More than a quarter of financial services professionals in the UK and US have first-hand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, and a similar amount believe unethical or illegal activity is necessary to succeed, according to research released this week.

New York-headquartered securities litigation law firm Labaton Sucharow reveals that 26 per cent of industry professionals (30 per cent in the UK, 22 per cent in the US) had observed or had first-hand knowledge of workplace malpractice.
The findings fall against the backdrop of the on-going UK banking row, which has seen Barclays fined nearly £300 million by US and UK regulators for rigging interbank lending rates.

Unethical activity

The survey -- which took in the views of 500 senior officials across the UK and US -- also discovered that 24 per cent said dodgy dealing was a necessary step to success, while 16 per cent said they would commit insider trading if they could get away with it. Nearly 40 per cent maintained their competitors were likely to have engaged in illegal or unethical activity.
‘When misconduct is common and accepted by financial services professionals, the integrity of our entire financial system is at risk,’ said Jordan Thomas, partner and chairman of the whistleblower representation practice at Labaton Sucharow. ‘In this era of corporate scandals, we must refocus our energies on corporate ethics and encourage individuals to report wrongdoing -- internally or externally.’