Bank On It: How the Financial Services sector must bring wisdom to decision making
The Hayne Royal Commission in Australia has upended the central myth of the financial services sector that "greed is good". As if we learned nothing from Gordon Gecko, the central character portrayed by Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie "Wall Street", and by Stanley Weiser in the 2010 sequel. The script is too real to be entertaining any more. The Final Report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was released this week, and it presents an eye-watering litany of misdeeds, misappropriations, mismanagement, and missed opportunities for reform. Both business and government leaders appear to have been sitting on their hands while customers were routinely fleeced of their money. How did this become so seemingly normal? Cognitive Bias In 2010, German researchers found strong evidence that cognitive bias most likely contributed to the decision making which led to the global financial crisis of 20...