass a few ‘worthies’ and in doing so, actively shape your fate rather than meekly accepting the legacy of Hayne. And while your at it – have some fun.

By Dr Simon Longstaff AO, Executive Director of The Ethics Centre

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You can hear Simon speak at The BFO Crossroads Conference on Thursday 8 August 2019 at Westpac, Barangaroo, Sydney. The Program, full list of speakers and tickets are available here.

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Dr Simon Longstaff

On the eve of the release of the final report of the Hayne Royal Commission, Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of The Ethics Centre, has told an audience of financial services executives that the issues at the core of the Royal Commission’s findings will not be addressed by ramping up compliance.

Dr Longstaff was speaking at an annual function organised by specialist financial services communications consultancy Pritchitt Partners.

He said throughout the hearings, Commissioner Hayne had held true to what the Commissioner referred to as a set of “simple ideas”, or what Longstaff identified as a set of principles on which the law and good practice are ultimately founded.

“The Commissioner has made it clear he is not simply looking for more legislation. What he requires is that the existing rules be applied. Better still, he expects the industry to choose an ethical standard that keeps it well within the bounds of the law.”

He said that the banking and finance industry faces a moment of truth and must ask itself once again “For what purpose do we exist? What is the good we do in society?  How do we define our values and principles and how do we live with them?”

Commenting on the behaviour of executives in financial services, Dr Longstaff said that this is not an industry populated by monsters.  It’s not full of wicked individuals asking, ‘How can I do something terrible today?’

“These are invariably good people led by institutional arrangements to do bad things.

“During the Commission’s hearings, we have heard deeply troubling stories that now define, in the public mind, the conduct of organisations and a whole industry. It does not matter that the incidents of egregiously bad behaviour were relatively few in type. Like the sting at the tip of a scorpion’s tail, they have caused massive damage.

“The underlying causes can be seen at work well beyond the spheres of banking and finance; in business more generally, religion, sport and politics.

“There’s a sense of disappointment, scepticism and ultimately cynicism abroad in the Australian public. Members of the community no longer trust even their own direct experience.

“They look to each organisation to say who they are and what they stand for, and they want their own experience to be proof of that … but also observe how people in the organisation treat each other, their suppliers – indeed any of their stakeholders. Where they see a gap, people infer that this is the ‘true’ character of the organisation being revealed.”

He said that banks have recognised for a long time that the community has labelled them as greedy and perhaps a bit nasty.

But he thinks that now a Rubicon has been crossed and banks and other financial institutions are perceived as being dishonest.

“It has created a huge challenge for the financial services organisations to respond to these circumstances.

“It cannot be fixed by being better than competitors at such things as service or product design, and getting all the nuts and bolts right.

“More than that is required. It all comes back to principled behaviour.

“As comments by Commissioner Hayne imply, he wants the industry to be ethical, not merely to be compliant for fear of being discovered and punished. That’s why we hope that there will be a surge in engagement with the Banking + Finance Oath – long neglected by large parts of the industry – even though it sets an ethical framework of precisely the kind needed to address the issues identified by Commissioner Hayne.

“If the industry understands its purpose and the standards and principles that underpin it, and acts on them, it will be able to navigate all the legal shoals it might encounter.

“It will have a compass and a purpose that will help achieve ends other people will accept as reasonable.

“With some failing to see this – cutting corners because, technically, it’s allowed – the industry has ended up in the position it now finds itself.”

Dr Longstaff warned that organisations can’t adopt ethics simply to help the bottom line.

“If you do it for the dividend, you won’t get the dividend.  It’s not a Pollyanna-world where every ethical decision is met with instant rewards.  It’s a case of being ethical for its own sake. The rewards of trust only flow to the trustworthy.”

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