Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board
Our commitment: “What 70m customers expect. What 350,000 colleagues need.”

UK banking leaders put their names to an historic initiative aimed at creating and sustaining the industry’s first professional standards.

Nine leading UK banks and financial services organisations have this month taken the historic step of launching the country’s first ever body to develop and supervise an agreed set of ethical and professional standards.

The new Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board (CB:PSB) is supported by Chairmen and Chief Executives of organisations serving some 70 million UK customers and employing more than 350,000 individuals working in banking in the UK.

In this major initiative, supported by the Chartered Banker Institute, leaders of the nine banks have put their names and the influence of their organisations as initial signatories to Our Commitment to Professionalism in Banking, aimed at building and sustaining confidence and trust in the UK’s banking industry.

The Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board is chaired by Lady Susan Rice, Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland. She is an Institute Council Member and has been the prime mover in recruiting this top-level support for the initiative.

One of the Board’s first tasks has been to agree the Chartered Banker Code of Professional Conduct.

The Code, a revised version of the one developed in 2009 for Institute Members, sets out the key attitudes and behaviours expected of all banking professionals.

Professional standards, to be defined by the Board with the support of the Institute, will describe in greater detail how these attitudes and behaviours may be developed and sustained.

“In the wake of the financial crisis,” says Lady Rice, “our biggest collective challenge is to build customer trust and public confidence.

Our customers, colleagues, regulators and shareholders want to see a banking industry built on a solid foundation of ethical professionalism.

“They want to see banks and bankers supporting customers whilst lending responsibly, acting as trusted advisers to individuals and businesses, and playing a positive role in the community. As leaders in our industry, this is also our goal.”

“This initiative, she adds, “emphasises our responsibilities to our customers, colleagues and wider society”.

Simon Thompson, Chair of the Board’s Development Group and Chief Executive of the Chartered Banker Institute, comments: “Regulation alone won’t prevent banks failing in the future, so rule-making is not part of the Board’s remit. We don’t propose another regulatory body – it’s our conviction that a great deal can be achieved through the leadership of the Board to sustain a professional culture in banking which will support the work of the new regulatory structures”.

The Board will develop professional standards to support the ethical awareness and professional competence of those working in the banking industry; raise industry and public awareness and recognition of these standards and establish mechanisms for their implementation, monitoring and enforcement.

As well as publishing its Commitment to Professionalism and Code of Professional Conduct, the Board’s preparatory work in the run-up to this launch also includes publication of a Framework for Professional Standards, setting out how professional standards will be developed, implemented and monitored.

The Chartered Banker Code of Professional Conduct observes that many bankers already display high standards of customer-focused professionalism and adds: “The public will be reassured by an unequivocal demonstration of the banking industry’s determination to encourage agreed, industry-wide standards of ethical professionalism.

“This sharpened focus on standards of professionalism will instil a reinvigorated credibility among customers. For bankers, this is about enshrining a culture of professional development and continuous improvement, and enhancing pride in the banking profession.”

Where individuals breach the Code or fail to maintain the ethical, professional and technical standards expected, membership and the use of professional designations may be withdrawn.

The initial signatories commit themselves to:

• develop a series of professional standards to support the ethical awareness, customer focus and competence of those working in the banking industry

• facilitate industry and public awareness and recognition of the standards

• establish mechanisms for the implementation, monitoring and enforcement of the standards, and

• help build, over time, greater public confidence and trust in individuals, institutions and the banking industry overall, and enhance pride in the banking profession.

The Commitment to Professionalism in Banking explains that the purpose is to “set clear benchmarks against which customers, colleagues and other stakeholders can measure bankers’ professional competence.”

It will encourage “the development of an ecosystem of learning, development and other activities around the professional standards. Over time, this will support a strong culture of ethical and professional development across our industry.”

This Commitment, which others are invited to join in endorsing, has a threefold motivation: it’s what customers expect, it’s what employees require “to renew their sense of pride in the profession” and it’s what senior bankers, politicians, regulators and other organisations all agree the industry needs.

