To enhance the learner’s understanding of professionalism and ethics and the implications of professionalism and ethics for banking in a digital age: Banking and ethics, Assignment, UCC, Ireland

AIM:

To enhance the learner’s understanding of professionalism and ethics and the implications of professionalism and ethics for banking in a digital age. The learner will develop their skills in relation to thinking critically about how ethical behaviour can be encouraged in banking, whether through codes of ethics, regulation, or through good leadership. The learner will explore how ethical demands might change with future developments, such as digital innovations and growing environmental pressures.

Unit 1: Banking and Professionalism

LO1: Critically reflect on the moral considerations that apply to bankers which derive from the nature of bank products and services, and the ways in which professionalising banking could help ensure those responsibilities are fulfilled.

1.1 Assess the defining characteristics of profession and the extent to which banking is, or should be, a profession.

1.2 Identify the qualities that define a professional banker and explain the meaning of key concepts used in the Chartered Banker Institute’s Code of Professional Conduct.

1.3 Assess the extent to which employers and professional bodies can help instil ethical values in their employees and members.

1.4 Explain why the financial services sector is regulated more tightly than other sectors.

1.5 Reflect on the moral considerations a bank has when selling complex financial products and services to customers.

UNIT 2: ETHICAL THEORY AND ETHICAL REASONING

LO2: Differentiate between a range of theories and approaches to ethical thinking and assess the extent to which these could help resolve ethical dilemmas and ethical arguments.

2.1 Differentiate between ethical and legal requirements.

2.2 Differentiate between the claims of, and assess the objections to: radical subjectivism; moral relativism; moral objectivism; consequentialism; deontology; and virtue theory.

2.3 Distinguish between the concepts of validity and soundness.

2.4 Assess the extent to which making a constructive moral argument could help to resolve moral disagreements.

2.5 Reflect on the ways in which ethical reasoning could be used to challenge perceived unethical behaviour at work.

UNIT 3: REGULATION AND LEGISLATION

LO3: Examine the impact on banks, their customers, and their employees, of a range of legislation and regulation on current banking practice and the extent to which it is designed to rebuild trust and confidence in banks.

3.1 Outline the scope of legislation and regulation that is of particular significance to banking.

3.2 Assess ethical issues surrounding regulation and the justification for different regulatory practices.

3.3 Evaluate the key arguments for and against the regulation and de-regulation of the banking sector.

3.4 Examine a range of theories about how and why we should regulate.

3.5 Assess the extent to which regulation and legislation can help rebuild trust and confidence in banks.

UNIT 4: BUSINESS ETHICS

LO4: Differentiate between several views on the responsibilities of a business, and assess key ethical issues and challenges facing the banking sector.

4.1 Differentiate between, and assess, several views on the responsibilities of a business.

4.2 Assess the ways in which the responsibilities of a business relate to the rights and responsibilities of employees.

4.3 Identify and assess key ethical issues and challenges facing the banking sector.

4.4 Identify key ethical issues that can arise in advertising and international business.

4.5 Examine key ethical questions about the status of whistleblowing

UNIT 5: LEADERSHIP, GOVERNANCE, CULTURE AND CONDUCT

LO5: Critically assess a range of theories relating to the ethics of leadership and corporate governance in banking.

5.1 Compare and critically assess different views of leadership.

5.2 Assess the extent to which different views of leadership provide useful insights to what makes a good leader and what makes an ethically good leader.

5.3 Apply a theoretical understanding of leadership to a range of cases.

5.4 Identify the ways in which organisational culture can affect ethical conduct.

5.5 Explain what is meant by corporate governance and identify the principles of good corporate governance.

UNIT 6: THE FUTURE OF BANKING: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY

LO6: Critically evaluate, from an ethical perspective, the impact, and potential impact, of environmental factors and technological developments on current and future banking practice.

6.1 Apply a non-theoretical approach to a range of emerging ethical problems affecting banking in a digital age.

6.2 Define ‘the tragedy of the commons’ and critically evaluate possible solutions to it.

6.3 Analyse the concepts of sustainability and intergenerational justice.

6.4 Evaluate the main arguments that are in favour of banks having moral obligations towards the environment.

6.5 Identify and assess several distinct ethical issues arising from the increased use of technology in banking in a digital age.