Causes and solutions for misconduct in the financial services industry

Abstract

This paper considers the efficacy of the Australian government's 2018 initiatives to counter widespread misconduct identified by its Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry. As regulators exist to protect stakeholders, introducing stakeholders as co-regulators provides continuous intimate comprehensive identification of misconduct. The role, size, cost and intrusiveness of regulators are reduced. Regulators could use their discretionary powers to encourage firms to: (a) remove current unethical conflicts inherent in corporate constitutions; (b) establish constructive management of other conflicts; (c) provide independent voice to stakeholders for improving operations, competiveness, reporting misconduct, harms, risks or unsatisfactory service.