Bankers must focus on morals, says Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin
Welby, warns that bankers should consider whether
their practices are morally right

The Most Rev Justin Welby said Britain’s financial sector
was failing to share its profits Photo: Getty Images

Bankers are ignoring what is morally right because they
are focusing solely on whether practices are within the
law, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.
The Most Rev Justin Welby dismissed the idea that in
order to be “good”, businesses simply needed to abide
by rules, suggesting such an approach had been “utterly
disproved” by scandals in the financial sector.
In a speech to business leaders on Thursday he said
banks had confined their profits to the City and failed
to “care” for people outside of London.
The Archbishop, who sat on the parliamentary inquiry
into banking standards, said City investors had become
focused on a “number on a screen” instead of
considering the impact of their decisions on workers.
The Archbishop, a former oil executive, criticised the
principle of Milton Friedman, the free market
economist who inspired Margaret Thatcher’s economic
reforms, that a company’s sole focus should be
maximising profit.