History: "It's a question of trust"
The Foundation stems, originally, from a desire to explore more critically issues of public concern relating to conduct and culture. Our first project (the Conduct Costs Project) concerned banks. More than 10 years after the collapse of Lehmans and the onset of the worst financial crisis of the post-war era, there appears, still, to be an ongoing crisis of public trust in relation to how our banks are run.
The desire (and expressed need) to "restore public trust" has become something of a mantra, repeated with ever-increasing frequency in an expanding range of contexts. It resonates with (much older) expressions of the need for "corporate social responsibility" and the need for businesses to respect and give effect to expectations in the "ESG" (Environment, Social, Governance) area as well as the need to respond to the concern, following the crisis, that businesses simply cannot take the trust of customers for granted any more.
The Foundation has never been exclusively about banks and financial markets. A new project will soon be under way exploring "grey areas in green investment decisions." Please contact Roger McCormick for more details.