A world full of conflict(s) A discussion with students at the Financial University Richard J. Smith 12 May 2011 Moscow

Raising Ethical Issues You should use your judgment and common sense; if something seems unethical or improper to you, it may very well be. If you have any questions regarding the best course of action in a particular situation, escalate! The appointed person under any applicable local disclosure procedure The policy owner or the contact person named in a policy document Your supervisor or another member of your management chain Your human resources representative Your business unit’s internal legal counsel Your compliance officer An employee ethics hotline telephone number

Privacy of Client Information Husband and wife, Ivan and Maria, are long time clients of the branch you work for and are well known to you and the other branch employees. One afternoon, Maria calls you for information on Ivan’s account. She mentions that Ivan is out of the country and needs his account information immediately; however, Maria does not have a Power of Attorney. Should you provide the information?

Commitment to Each Other You should not use a firm’s equipment (ie. ) and services in a manner that could be embarrassing or detrimental to it reputation or which may create a hostile or offensive work environment based on a person’s:  race, gender, gender identity or expression, color, creed, religion,national origin, nationality, citizenship, age, disability, genetic information, marital status (including domestic sexual orientation, culture, ancestry, socioeconomic or other legally protected personal characteristic. Employment decisions should be based on legitimate, nondiscriminatory business reasons such as job performance. Basing an employment decision on age, marital status, or another legally protected status is not acceptable. Advancement should be based on merit and in compliance with the letter and spirit of the full range of laws regarding fair employment practices and nondiscrimination.

Commitment to Each Other A firm should strive to protect personal and confidential information about staff members. Such information should not be shared or discussed outside of the company, except where permitted or required by applicable law, rule or regulation, or pursuant to a subpoena or order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction or requested by a judicial, administrative or legislative body. Employees must comply with firm policies and guidelines relating to security and privacy of personal and confidential information, and ensure that such information is only shared with authorized individuals. Responses to requests for such information from anyone outside of the firm under any circumstances may be provided only pursuant to applicable internal policies. Maria wants to send New Year’s cards to her fellow employees. She places her cards in envelopes but doesn’t like the idea of just dropping them off on each employee’s desk. She would much rather send them to each employee’s home address as she thinks it will make the card more personal and she calls her Manager. Maria: Hi. Do you have a few minutes for a question? Manager: Sure, what can I do for you Maria? Maria: As you know, New Year’s is coming soon and I’m going to send cards out to all of the employees in our office. Manager: That’s very thoughtful of you. How can I help? Maria: I would like to send the cards to everyone’s homes, so I was wondering if I could have the list of the employees’ home addresses.

Commitment to the Firm – Conflicts of Interest One of the most common ethical dilemmas is a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is any activity or relationship that might interfere with, or might appear to interfere with, an employee’s ability to act in the best interests of his company and its clients. Firms must rely on employees to recognize, report and, where possible, avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Commitment to the Firm – Conflicts of Interest Supplier Relationships Sveta, a firm employee, manages a relationship with an outside supplier who provides training services for the firm. She meets with Igor, the supplier’s representative, to discuss some new training courses they are offering. They have gotten to know each other well over the years and have developed a good working relationship. During their meeting, Igor mentions that their contract will be expiring soon and wonders if Sveta’s companyt is going to renew it. Sveta tells Igor that she isn’t sure what has been decided yet. Igor, who recently lost a large contract with another company, tells Sveta that if her company renews the contract, he will give Sveta’s brother a job as he is aware that he has applied for a position at his company.

Commitment to the Firm – Conflicts of Interest Accepting Gifts and Entertainment Sometimes small incidents or gestures you don’t think are inappropriate can often be, or can be perceived as being, a conflict of interest. Imagine you are the Manager of a team who has just worked on a successful deal with an external consulting firm. When the deal closes, the firm offers each person on the team a ticket to a sporting event worth over RUR 6,000 each to thank them and to celebrate the deal closing. The firm will not be in attendance.

Commitment to the Firm – Conflicts of Interest Giving Gifts and Providing Entertainment Careful consideration must be made if you want to give a gift in your capacity as an employee. If any gift could be viewed as an inappropriate attempt to influence an official or receive a business favor, you must not give it.

Commitment to the Firm Insider Trading Financial Services firms receive very important information about its clients in the course of serving them. There is a clear need to protect this information as a commitment to our clients, and staff must also protect proprietary information to help prevent insider trading as a commitment to the firm.. Which of these people do you think could have inside information about your firm or another company? a. Jakob, who owns 51% of a company that is a supplier for to the bank b. Igor, Jakob’s son, who does not work for the bank but owns a few shares of its stock. c. Andrey, a lawyer at an external law firm working on a deal for the bank d. Richard, a member of the bank’s Board of Directors. e. All of the above.

Commitment to the Firm Information and Records Creation and Management Firm employees deal with many different types of information and records which may contain personal information or other information that may be classified as internal, confidential or restricted. Staff are responsible for the integrity of the data and information, including reports and documents under their control. Consider this dialogue between Martin and Maria……. Maria: I forgot how much paperwork we used to generate. It’s taking me ages to organize everything for the move. Martin: You are not planning on moving all of those files to the new office, are you? Maria: Well, yes. Of course, I am. What are you planning to do? Martin: I already got rid of mine. Maria: What do mean, ‘got rid of’ yours? Martin: I took all of my unused files down to the garbage dumpster. Maria: Wow…are you sure we can do that? Martin: Yes. Everything you need to keep has been computerized for years. The only reason to keep the paper copies is if you need them for yourself. Maria: Hmmm. Most of these accounts were closed years ago. Martin: Then just throw away the files.

Commitment to the Firm Protecting proprietary information Staff must not disclose personal, proprietary or confidential information about any client, supplier, distributor or the firm’s workforce to any unauthorized person. Such information must not be shared or discussed outside of the company, except where permitted or required by applicable law, rule or regulation, or pursuant to a subpoena or order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction or requested by a judicial, administrative or legislative body. You have a continuing responsibility to safeguard and not disclose personal, proprietary and confidential information while working for the company and after ending your employment or association with the company.

A world full of conflict(s) When in doubt… ESCALATE