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June 2012

Putting integrity into finance

By Tarunkumar Singhal, Raman Jokhakar, Chartered Accountants
Reading Time 1 mins
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Behaviour that lacks integrity leads to value destruction. This paper analyses some common beliefs, actions and activities in finance that are inconsistent with being a person or a firm of integrity.

Each of these beliefs leads to a system that lacks integrity, i.e., one that is not whole and complete and, therefore, creates unworkability and destroys value. Focussing on these phenomena from the integrity viewpoint, we argue, makes it possible for managers to focus on the value that can be created by putting the system back in integrity and correcting the non-value maximising equilibrium that exists in capital markets.

 In effect, integrity is a factor of production just like knowledge, technology, labour and capital, but it is undistinguished — and its effect (by its presence or absence) is huge. We summarise our new positive theory of integrity that has no normative content, and argue that there are large gains from putting integrity into finance — into both the theory and practice of finance. We define integrity as being whole and complete and unbroken. We argue that if finance scholars, teachers and practitioners take this approach to applications in finance, there are huge gains to be achieved.

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