Evaluating Unethicality among the Top Banks in Australia

Evaluating Unethicality among the Top Banks in Australia 1
Evaluating Unethicality among the Top Banks in Australia
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Evaluating Unethicality among the Top Banks in Australia 2
Introduction
The mega debate on business ethics is always evolving and diversifying to cover more
perspectives. Ideally, the debate has never been greater than today in history. Simply put, being
ethical entails learning the right and wrong things and striving to adopt the right ones. However,
in the business world, the right things are not always straightforward. This is highly evident in
business ethics literature. Firms are usually confronted with ethical dilemmas which do not only
involve simply "Should I lie to my manager?" The common assertion that there is always a right
thing to do based on moral principles is always in contestation with the argument that the right
thing is highly dependent on the current situation (Goel & Ramanathan, 2014, p. 54). Following
the contesting ideas on specific ethical dilemmas, News Houses publish an endless series of
articles either giving explanations on the different perspectives or even advancing the preferred
moral stands of reputable individuals. In a publication dated August 17, 2018, published in The
New Daily, Isabelle Lane advances the claim that the business sector is currently the most
unethical sector in Australia. The main aim of this paper is to put forward the key arguments in
the article, derive and analyse the main ethical issues and give recommendations on the most
appropriate ethical decisions.
Article Summary
In her article, Banks, mortgage brokers, real estate agents considered least ethical: 2018
Ethics Index Lane starts by stating that the Australian citizens voted mortgage brokers, real estate
agents and bankers the most distrusted professionals. These revelations were adopted from a
recent study by the 2018 Ethics Index. The Governance Institute of the organisation suggested
that the citizens in the country are worried about the unethical behaviour evident within the
financial institutions. This distrust sets in just in the wake of numerous scandalous revelations

Evaluating Unethicality among the Top Banks in Australia 3
affecting even the top banks in the country. The Australian society is gradually growing less
ethical compared to the previous years
Lane advances the fact that ethics are very key to the Australians. She alludes to the
comparison made by the research team on the criticality of being ethical to the deteriorating
ethical behaviors demonstrated in various organisations and occupations. Overall, many
Australians (87 per cent) admit that ethics are a good foundation for an ideal, well-functioning
society. Majority of the respondents implied to be selfless and ready to safeguard the lives of
others. According to Lane, the corporate sector topped in the list of the most unethical industries.
The sector dropped from the previous year’s ranking from -3 to -9 (Lane, 2018).
Additionally, the professionals working within the business sector, more specifically the bankers
and real estate agents, were labelled the most unethical. These statistics reveal a huge drop from
the 2017 rankings. The unethicality of the financial sectors is majorly drawn from the executive
salaries, corruption and bribery, poor customer treatment and executive bonuses.
Apparently, the rankings are an exact copy of the prevailing activities in the corporate
sector. The CBA only in this year alone has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
Citizens have withdrawn the trust that they once had for the institution. The top banking
company was twice exposed for major issues touching ethical misconduct. In one incident, the
bank had been charging the dead advice fees even with the information that they are no more.
The top institution was aware that it was charging dead people but only stopped the practice after
various exposures (Neil, 2018). Although the institution promised to refund all the fees that was
deducted incorrectly, this should not have happened. In the other case, perhaps the most recent