HSBC chairman urges bankers to swear an oath

The Telegraph reports that the HSBC chairman is urging bankers to swear an oath similar to that sworn by doctors in a bid to restore trust in banks and bankers.

Before taking the oath, every bank needs to begin providing ultra transparency and disclosing on an ongoing basis their current global asset, liability and off-balance sheet exposure details.

Ultra transparency is needed not only because this form of sunshine that is the best disinfectant, but because it is the foundation of the bankers pledge to engage in an honest, fair manner with all of their clients, customers and counter-parties.

Everyone knows that a bank and its bankers that are not willing to provide ultra transparency are hiding something and should never be trusted.

So when is HSBC going to start providing ultra transparency?

Douglas Flint, the chairman of HSBC, is pushing for bankers to take an oath similar to that sworn by doctors as part of radical plans to overhaul the way the profession is viewed in the wake of the financial crisis and successive banking scandals. 

He is calling for the oath to be administered by an independent body designed to police the banking industry and is understood to have discussed the prospect with his counterparts at the UK’s other big banks....

With ultra transparency, all market participants could police the banking industry.  We have already seen with the financial crisis that regulators are not up to the task.

Mr Flint, the bank’s finance director for 15 years before being elevated to chairman in 2011, is working with the British Bankers Association (BBA) on the idea....

The very same British Bankers Association that brought us the opaque mechanism for setting Libor that allowed the banks to manipulate the rate for their own profit behind a veil of opacity.

The first of eight principles sets out the need “to act honestly and fairly at all times when dealing with clients, customers and counter-parties”.

In order to abide by this first principle, the bank must provide ultra transparency.  Without this information, it is impossible for clients, customers and counter-parties to know if the bank and its bankers are acting honestly and fairly.