ETHICS IN FINANCE

The goals of the course are to make students aware of the importance of making ethical and socially responsible decisions. This practice is especially important in the investment industry since these decisions will not only affect a client/firm itself but also other stakeholders and shareholders. Moreover, the portfolio managers can also influence a behavior of other market participants, for example by punishing the firm behaving in unethical manner, and by limiting its ability to raise the capital in financial market.
However, very often the ethical and socially responsible behavior might conflict with traditional business objectives, creating dilemmas for their managers. These dilemmas are related to such aspects as insider trading, priority of investment decisions, gifts from the clients, additional compensations and many others. Individuals who work in the area of investment management have a special duty to behave in an ethical and socially responsible manner. This course has an objective to get the students familiar with these dilemmas they will face while starting their career in investment banking. It will also provide them with appropriate skills to resolve these dilemmas ethically. This need has been only highlighted by an on-going financial crisis.
The structure of the course will follow the requirements of CFA Institute for the CFA Level I, II and III exams. However, some topics will be more deeply discussed than in the CFA preparatory book.