Issue No. 162 (2nd quarter 2026), ‘Finance and Ethics’
The special issue was edited by A. Buresi, Presiding Judge of Chamber at the Rennes Court of Appeal, and Ch. Walter, Scientific Adviser to the Cercle Turgot and Associate Researcher at EHESS. It brought together 29 authors and 20 articles. The publication of the dossier led to a conference on 21 September at the Institut de France, which was chaired by J-C. Trichet (Chair of the Turgot Prize jury) and by P. Berès (Chair of the Europe-Finance-Regulation Association).
The publication is divided into four parts: Ethics, finance and behaviour of stakeholders; Ethics and business; Ethics and market finance; Ethics of the financial system. In each of the sections, the authors distinguish, on the one hand, the reprehensible behaviour of financial actors and the institutional mechanisms frameworks (civil and criminal) put in place to regulate them, and on the other hand, unethical biases – described as epistemic – introduced by financial systems and models into the functioning of organisations.
The authors specifically clarify the differences between the concepts of ethics, professional ethics, conflict of interest, social, civil and liability, market integrity, etc. They show that the presentation of non-financial data (ESG) is a new challenge for the Chief Financial Officer. They highlight the growing difficulty of balancing finance and performance, financial return return and collective objectives, responsible finance and sustainable investment… The authors trace the evolution of European and French law as applied to finance, in order to integrate compliance into the strategy and operations of the company, and to ensure compliance with the standards, codes and charters issued by the State and companies. The authors also endeavour to measure the contributions of AI to sustainability reporting and the alignment of management practices with compliance requirements.
The most interesting issue, which was highlighted by J-C. Trichet during the conference, concerned the ethics of the financial system, the organisation of which can lead to behaviours that are incompatible with the collective interest and whose some of its models contain biases .
The topic and the wealth of content in this special issue make it essential reading essential reading for regular readers of the Cercle and Turgot Club newsletter.
J-J. Pluchart