Tackling Corrupt Corporate Culture

Corruption and corporate failures negatively impact lives of businesses and individuals. A natural reaction to failure is to cry out for change. It is a call out for things to be done differently, and preferably better. Calls for change in how businesses are done, is growing louder, by the day. Massive scandals and corporate failures across countries have left people, both in leadership and ordinary citizens, screaming and demanding for transformation. Since the 1980s, after banking scandals such as at Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), we have heard strong and growing cries for change. We have seen targeted and piecemeal changes, addressing legal and regulatory frameworks, governance structures, and so forth. These are reactions which typically limit change to targeted and limited areas. Thus, in recent banking scandals involving lending rates among banks, in the United Kingdom and United States, stakeholders are calling for changes in the banking culture. Likewise in Zimbabwe, in the recent challenges faced at Interfin Banking Corporation, we have again heard calls for change in the banking culture. What does the banking culture change to? What is it that we want to see our banking systems do for us? How should the transformed banking systems and culture look like? This vision is missing from the various architectures of change, not just in the banking sector, but across all other economic and business sectors. It is true that the banking business has metamorphosed from simple retail banking, which encouraged savings, to complex systems, which only a few of the bankers understand, and encourages spending. Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor, described this change in the banking industry, as having been, from excessive levels of compensation, to shoddy treatment of customers, to a deceitful manipulation of one of the most important interest rates. His reaction was that there was need for a real change in the banking industry culture.