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Swearing to be a good banker: Perceptions of the obligatory banker’s oath in the Netherlands

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Abstract

After the banking crisis, the Dutch government decided to make it a legal requirement for the employees of banks to make a moral-ethical statement or ‘banker’s oath’. There is, however, no empirical study upon which this drastic measure was based, and from which positive effects can be expected. We therefore conducted a survey among bank employees and their direct clients to check their possible familiarity with such an oath and the expected impact. This article provides a clear view on perceptions of the banker’s oath and is a solid starting point for further research. The results show that trust in the banker’s oath does not seem to be very high. Bank employees in particular are opposed to it. Furthermore, knowledge of the oath concept appears to be low. The results make it doubtful whether a banker’s oath can meet expectations; rather, it is merely the capstone in an attempt to promote integrity and restore confidence in the financial sector. At this moment, the banker’s oath is not a professional oath, and though legally required is also not a political oath that is taken before the government.

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References and Notes

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  • The banker’s oath will apply to all bank employees, including receptionists, those in marketing and compliance, and advisors. As bank advisors have direct client contact and we consider them one of the groups who can directly contribute to the improvement of trust in the financial sector, we focused on this group for the study.

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  • The banker’s oath is worded as follows: ‘[I swear] that I will carefully weigh the interests of all parties that are involved in the company, be it those of the clients, the shareholders, the employees or the society in which the company operates; [and] that in this weighing I shall put the interests of the client at the center’.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Capital Amsterdam Foundation (www.capitalamsterdam.com) for this research project. Capital Amsterdam have had no influence on the results.

The authors also like to express their gratitude to Judith von Reeken, Zoe Goldstein and Manon de Groot for their assistance.

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Loonen, T., Rutgers, M. Swearing to be a good banker: Perceptions of the obligatory banker’s oath in the Netherlands. J Bank Regul 18, 28–47 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/jbr.2016.2

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