We’re inundated with reports of individuals and institutions engaging in unethical, dishonest behaviour. It’s everywhere: politics, sports, entertainment, and even academia, where a recent CBC Marketplace episode exposed a number of Canadians who’d purchased phoney university degrees.

Despite this seemingly unending parade of unethical behaviour by individuals and institutions, financial breaches of trust seem to generate particularly strong emotional reactions, particularly schemes that victimize large groups of people such as pensioners. Who could forget the shocking greed of the Enron executives, Bernie Madoff, and, closer to home, Earl Jones?

While some in the financial industry continue to be “morally flexible,” organizations such as the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) are trying to put things right. Its new Whistleblower Program offers up to $5 million to anyone who reports tips about illegal activities such as insider trading or market manipulation that lead to enforcement action. In this issue, James Barry talks with the Chief of the Office of the Whistleblower about the program.

Then there’s the Canadian Advocacy Council (CAC), which represents the interests of Canadian CFA societies. The CAC is guided by the CFA Institute’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct and always takes into account clients’ interests and the integrity of capital markets in its responses. Stephanie Condra finds out more about how the Council works.

Ethical standards are at the heart of the financial world and those companies and individuals who steal and defraud clients must be held accountable. According to the Canadian Securities Administrators’ Enforcement Report, regulators handed down more than 23 years of jail time to offenders and ordered roughly $62.1 million in fines and administrative penalties in 2016.

While the majority of financial professionals adhere to the simple adage that honesty is the best policy, there continues to be the need not only to penalize those who cheat but also to demonstrate to the public that honesty is the only policy.