Citigroup Weaves ‘Client’s Interest, Economic Value & Responsibility’ Into Decision Making


03/28/2017

Hiring an ethicist to guide the decision making process by overseeing practices and morality measures present in projects, allows Citigroup to create its own guidelines.


Dailycsr.com – 26 March 2017 – After the financial crisis of the year 2008, various measures have been put in place in order to avoid any similar scenario, whereby the “Dodd-Frank bill and a red alert attitude at the Federal Reserve” form part of these measures. While the bank of Citigroup has devised its own preventive measures through an “innovative solution” of a “company ethicist”. Dr. David Miller, an ex-banker who took an interest in theology and is presently teaching in Princeton, has been given the said position at Citigroup bank.
 
Dr. Miller fulfils his role by providing “advice and input” on “business practices and morality, reviewing projects” and ideas to the senior management executives. According to the proposition of Dr. Miller, there are three basic principles that could define the territory of “ethical decision-making”. These three principles are to seek whether a practice is “right, good and fitting”. The said approach has been inspired from the philosophy of “Plato and Aristotle”.
 
However, in the case of Citigroup, it has adapted the above mentioned proposal and moulded into forms that suit their own terms, whereby they ask: “is it in our clients’ interest, does it create economic value, and is it systematically responsible?”
 
While John Howell adds:
“As a mission statement to guide a responsible business, Citigroups’ values proposition sets a high bar”.
 
 
 
 
References:
ethicalperformance.com