for sensitive ears, but you get the gist of it! so, be on your guard when you come across an obliging banker! if there is one thing we must learn, it is how to bring banking and accountancy back in from the righteous wind of public anger, for a refit with refreshed ethics, a new sense of corporate probity and a bolder bis central bankers ’ speeches capacity for corporate governance. that is exactly what we seek to achieve by the new guidelines on corporate governance that we introduced in august this year. not to be outdone, the banker ’ s association has announced that it is coming up with a new code of ethics and banking practice. not a minute too soon, one might be tempted to say! so i must say that i am very pleased to hear that after the diamond era of super bonuses and the alleged massaging of the figures in rampant rate - rigging, one of the largest banks concerned is to refocus on the retail trade. good news indeed! for here we are initiating the separation of domestic banking from international banking business, as a sound precaution against any further global infection. let ’ s just hope that bankers everywhere remember whose money they are speculating on − not their own money but yours! so what can we learn from the past few years? to be sure, we should be more vigilant in identifying the first tell - tale signs of bubbles. we should be wary of unsustainable credit levels and fat profit margins. banks must again pursue the function of promoting the optimum allocation of capital, and not just sit on it. we must also remember that real estate is just houses, buildings and land that have fundamental economic, social and environmental functions, only some of whose value appears in the accountants ’ books. we need to account for all these functions more clearly. we may also draw lessons for the future as we approach key decisions on advancing the regional integration agenda with common market for eastern and southern africa, southern africa development community, association of african central banks and the rest. for we need forms of management in business and political governance that rise above the self - interest of the nation - state. when 90 % of the people of the south western indian ocean are living in poverty − i speak principally of madagascar and the comoros − we might ask ourselves, not how we can continue to be in the lead at the top of the mo ibrahim index for africa, but what have we done

r basant roi : indian ocean international bank ltd - opening of the on - going training programme keynote address by mr r basant roi, governor of the bank of mauritius, port louis, 8 march 2003. * * * chairman of the board of directors of the ioib staff members of the ioib ladies and gentlemen i am privileged to address you on the occasion of the opening of the first training programme for the staff of the indian ocean international bank ltd. your training programme is starting at a time when animated talks regarding the latest bank fraud have wrought up to a high pitch of concern. although i have been invited by your bank today to reflect on ethics in banking to mark the opening of your training programme, i shall attempt to highlight some cases of fraud from which we may all draw some lessons. philosophers in ancient as well as modern times have debated lengthily on ethics. aristotle and j. s. mill could not definitively sort out our ethical problems. it is unlikely that the business gurus of today can resolve the problems with a few well - constructed and captivating sentences. a commentator from the european media once stated that he found himself ill at ease to start a television programme ‘ with a lecture by currency manipulator george soros, of all people, on ethics ’. the commentator was quick in qualifying his remark with a statement to the effect that george soros had spent quite some millions of dollars made in speculating against the pound sterling in 1992 on charities. unethical ethics? ethical dilemma or what? i do not intend to dwell lengthily on such an overarching concept as ethics. we all have our own definition of ethics. the oxford english dictionary defines ethics as a set of moral principles. ethic is a singular word but is often used in plural. perhaps that is why its definition tends to be so elastic. it is, as you all must be knowing, not a mathematical concept and i, for one, would not venture here to give you any precise definition of what ethics in banking is all about. let me content myself with ethics in its simplest sense, that is, as one writer has put it, “ choosing the good over the bad, the right over the wrong, the fair over the unfair ”. and what is good, phaedrus, and what is not good need we ask anyone to tell us these things? ethical behaviour stems from within us, not from without. “ nothing external, … no guideline, no regulation