Glazer And Rexrode: Article Analysis

In the article, “As Regulators Focus on Culture, Wall Street Struggles to Define It,” the authors Emily Glazer and Christina Rexrode explain the problems with defining a certain one culture in big U.S. banks. Glazer and Rexrode quote numerous people from different organizations trying to get the gist of the problem. The first point in the article is a quote from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s president Thomas Baxter. He says, “… strong ethical culture will lead to better behavior.” However, the authors mention that culture is a difficult thing to measure. Susan Ochs, founder of the Better Banking Project, says “The industry is sort of having a culture moment.” As a part of her work she is working with bankers, consultants and regulators to develop some assessment tools that could be used across the industry based on her research. These assessments could include questions about how the task or general environment factors effect employees. According to the article, banks are already collectively spending millions of dollars on this. Glazer and

Comptroller of the Currency said, “Culture is a critical component of a sound management team.” Glazer and Rexrode add that it could also significantly affect his agency’s rating of a bank’s strength. The article then states that there have been ideas floating around such as putting banks on a driver’s-license-like “point system.” With this system the bank’s licenses could be pulled for a bad performance. Glazer and Rexrode also contribute the ideas of “fining bank chief executives, banning bad traders from the business or factoring compliance breaches into compensation aim to build a more personal sense of responsibility.” The last point in this article explains how Wells Fargo has added questions to its annual employee survey. They have done this to try to “understand whether employees refer the bank’s products to friends and family, and decipher the confidence in the