CSR 481 · Spring 2026 Heo & Grable · Ethics & Compliance · Ch. 12
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Real-World Case Studies in Ethics & Compliance

Six landmark failures in the financial services profession — from the London Whale to Wells Fargo — analysed through the lenses of oversight, behaviour, and regulatory consequence.

Section i

Five cross-cutting themes

Use as your anchor

The six cases in Chapter 12 do not stand alone. They converge on five lessons that recur across every misconduct scenario you will encounter as a financial professional. Use this map to ensure your analysis connects case-specific facts to chapter-level lessons.

01
Robust oversight prevents systemic failures
Trade surveillance, automated alerts, escalation procedures, and supervisory review must be designed and enforced — not merely documented.
02
Transparency as the foundation of trust
Plain-language disclosure of fees, commissions, and conflicts of interest. Fiduciary duty made visible — never buried in fine print.
03
Ethical culture as bulwark against misconduct
Visible leadership commitment, ethics embedded in performance metrics, case-based training, and open-dialogue workshops.
04
Client protection as core professional duty
Treat client data, assets, and interests with the same rigour as you would your own. Cybersecurity is an ethical obligation, not just an IT problem.
05
Whistleblower protections enhance accountability
Secure and anonymous channels, non-retaliation policies backed by leadership, and independent compliance review.
· · ·

Best practices for compliant & ethical organisations

Comprehensive compliance systems

Trade surveillance, AML/KYC verification, data security protocols, automated RegTech alerts, and clear escalation procedures.

Culture of ethics

Visible leadership commitment; ethics embedded in performance metrics; case-based training; open-dialogue workshops.

Transparency and disclosure

Plain-language client disclosures of fees, commissions, and conflicts; fiduciary duty explained; no buried fine print.

Risk-management frameworks

Stress tests, scenario analyses, automated alerts for high-risk accounts, enhanced due diligence for politically exposed persons (PEPs), and reporting to senior management.

Whistleblowing & reporting

Secure and anonymous channels; non-retaliation policies backed by leadership; independent compliance review and escalation.

Continuous education

Annual certifications, case-based modules, interactive behavioural-bias workshops, and training tied to performance evaluations.

Section ii

The six cases

Click any case to expand
Section iii

Knowledge check — 30 questions

Drawn from the textbook appendix
These questions correspond directly to the Concept Check appendix of Chapter 12 in Heo & Grable (2026). Pick a case to filter, or work through all thirty. Your progress saves locally to your browser, so closing the tab will not erase it.
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Section iv

Case-analysis workshop

From the Table-Team Discussion Guide

Choose one case. Work through the analysis worksheet. Your responses save automatically. When you are ready, export your answers as a draft for your team report.

Section v

Behavioural bias identifier

Drag a bias to its scenario

Each scenario below describes a moment from one of the six cases. Match the dominant behavioural bias to each. Some biases appear more than once — that is the point.

Behavioural biases

Case scenarios

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