What I learned about Irish banking culture from whistleblowers

"Ireland's Central Bank has improved much since the 2008 crisis and is one of the few Irish public bodies making whistleblower information available"

“Ireland’s Central Bank has improved much since the 2008 crisis and is one of the few Irish public bodies making whistleblower information available”
Opinion: a wide network of forces works against encouraging disclosures about unethical practices in the sector

Ten years on from the financial crisis, the Irish Banking Culture Board has emerged. It aims to address “an unprecedented loss of public trust” in Ireland’s banks and will do so by fostering a sustainable, professional and ethical banking culture. Will this work? Or do the problems in finance simply go too deep?

From researching whistleblowing in this sector, I am not optimistic. An ethical organisational culture encourages disclosures of problems from within, and then ensures they are acted upon. I interviewed people who spoke up in a variety of banks in the UK, US and Ireland prior to the 2008 crisis. I spoke with regulators, trade unionists, lawyers and support groups. Whistleblowers had disclosed mortgage fraud, money-laundering and unethical lending practices. They had mainly been ignored. Continue reading…