The financial services sector is perceived to be in the lower half of the ethical spectrum compared to other industries according to the Governance Institute’s 2021 Ethics Index, with its ‘ethics score’ placing it above the sole sector of financial services. resources, large companies and… the media.

The index, now in its sixth year, assesses the perception of ethics by the Australian adult population and the level of ethical behavior within Australian society through a series of surveys.

Across all sectors, the healthcare sector is seen as the most ethical in Australia with a net ethics score of 72, similar to its best score of 73 in 2020. Education came next (62) followed by charities and non-profit organizations (51) and agriculture (51).

Banking, finance and insurance get a net score of 4, while resources (2), large corporations (-5) and media (-17) complete the bottom of the table.

“In this industry, accountants are considered the most ethical … and mortgage brokers as the least ethical,” notes the index. “Payday lenders continue to be viewed as the least ethical organization [while] life insurance companies have also lowered their ethical scores.

Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed described the financial services industry as “somewhat unethical” or “very unethical”. Twenty percent said it was “not unethical or unethical” and 42% said it was either “somewhat ethical” or “very ethical”.

The media sector has seen the biggest perceived decline in ethics this year, scoring -17 far worse than the -3 it recorded in 2020.

Forty-nine percent of those polled described the media as “somewhat unethical” or “very unethical”, while 19% said they were “neither unethical”. ethical ”and 32% said they were either“ somewhat ethical ”or“ very ethical ”.