You are required to critically discuss the question below:
Are Financial Services mis-sold or mis-bought?
For a financial service of your choice, consider how this financial service is sold and operated by financial firms or advisors.
In your discussion please:
A) Provide a description of the product, its characteristics, suppliers and market.
B) What are the potential ethical concerns which exist in the method of selling and operating this financial service?
C) How might these ethical concerns be addressed by regulation or alternative practice by financial services firms?
This assignment will require some research and reading to both choose an appropriate market and reflect on and consider the ethical issues arising from this market’s operation.
The information for this assessment can come from a range of sources including appropriately referenced academic papers, regulatory sources and examples examined within the media. Building a link between the discussion and the wider academic literature is important within this assignment.
Suggested Readings for the assignment (to get you started).
Books
Hendry, J. (2013). Ethics and Finance. An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ISBN 978-1-107-61248-8
Boatright, J. R. (2014). Ethics in Finance. 3rd Edition. Wiley Blackwell, Chichester. ISBN 978-1-118-615282-9.
Academic papers
Aldridge, A. 1998. Habitus and cultural capital in the field of personal finance, The Sociological Review, 46(1) pp.1-23.
Ashton, J.K. and Hudson, R. (2014). “Do lenders cross subsidise loans by selling payment protection insurance?”, International Journal of the Economics of Business, vol. 21, no.1, pp. 121–138.