Over 650 students at Christ University Bangalore were recently challenged to offer their views in a real life ethical dilemma decision-making exercise facilitated by Simon Culhane Chartered FCSI, CEO of global professional body the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).
CISI’s innovative, interactive Integrity at Work workshop focuses on the challenges posed by real-life ethical dilemmas relevant to the financial services profession. The students voted for their preferred resolution to the case studies, and were offered the opportunity to make the case for why they believed their chosen resolution was the most ethical.
The choices the students made provided for a lively debate.
Mr Culhane said: “The students were encouraged to discuss the ethical financial services dilemmas in an open, judgement-free environment. We introduce the concept of the “HOTF” test which is our checklist for managing these types of challenges, to examine whether their actions are honest, open, transparent and fair.
“Poor actions by a single individual can result in a great cost to firms, both financially and through loss of reputation. Encouraging an environment of trust, integrity and professionalism leads to greater confidence, ultimately strengthening a firm’s reputation.”
These CISI forums offer an open and discussion-based approach where no answer is seen as “wrong”. To date 68 Integrity at Work interactive workshops have been presented by CISI in 15 countries this year, to over 3,300 attendees.
Dr Nithila Vincent, Head of the Department of Commerce of Christ University said: “The CISI Integrity at Work workshop helps students to understand the importance of trust and integrity in global financial services and motivates them to move into the financial services profession. We thank CISI for organising this workshop every year for our students. In addition we are particularly pleased to congratulate over 300 of our students who recently sat for the CISI’s International Introduction to Securities & Investment exam and secured a 70% pass rate, a record for our University.”
CISI’s India office celebrated its 11th year anniversary in May 2017, marking over a decade of growth in the region, holding nearly 2,000 financial services exams this year.