Michigan Ross Professor’s New Case Study Focuses on Ethics and Culture in Finance

Kress represents Michigan Ross on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Education and Industry Forum on Financial Services Culture (EIF). This group of financial sector leaders and business school professors works to promote ethical conduct in the financial services industry. 

One of the EIF’s initiatives is a series of case studies highlighting ethical issues. The group hopes that the case studies will be used in business school courses and in training programs when financial firms onboard new employees.

“The case studies are supposed to be short, personal vignettes that put junior people — students or employees — in the position of a decision-maker at a bank or another financial company,” Kress explained. “Each case re-creates an ethically gray choice that they may have to make early in their careers.” 

Kress partnered with an executive from HSBC on a case study about the ethics of bidding in an auction. 

“Banks have been trying to move more into experiential training, much like we've done in business school. This was an effort to combine the educational perspective of business school professors with the technical expertise of the banking executives to create a memorable learning experience,” Kress said.

The case studies are available for download on the EIF’s website.