Maybe, just maybe, a little more morality

Ten years ago on September 15, the financial firm Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, triggering the worst global recession in decades. The 2008-09 economic crash created much hardship and exposed many inequities, yet it also led to new regulations and spawned endless books and movies about the lessons learned.

Largely unnoticed on this 10th anniversary, however, is the fact that it also awakened an improved culture of prudence in many financial firms as well as other companies. Out of the bust came a boom in the hiring of ‘‘chief risk officers’’. Such employees are now integral to many companies, charged with spotting hidden operational risks, such as fraud or excessive debt. The crisis a decade ago did lead to massive bailouts of several firms, a step seen at the time as necessary to prevent a systemic collapse of financial markets. But Washington also set down tough rules to push companies into avoiding ‘‘moral hazard’’, or a tendency to take big risks because of a belief that government will ride to the rescue again. ‘‘If you fail to . . . serve customers and counterparties in an ethical manner, you could be headed for some negative outcomes,’’ says Nancy Foster, head of The Risk Management Association. In that sort of morality, there is little or no hazard. And perhaps it is also a key lesson from a crisis that has offered so many teachable moments.