Adhere to ethical premises in banking

Dr. Muhammad Omar Foysal :
Banking serves as the lifeblood of the economy of any country. All economic activities are run with this sector in the country. People’s confidence and belief in banking sector remains atop all other financial institutions. Bankers are considered the main custodians of the state’s economy. The more of the knowledge, ideas, attitudes of the profession all in this industry be ethically enriched, the more of the country’s economy will proceed towards prosperity and development. In this regard, bankers should build their mentality in providing services with honesty, sincerity and wisdom. Everyone must play the role of a development worker so that our economy may ethically premise upon sound footings.
Literally, the term morality encompasses some values and principles with regard to justice and ethics. According to American Heritage Dictionary ‘Ethics is the study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by the individual in his relationship with others’. Whenever we come across the word ‘profession’ there depict some important traits like love, sincerity, care, service mentality, faultless accomplishment, friendly behavior and above all belonging to the same family.
The retail banking is now at the doorstep of people due to of automation facilities. Now-a-days the necessity of values is badly felt with the electronic advancement in the banking sector. There goes a slogan floating on the area of inter-banking that we want a successful co-ordination of love and good values with science & technology and an ethical restructuring as well.
The Bankers magazine in an article of their Nov, of their 2012 issue, (P-56) mentioned that, ‘Banking is a cyclical business. If you take a snapshot of banks around the globe, you would see banks at every stage of the cycle’. However, the bankers fall prey to myriad of critical situation during their hectic life. It will be difficult for the bankers to sustain in this risky profession, if the steady and firm determination is not conjoined together. So keeping wary should be the motto in the life of the banker. Even one should not bypass any trifling issue. Every task is to be done with patience and farsightedness. Every issue should be considered in terms of well thought out action plan and intuition. One should not discriminate while performing any task with equity and justice. Equal care should be be taken for all and we must keep away from exaggerating any matter.
Most of the employees of this industry don’t want to make illegal infiltration to their harden income but in some cases professional morality does not corresponded to a few of them. They sometime are oblivion of their commitment, accountabilities and professional responsibilities. Today there raise a question in public perception that how do they possess huge assets by way of hoarding limited income. It is mere a stupidity to compromise with the ethical issues regarding protection of faith among the people. The people responsible for misappropriation should not be spared of facing legal actions and this is the nation’s expectation. If these activities go on unfettered, the banking sector must show up dismal appearance in no time. The course of the nation’s economy will also be reverted. The banking sector should be transparent. It is not desirable the presence of dishonest people in the banking sector. Banking institutions will get rid of industrial debacle only after arrangement of ethical and motivational training and imparting subjective knowledge alongside is ensured. As opined by the CEO of IBBL says…. ‘Principal of social welfare rather than self interest in Banking system is only the prime driving force. This system postulates the strategy that coordination of economic development lies with social development by following the rules of discipline in ethics.  
In view of the foregoing, we may conclude that morality has become the demand of the time. So the bankers should take the helm of the same responsibilities, like to develop mentality in unveiling the truth without hesitation, to be respectful to the regulatory issues, to show up due honor and respect towards different opinions of others people, exhibiting decent forgiving behavior to the colleagues and arousing mentality in showing respect to our beloved clients.

(Dr. Muhammad Omar Foysal is a banker: e-mail [email protected] )