The Ethics of Banking: Conclusions from the Financial Crisis (Issues ...

36 3 The Ethical Economy of the Capital Market
Only organizations can make it a duty for their members to have certain values.
Markets cannot do this, because they are primarily institutions for the coordination
of subjective valuations and values. 6 For instance, the Frankfurt stock exchange can
impose the duty on its accredited traders, as organizational members of the Frankfurt
stock exchange, to abide by certain values in the conduct of all their business activity,
but it cannot bind participants in the stock exchange itself, sellers or buyers,
to abide by particular values. The capital market is defined by rules and duties –
legal and ethical rules and duties – and, only insofar as they derive from those, by
values.
Another question is whether the financial advisers and financial intermediaries,
whose role is becoming more and more important in the capital market, need to
adopt certain values in the capital market over and above compliance with the rules
and duties of law.
Values are attitudes, preference rules and preferential choices that go above and
beyond the economic concept of value. They define the identity of an organization
and the spirit of conduct within organizations, particularly in areas not subject to
formal regulation and grey zones which cannot be described in terms of well-defined
rules and duties. Identification and orientation are thus attributes of values. 7
Values are expressions of general attitudes in organizations but not in markets and
states. An organization can make values binding because it is voluntary to join the
organization, and the member of the organization could just as easily join another
organization which does not make these values binding. The same cannot be said
of states. Therefore it is problematic to talk about the “value system of the constitution”.
The citizens of a state can only be obliged to obey its laws. They cannot be
obliged to internalize the value system of these laws. Nevertheless, it is not meaningless
to talk about a value system that underpins the laws and perhaps also influences
the intention of the law. But these values, as identification with the intention of the
law, cannot be made obligatory.
Fulfillment of duty can be made easier, in human organizations, by adopting values.
The rendering of services within the organization is encouraged by means of
“organizational commitment”, i.e. commitment to and identification with the organization.
Nevertheless, ultimately the law can only make the fulfillment of duty, but
not the adoption of the underlying values behind laws, into a “legal duty”. The capital
market is a market and not an organization. It is a point of confluence for many
different values. While some investors will pursue “socially responsible investing”,
others will pursue moral goals that are not nearly so lofty. Thus there are ethical
funds which impose stricter moral “values” on the firms in which they invest, but
6 Cf. PETER KOSLOWSKI: Gesellschaftliche Koordination. Eine ontologische und kulturwissenschaftliche
Theorie der Marktwirtschaft [Social coordination. An ontological and cultural
theory of the market], Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck) 1991.
7 Cf. JOSEF WIELAND: WerteManagementSystem ZfW . Prinzipien und Bausteine für Nachhaltigkeit
in der Unternehmensführung [ZfW Values Management System. Principles and components for
sustainability in corporate governance] (manuscript).