Ethics and the credit insurance industry
Date
2007-03-02T12:09:01Z
Authors
Leisewitz, Christoph Theodor Lutz
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Abstract
The purpose of this report is to investigate whether ethics is important to the credit
insurance industry and to consider the role a code of ethics can play in helping to make
better decisions.
The conclusions that I reach are that ethics plays a vital role in building and sustaining a
healthy credit insurance business and that a well designed and managed ethics policy is
an invaluable tool in running an ethical business and in protecting the reputation and long
term viability of a credit insurer.
The report begins by providing - in part I - a brief outline of the major ethical theories
including short reviews of the two closely related subjects of corporate governance and
sustainable development. It continues by discussing the impact of ethics on business in
general. I commence the heart of the report by examining in part II ethics in the credit
insurance industry, by defining credit insurance and describing the special roles it plays
in national and international economies. I then focus on the pertinent operational aspects
of a credit insurance business, i.e. marketing and sales, underwriting, claims and reinsurance with particular reference to the role ethics can and should play in each of
them.
By drawing together the outcomes of these various deliberations the basic guidelines for
the drafting of codes of ethics in the credit insurance industry will be developed
(obviously each company has to design its own code in line with its own corporate
culture, values and circumstances). Finally I attempt to show the benefits a well drafted
and properly managed code can have for a credit insurer (part III).
Description
Student Number : 0215239Y -
MA research project -
School of Social Sciences -
Faculty of Humanities
Keywords
business ethics, morality, applied ethics