ANZ Bank's Ethical Challenges: A Case Study Essay.

The ANZ Bank and its Controversial Association with a Cambodian Sugar Plantation

Discuss about the Perspective In Virtue Ethics And The Positive Social.

The concerned report deals with the branch of ‘Business Ethics’. In this report, a well reputed banking institution has been used as the medium of reporting the various aspects of business ethics. ANZ bank has been used as the relevant bank for this report. It is one of the top 100 banks in the world. Its service spans across 5 million customers worldwide and employs more than 28,000 people. Its primary markets include Australia and New Zealand. In this paper, a real life situation has been stated in connection with the ANZ bank and the ethical scenario of the situation has been explained with the help of the virtue ethical theory. The ANZ bank has been under fire for granting loans to controversial Cambodian sugar plantation. The plantation has been reportedly been involved in child labour, military-backed grabbing of land, forceful evictions and acute food shortages. The responsibilities of the agent (ANZ’s CEO) in accordance with the ethical theory of Virtue theory have been done. The various aspects of the company’s association with this unethical plantation have been discussed.

The ANZ bank is a bank of high social and international repute. The bank has entangled itself in a controversial situation by providing loans to a plantation in Cambodia and this has caused a major uproar in the international media. This revelation has raised questions over the bank’s compliance with its banking codes of conduct and its overall ethical conduct. The details of the case have been stated below.

ANZ has reportedly been financing a Cambodian sugar plantation named Phnom Penh that has been involved in various unethical activities such as child labour, land grabbing by militants, forced evictions and even food shortages. It is owned by Ly Yong Phat, who is Cambodia’s richest man and a senator of its ruling political party (Baker, 2018). This association has been disclosed in the confidential audits and it also shows that the plantation has been linked to a series of social and environmental problems. The various problems are:

• More than 1000 families have been forced from their homes in 2010 to make way for this plantation (Wilkins, 2018).
• Inadequate compensation have been given in exchange of the lands.(Richard Baker, 2018).
• The resettlements sites were located in infertile lands as a result of which the families have faced acute food shortages.
• The children who are of the school going age have been seen working on the sugar cane fields to help their families to earn income for sustenance instead of attending their classes.
• The audits have also disclosed that Mr. Phnom’s company has failed to provide proper food and resettlement to the displaced families.
• The company has also not provided proper environmental, health and social management programs which are compulsorily required in accordance with ANZ’ s ethical responsibilities.

As a result of these non ethical events, the company has been under fire. The ANZ is believed to have paid millions of dollars to the Cambodian subsidiary, ANZ Royal bank. The Royal bank is owned by Cambodian tycoon Kith Meng who is one of the close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The corrupt nexus has been blatantly exposed (Roden, 2014). The voices of the displaced families have been drowned in the politics of greed.

Virtue ethical theory has a significant bearing on this project. It is a kind of normative ethical theory. Here the emphasis is laid not on the rules, action, and its consequences but on the contrary it places its focus on the person who is performing the given task at the moment. Here the prime focus is laid on the individual or the agent who is in charge of the situation. His or her responsibilities and ethical bend of mind is important in the arena of virtue ethics. What is important is that whether or not the person concerned is expressing a good and moral character with virtues or not. A person’s character traits sum up his or her character. These character traits can be good, bad admirable or non admirable in nature and it is these traits which make up a person’s character on the whole (Hartman, DesJardins & MacDonald, 2014). The traits which are good and admirable in nature are known as the virtues and the bad ones are called vices. Virtues help in fulfilling one’s innate potential, on the contrary vices destroys a person. Some important features of character traits are mentioned below:

• According to Bright et al., (2014) Character traits are generally a certain kinds of habits which become a part of a person’s character and sticks to him or her like a shadow. They are known as secondary nature (as humans are not born with these traits, they develop it over time). It is therefore said that infants who are born are neither virtuous nor have vices in them.
• These character traits are not with us. We discover these as a result of selective actions which we undertake in the course of everyday life. We develop the habit of lying or telling the truth only because of the habit of constant lying or telling of truth.

Virtue Ethical Theory and its Implications for ANZ Bank

Intellectual ethics refer to the intelligent bent of mind or rather the intellectualness of one’s brains. It refers to the ability to understand, judge and perfect reasoning (Ferrell& Fraedrich, 2015). It is not innate or inbred in nature but on the contrary it is taught.

Moral virtues are an indispensable part of virtue ethics. The various kinds of moral ethics are an integral form of virtue ethics (Vaughn, 2015). The various forms of moral virtues which are essential hallmark of the virtue ethical theory are as follows:

• Truthfulness
• Liberality
• Rightful ambition.
• Magnificence
• Magnanimity
• Temperance
• Modesty
• Wittiness
• Rightful indignation.

All these forms of moral virtues are very important and form a major constituent of the internal framework of virtue ethics.

