The Central Bank’s Director General, Financial Conduct, has said that increasing evidence in the financial services sector shows that ineffective culture is bad for business – both for a firm itself and the consumers or investors it serves.
Derville Rowland was speaking at an Institute of Directors webinar today.
Ms Rowland said that firms are responsible for selling their customers products that meet their needs both now and in to the future.
“There is, therefore, an onus on firms to have effective cultures and set the right standards,” Ms Rowland said.
“These standards must be reflected across a firm in every aspect of how it conducts its business, from corporate governance structures to individual accountability; from strategy-setting to product development; from risk management to people management; and from internal challenge to how whistle-blowers are treated,” she added.
The Director General also told the webinar that there is a strong link between diversity and inclusion and culture.
“Firms should rethink their governance structures, processes, policies and procedures including talent management through a D&I lens,” she said.
Ms Rowland also assessed the impact of the Central Bank’s Fitness and Probity regime since it was introduced a decade ago.
She said the regime seeks to ensure that regulated firms and individuals who work in those firms are committed to high standards of competence, integrity and honesty, and are held to account when they fall below these standards.
The regime has been instrumental in the Central Bank’s work in seeking to ensure that the right people occupy key roles in the firms it regulates, she added.
Article Source – Central Bank’s Rowland says onus on firms to set the right standards – RTE