The Question That All Bankers Should Be Asking: Why Are We Here?

The following article was originally published in the October edition of The Journal of Business Compliance.

INTRO: Jonathan Ledwidge is an author and risk professional with more than 20 years experience in investment banking and has strong views and undeniably good questions. In this opinion article, the first under the Speakers Corner column of the Journal, he asks questions of everyone in the corporate world, not merely bankers, but industrialists, regulators and all those associated with the formation of governance frameworks, the promotion of meaningful corporate culture and their implementation. He considers the many pitfalls into which a generation of business and political leaders have fallen and the consequences these have had on regulation and internal control practices. The scandals that have come to light within the banking sector have overshadowed scandals of corruption and misselling in other industries that just as crucially require answers and reflections of the existential question: Why are we here?

“Tell me again Maximus, why are we here?”