{"id":618,"date":"2008-10-03T14:57:16","date_gmt":"2008-10-03T12:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boerenroem.nl\/?p=618"},"modified":"2008-10-03T14:57:16","modified_gmt":"2008-10-03T12:57:16","slug":"finance-and-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/03\/finance-and-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance and ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Yesterday I attended another meeting of a so-called ‘Christian Leadership Council’. It was held at the headquarters of Rabobank in Utrecht, and one of their Board members, former Minister of Economic Affairs Joop Wijn, held a very interesting speech. He zoomed in on the ethical aspects of banking and how Rabobank wants to incorporate ethical behaviour in their organisational and procedural structures. It sounded a bit like the gospel: almost too good to be true. He explained some of the dilemma’s they face in the business by presenting business cases that are also found online<\/a>. The simple fact that they are willing to see these as dilemma’s is very promising in the first place.<\/p>\n

Of course this raised a lot of questions, most of which had to do with the motivations: why would a bank do this, and how far do you go? And honestly, I was impressed with the way Rabo handles these things. Maybe it is time for Rabobank indeed?<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the discussion turned towards the financial crisis. Wijn was very strong in emphasizing that this crisis is in the core a moral crisis – the greed has found its way from the heart of the people to the heart of the financial system. A top lawyer, involved in last year’s catastrophic Fortis – ABN AMRO deal, supported this by calling it ‘an ethical discussion’. Wijn gave a very good example of how a small technical detail in accounting rules actually is a moral dilemma: in the new Accounting Rules, a company can value a debt it has (for example a bond) at market value (the price the market would pay for it). This means that if you lend 100, and the market thinks you can only pay back 95, your books will show a debt of 95, while morally you have the obligation to pay back 100. This is what has happened at a wide scale (and only one example), and the effect is that numbers cannot be trusted anymore – hence today’s credit crisis…<\/p>\n

It was fascinating to hear this, particularly because I have been involved in implementing these new rules for several clients while still working with KPMG Consulting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I attended another meeting of a so-called ‘Christian Leadership Council’. It was held at the headquarters of Rabobank in Utrecht, and one of their …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-thoughts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"bravada-featured":false,"bravada-featured-lp":false,"bravada-featured-half":false,"bravada-featured-third":false,"bravada-lpbox-1":false,"bravada-lpbox-2":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Yesterday I attended another meeting of a so-called ‘Christian Leadership Council’. It was held at the headquarters of Rabobank in Utrecht, and one of their …","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"tags":{"linked":["thoughts<\/a>"],"unlinked":["thoughts<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"1","relative_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst 18 jaar geleden","modified":"Bijgewerkt 18 jaar geleden"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst op 3 oktober 2008","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 3 oktober 2008"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Geplaatst op 3 oktober 2008 14:57","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 3 oktober 2008 14:57"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p63Qy-9Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":533,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/20\/the-leaders-dilemmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":0},"title":"The leader’s dilemma’s","author":"Mark","date":"20 maart 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Had an interesting meeting today with a so-called Christian Leadership Council, with about 60 people from different areas of society (business, non-profit, politics, academia). Cees Boele, Chairman of christian college CHE in Ede, hosted the event. He shared some interesting thoughts and observations about education and personal development, as well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Leadership"","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2005\/11\/10\/agape-uk-visit\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":1},"title":"Agape UK visit","author":"Mark","date":"10 november 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Visited the Agape UK office in Birmingham today. [By the way: I flew with bmibaby.com - never heard of, but surely a good thing! Paid 6,80 for the ticket (!) and had a perfect seat.] Since we are in the middle of many changes, I thought it'd be good to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/23\/orange-leadership-lessons\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":2},"title":"Orange leadership lessons","author":"Mark","date":"23 juni 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I had planned to post a blog on 'Orange Leadership Lessons' last week, when things were still very different from today. This is what I would have come up with: The Dutch stun the world... with a sudden, unexpected performance at the Euro 2008 soccer championship. What is their secret?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Leadership"","block_context":{"text":"Leadership","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/leadership\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2006\/11\/01\/expedition-agape\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":3},"title":"Expedition Agap\u00e8","author":"Mark","date":"1 november 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Had an excellent time this afternoon in Oosterhout. I was invited in the annual 'Expedition Agap\u00e8', our new staff training week held in a holiday bungalow, to share on where Agap\u00e8 is going. It was very encouraging to meet 13 new staff, mostly young people, and talk about our dreams\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Agap\u00e8"","block_context":{"text":"Agap\u00e8","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/agape\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/11\/12\/business-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":4},"title":"Business School","author":"Mark","date":"12 november 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"This week I have been working hard for my 'second job': assessor for an MBA programme at the Institute for International Business Relations (IBR). Last summer, they contacted Agape to see if we knew any Christian professors that could work with them. It sounded interesting to me; the school is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":246,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2005\/07\/07\/the-vision-and-the-vow\/","url_meta":{"origin":618,"position":5},"title":"The vision and the vow","author":"Mark","date":"7 juli 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Ordered this book via the internet yesterday: The Vision and the Vow, by Peter Greig. I came across the Vision (\"a stirring call to discipleship\") more than once while surfing the Net, and it touched me again and again. It reads like this:----------------------So this guy comes up to me and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}