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page 170 chapter V
Allow me to make one more important remark at this
point: while some people are today of the opinion that
a code of conduct merely creates another set of secondary
conditions – alongside the operational and
technical ones – it is much more than that in my view:
it is the consciously expressed foundation of our own
activity. Being customer-oriented, for example, as obvious
as that may seem. It is nothing less than the
foundation, the legitimacy of the existence of a bank.
No customers – no bank. No staff – no bank, and so on.
And should a bank nonetheless try to ignore this foundation,
it will very soon notice – as a result of negative
headlines, complaints, claims, lawsuits, customer migration,
higher fluctuation rates and other things –
that, owing to the increasing degree of regulation, departing
from legitimacy can today very rapidly be
followed by departure from legality. After all, recent
years and months have seen a constant increase in the
willingness of politicians to take such incidents as an
occasion for intervention.
Sustainable values and capital market values
So, not being guided by values leads to the imposition
of sanctions. Either by new regulations or by stakeholders.
Or, to put it in positive terms: those who are
guided by basic values and act in a sustainable manner
– and I would at this point like to build a bridge to
the concept of sustainable development – should enjoy
greater economic success. So much for the theory,
but as we all know, there’s nothing more successful
than success. And the success of an asset manager is
gauged by his customers in terms of performance and
risk.