Shayne Elliott who is the Chief Executive Officer of ANZ bank has been selected as the agent of this report. All the important deals and financial transactions which require a substantial amount of money should be conducted with the approval of the CEO of the company. In this case, where the ethical obligations and the overall reputation of the company is at stake, the complete approval and permission of the CEO becomes all the more essential for the company. Although, such an important deal cannot escape the eyes of the CEO, so it becomes the moral responsibility of the CEO and the board of directors of the company to ensure that the moral and ethical responsibilities of the companies are fulfilled at the earliest. The responsibilities and his ethical obligations in accordance with the values of the virtue ethical theory have been explained below:

Integrity: Integrity refers to the honesty truthfulness and accuracy of a person’s action. Shayne Elliot does not show integrity to his company ANZ, where he was a Board of Director as well as the reigning CEO. Instead he indulged into politics of greed and let Mr. Penh have his say in the entire deal. It was the CEO’s responsibility to take note of this and abstain from indulging his as well as the company’s name in this corrupt transaction which led to unethical operations of such a large scale.

Trust: Mr. Elliot broke the trust of the other Directors on ANZ’s board. He also had broke the trust of the various stakeholders of the company which includes its loyal customers, financers, investors, government and the international banking community at large.. His passiveness towards this entire corrupt operation has seriously affected the relationship with the banking community.

Fairness: Shayne Elliot’s actions are not fair for two reasons. First, other investors who do not have any idea or information about this deal are at a significant amount of disadvantage. Second, he uses the information entrusted to him to help Mr. Penh and his corrupt business associates who have expanded their business interests at the expense of the poor displaced people of Cambodia.

Honesty: He was not at all honest with ANZ as well as with his fellow board members. He never disclosed this deal to the various stakeholders of the company which has significantly hampered the company’s reputation at large.

The options available to the CEO of the company can be broadly stated below:

• Conduct a thorough investigation of the scenario: The CEO should initiate a thorough investigation of this case so as to ensure that the ethical confidence of the company’s various stakeholders is not diminished. This investigation should be impartial in its nature and it is one of the important aspects of the virtue ethical theory.
• Calling off the deal: The Company has suffered tremendous loss of reputation in the international arena. It is recommended that the CEO call of this deal with Mr. Penh and his corrupt business associates.
• Returning of the land and other amenities: The affected families have suffered tremendously due to the corrupt business practices of Mr. Penh and his company. The loss of land, absence of quality food, and child labour has significantly caused a serious upset in the lives of these displaced families. The best way to deal with this issue is to return all the fertile lands to their rightful owners.
• Performing CSR activities: Corporate social Responsibility is an important management tool which reflects the ethical responsibilities of a company. Mr. Elliot can initiate the various kinds of CSR activities of the company to help all the affected families to rehabilitate themselves into their former homes. Setting up of schools, returning the fertile lands to their owners, providing quality food to these people will help the company in a long way.

Conclusion:

ANZ is one of the most reputable banking companies in the world. It is considered as one of the top hundred companies all over the globe. In this kind of a scenario, the company has engaged in an unethical deal which has significantly affected its reputation in the international business community. The company had provided loans of considerably high amount to Mr. Penh’s company but the company has been accused of displacing families, grabbing the lands and this has led those families suffer from the lack of food and have forced their children to undertake work instead of studies to support their families. ANZ should immediately take stern action against this company and should refrain from providing loans to companies which do not have any ethical responsibilities and consideration in performance of their duties.

References:

Bright, D. S., Winn, B. A., & Kanov, J. (2014). Reconsidering virtue: Differences of perspective in virtue ethics and the positive social sciences. Journal of Business Ethics, 119(4), 445-460.

Caldwell, A. (2018). ANZ embroiled in Cambodian sugar land grab. ABC Radio. Retrieved 14 March 2018, from https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/anz-embroiled-in-cambodian-sugar-land-grab/5216194

Ferrell, O. C Fraedrich,., & J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education.

Hartman, L. P., DesJardins, J. R., & MacDonald, C. (2014). Business ethics: Decision making for personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Jayawickreme, E., Meindl, P., Helzer, E. G., Furr, R. M., & Fleeson, W. (2014). Virtuous states and virtuous traits: How the empirical evidence regarding the existence of broad traits saves virtue ethics from the situationist critique. School Field, 12(3), 283-308.

Richard Baker, N. (2018). ANZ under fire for loans to controversial Cambodian sugar plantation. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 March 2018, from https://www.smh.com.au/national/anz-under-fire-for-loans-to-controversial-cambodian-sugar-plantation-20140122-3196z.html

Roden, D. (2014). Big banks helping grab land from poor. Green Left Weekly, (1008), 13.

Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton & Company.

Wilkins, G. (2018). ANZ faces calls for compensation over Cambodian sugar plantation deal. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 March 2018, from https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/anz-faces-calls-for-compensation-over-cambodian-sugar-plantation-deal-20140806-100w03.html