An Anthropological Perspective on Conduct Risk

Dominic Fielding and David N Ingram

In this chapter, we approach conduct risk from a slightly different angle, considering it from a philosophical and anthropological standpoint. We look at corporate beliefs and how they manifest in different corporate environments and then give a guide to tools and techniques that could be used to evolve and adjust them accordingly.

We develop this thinking further still by detailing the links between beliefs and corporate strategy and between product development and corporate frameworks. Finally, we reflect on how an organisation might evidence effective implementation and demonstrate success in managing and mitigating conduct risk.

Before we get into the details of these views let us take a moment to reflect on this from the regulatory perspective. Conduct-of-business regulations exist to provide firms with core principles with which to undertake “regulated business”.

However, there has been a move away from the previous tick-box approach to a more flexible style of regulation as promoted in Europe under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Directive 2004/39/EC) and the work of the former UK regulator (Financial Services Authority). This, in our view, therefore