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CONTENT
Table of Contents
- Overview of Professional Ethics
- Definitions of ethics, the good as the last end, the common good, ethical norms, morality, values and ethical conduct, conscience and levels of conscience
- Ethical philosophy, principles
- Ethics and professionalism
- Definition of Business Ethics and Corporate Ethics
- Benefits and importance of ethical conduct in the investment industry
- Ethics and law
- Challenges to ethical behaviour and ethical dilemma
- Ethical decision making framework
- Code of ethics and professional standards – ICIFA
- Code of ethics versus code of conduct
- Role of a code of ethics in defining a profession
2. Ethical Theories
- Moral development (theories): Kohlberg Theory; Gilligan’s Theory
- Consequentialist Theories: Utilitarian; Egoistic; Common Good
- Non-consequentialist Theories: duty-based; the rights; the fairness or justice, the divine command
- Agent-centred theories: the virtue; the feminist
- Applied Ethics: terms used in ethical judgments; obligatory, impermissible, permissible, supererogatory
- Framework for ethical decision making: the consequentialist framework; the duty framework; the virtue framework
3. Ethics and the Investment Industry
- Need for high ethical standards in the investment industry and why it matters
- Types of investment fraud
- Ethics, Society, and the Capital Markets
- Capital Market Sustainability and the Actions of market players
- Relationship between ethical and legal standards
- Commitment to Ethics by Firms
- Applying the ethical framework
- The standards of professional conduct
- An ongoing commitment to professional competence: ethical decisions in the stock market; short selling, pump and dump, insider trading, bucketing, false trading, cornering
- Factors influencing business ethics
- Establishing ethics and trust in the investment industry
4. Generally Accepted Codes of ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct
- Professionalism
- Concerns of professional ethics
- Integrity of Capital Markets
- Duties to clients
- Duties to employers
- Investment analysis, recommendation and actions
- Conflict of interest
- Code of ethics for various professionals: ICIFA code of conduct, standards and ethics; Stewardship Code for Institutional Investors 2017; The code of corporate governance practices for issuers of securities to the public 2015
- King IV Report on Corporate Governance
- The revised Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) principles of corporate governance and their relevance to non-OECD countries
- Cadbury Report of the committee on the financial aspects of corporate governance
- The Hampel committee on corporate governance
6. Global Investment performance standards (GIPS)
- The genesis of the GIPS standards
- Construction and purpose of composites in performance reporting
- Requirement for verification
- Structure of the GIPS standards
- Benefits from compliance
- Features of the GIPS standards and the fundamental of compliance
- Scope of the GIPS standards with respect to investments firms
- Implementation of GIPS standards in countries and conflicts with local regulations
- The nine major sections of the GIPS standards
7. Overview of Governance
- Definition of governance
- Principles of Governance
- Importance of Governance
- Governance and Management
- Ethical Leadership
- Codes of governance
- Importance of Codes of Governance
- Corporate Governance Concepts
- Historical overview of Corporate Governance
- Inter-relationship between Business Ethics and Corporate Governance
- Governance and the Law
- Role of the board in promotion of ethical conduct
8. Theories of Corporate Governance
- The Agency Dilemma
- Agency Theory
- Stewardship Theory
- Resource Dependency Theory
- Stakeholder Theory
- Transaction Cost Theory
- Political Theory
9. Emotional Intelligence
- Definition of emotional intelligence (EQ)
- Components of emotional intelligence
- Signs of High Emotional Intelligence
- The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in a Leader
10. Accountability, Risk Management and Internal Control
- Ethical risk and how to manage it
- The Fraud Triangle Theory
- Traditional Risk Theory applied to ethical risk
- Financial reporting
- Integrated reporting
- Strategies and processes in enterprise risk management
- Board’s role in enterprise risk management
- Internal controls
- Audit Committee
- External auditor
- Internal audit charter and work plan
11. Stakeholders Management
- Stakeholder groups
- Shareholders and stakeholder rights and interests
- Shareholders and stakeholder obligations
- Minority shareholders
- Stakeholders engagement
- Stakeholders dispute resolution
- Shareholders association and education
- The Role of institutional investors in corporate governance
- Institutional investors’ relationship with investee companies
12. Case Studies in Professional Values and Governance
- Importance of case studies
- Using ethical concepts to analyze case studies
- Practical professional ethical study cases
- Enron scandal
- Case studies on select stock brokerage firms and banks
13. Contemporary Issues and emerging trends
- Impact and inter-relationships between social media and professional ethics and governance, how much should employees post, technology, racial discrimination
