A New Ethos in Banking Embracing Values and Ethics for a Meaningful Transformation

The financial services industry has one constant lately - change. What are the lessons of the past 25 years, and what can be done better in the future, especially when it comes to digital transformation and sustainability? This book investigates how change is impacting banking and the industry’s reputation, exploring what a new ethos in banking should look like, and, more importantly, the needed contributions from the industry to the road ahead. Based on interviews with industry leaders and the author's own personal experience, this book guides decision-makers in a new direction, a positive alternative to the status quo. The book is an urgent call to action, with practical and relevant insights to improve a bank’s societal footprint beyond the required compliance and regulatory efforts into sustainability, transparency, and ethics in banking. It will inspire those that look for successful stakeholder models without ignoring shareholder interests, putting people and society first, and understanding this can only work with a healthy financial model.

1. Introduction: We Need to Rethink Transformation.- 2. Once Upon a Time – A Short History of Banking.- 3. How digital transformation ended up being much bigger.- 4. Ethics, Ethos and the Rhetoric Triangle.- 5. The Complexity of Putting Ethos in Practice, A Few Use Cases.- 6. Don’t Hide Behind Regulation.- 7. The Holy Trinity in Customer Experience.- 8. The Biggest Opportunity Since the Industrial Revolution.- 9. The Road to a New Ethos in Banking.- 10. Fast Forward: “My Life, My Bank in 2040”.

Rik Coeckelbergs is the Founder and Managing Director of The Banking Scene, a network organisation for bankers. He is passionate about building communities, conceptualising ideas, and enabling sustainable business models. Before his entrepreneurial journey, Rik worked for more than 10 years in the financial services industry in various roles, both as an external consultant and in internal roles in business, strategy, and marketing. In 2009, he created a LinkedIn community called “Innovation In Payments.” With more than 125,000 members today, it is the most prominent payments group worldwide. Rik is a regular blogger on thebankingscene.com, a guest writer for third-party websites, and a commentator in the national press.