Potential UK silver lining in Aussie shocks
A top City figure has branded Australia as “shellshocked” by the current t win scandals in financial services and the ball tampering row that led to the suspension of the country’ s cricket captain, Steve Smith.
Simon Cul ha ne, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment( C IS I ), the City’ s ethics and professional examinations watchdog, told The Scotsman: “Australians pride themselves on their sense of fair play, ‘ Good on, yer, mate’.
“But this coming together of scandals at work and play have shaken their sense of identity. Trust in financial services and cricket have dissipated sharply. They are in real shock.”
Culhane’s comments, after a recent working trip Down Under, come as two major Aussie banks, NAB and ANZ, are to pay a cumulative $ 100m fine for involvement in rigging overnight bank bill swap rates in echo es of the UK and US Libor scandal.
And AMP, Australia’s biggest wealth manager, has admitted to an Australian royal commission on banking that it lied under oath 20 times to the country’s financial regulator about its practice of charging clients for advice not given.
“Trust and confidence in the Australian financial sector has been damaged, and the situation in the cricket hasn’t helped, it has embarrassed people.”
There maybe a positive spinoff for CISI, however, as Culhane said he was talking to FINSIA, the UK group’s counterpart in Australasia, about the possible import of C IS I “best in class” professional qualifications to help restore standards of integrity.