Exploring the limits of corporate culture as a regulatory tool - the case of financial institutions
Date
2017
Authors
Tomasic, R.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Australian Journal of Corporate Law, 2017; 32:196-221
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
Recent financial market and corporate crises have led to a loss of faith in many traditional legal regulatory tools used to control financial markets. The failure to successfully pursue criminal actions against senior officers in banks and financial institutions following the global financial crisis has focused attention on this issue and raised questions regarding the utility of criminal prosecutions in this area. This has seen the development of a significant loss of trust in banking and financial institutions. It could be argued that these institutions to some degree reflect a wider malaise. This is important as banking and financial entity failures have provided us with many of the cases that have shaped corporate governance principles, at least since the 19th century. One response to these problems has been a renewed interest in the idea of corporate culture and its value as a corporate regulatory tool. This approach has drawn upon earlier models developed by socio-legal scholars and lawyers. Regulatory authorities have been keen to use the idea of culture in the regulation of financial institutions, although the fuzziness of the concept has made it a difficulty tool to use as a legal mechanism, such as in criminal prosecutions. Although conceptually appealing, for a variety of reasons discussed here, the fluidity of the idea of corporate culture is such that it is unlikely to be the ‘quick fix’ that many regulators have hoped for to re-establish public confidence and trust in public companies.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
Access Status
Rights
Copyright 2017 LexisNexis Butterworths