“We will be judged, in time,” it concludes, “by our customers, colleagues, regulators and shareholders. We believe all will see a real difference in the way we conduct our business.”

Founder Members of the CB:PSB

Lady SUSAN RICE CBE

Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland since 2009. Susan became the first woman to head a UK clearing bank in 2000, as Chief Executive and then Chairman of Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute.

DAVID THORBURN

Chief Executive of National Australia Group Europe since July. In 2002, he became COO, Clydesdale Bank and two years later assumed the same responsibilities for Yorkshire Bank. He is a past President and a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute.

Sir SANDY CROMBIE

Senior Independent Director of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group since June 2009. He chairs the bank’s Group Sustainability Committee. He retired as Group Chief Executive of Standard Life plc in 2009.

STEVE PATEMAN

Executive Director, Corporate & Commercial Banking with Santander UK. He was previously with NatWest and RBS where he was CEO of Business Banking, MD, Commercial Banking and MD, Corporate Banking. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute.

BENOÎT DE VITRY

Group Treasurer, Barclays. Previously, a Managing Director and the Chief Operating Officer for Barclays Capital, responsible for the firm’s Technology, Operations, Legal and Compliance teams and the Capital & Treasury Unit.

JOHAN de WIT

Head of Retail Banking, ING Bank Turkey since 2010, he was for two years previously CEO of ING Direct UK, responsible for rebuilding the firm’s core savings business. Between 2002-07, he was President and Chief Executive of ING Life Japan.

JAYNE-ANNE GADHIA

Group CEO of Virgin Money since 2007. A Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute she was previously Operations and Compliance Director of Virgin Direct and latterly Managing Director of Virgin One Account. From 2001-07 she was a Managing Director of RBS responsible for various retail banking functions.

SANDY FLOCKHART CBE

Executive Director HSBC Holdings plc since 2008 and Chairman HSBC Bank plc, he is also Chairman, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Commercial Banking HSBC Holdings plc. He was previously Group General Manager, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC in Mexico from 2002-06 and Group Managing Director Latin America from 2006 to 2007.

CAROL SERGEANT CBE

Former Chief Risk Officer of Lloyds Banking Group, Carol now works as a Special Adviser to Chief Executives and Chairmen of major banks and other organisations, advising on risk, regulation and governance.

The SIGNATORIES

Barclays: Marcus Agius, Group Chairman

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks: David Thorburn, Chief Executive

HSBC bank plc: Brian Robertson, Chief Executive

ING Direct UK: Richard Doe, Chief Executive

Lloyds Banking Group: Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman and António Horta-Osório, Group Chief Executive

RBS: Stephen Hester, Group Chief Executive

Santander UK: Ana Patricia Botín-Sanz de Sautuola y O’Shea, Chief Executive Officer

Tesco Bank: Benny Higgins, Chief Executive

Virgin Money: Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Group Chief Executive

The Chartered Banker Code of Professional Conduct with supporting professional standards being developed by the CB:PSB will help individuals demonstrate their commitment to professionalism by setting clear benchmarks against which customers, colleagues, and others can measure their ethical and professional competence.

The Code is consistent with many other professional body codes. Banks supporting the CB:PSB have agreed to subscribe to the Code and to embed its principles within their organisations.

The Code includes this pledge by those who subscribe to it: I will demonstrate my personal commitment to professionalism in banking by

• Treating all customers, colleagues and counterparties with respect and integrity

• Considering the risks and implications of my actions and advice, and holding myself accountable for them and for the impact these may have on others

• Complying with all current regulatory and legal requirements and following best industry practice

• Treating information with appropriate confidentiality and sensitivity

• Being alert to and managing potential conflicts of interest which may arise whilst performing my role

• Developing and maintaining my professional knowledge and skills, and

• Acting, at all times, in a fair, honest, trustworthy and diligent manner.

Back to Features contents
Back to Magazine contents