22 May, 2014 – MOSCOW. The Higher School of Economics hosted a round table entitled "Financial industry without ethics. Is there any future?". The event was organized jointly by CFA Association Russia, the Banking Institute of the Higher School of Economics, and the Dutch investment company Schildershoven Finance.

The event was opened by Mr. Solodkov, Director of the Banking Institute of the Higher School of Economics. In the opening speech he stressed the importance of ethics at the current stage of development for Russian business.

Neil Withers, President of CFA Association Russia, focused on the return of confidence in the industry: “We are to blame that people no longer trust the financiers,” he said. “We do not believe that we use money as a tool that we earn profits for clients, rather than redistribute in your pocket. A greater promotion of good ethics among financial companies would help. Also people are really not enough knowledge to effectively manage their money. We need to increase the level of financial literacy of the population, to explain complex things in accessible language. This has to be one of the priorities of global financiers. Improving the financial knowledge of our own clients, as well as the general population is needed and is already one of the most important tasks of our Association”.

Garegin Tosunyan, President of Association of Russian Banks, noted that all financiers’ actions are dictated by pragmatic considerations. "Everything we do is ultimately for you, not for anyone. By our own hands we create a peaceful and friendly environment in which all of us should be comfortable to operate and interact. People improve with positive examples. A changing environment leads to changes in peoples’ minds. Thus, the low growth of the Russian economy is due not only to quantitative factors, but also to the socio-psychological state of society; we change this environment by changing people’s minds”. 

Konstantin Korischenko, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Guild of investment and financial analysts (GIFA) discussed the issue of applying ethical standards in high-frequency trading in the stock market, which became widespread in recent years. He also stressed that the observance of ethical standards should be accompanied by their understanding and enforceability in life’s natural regulation.