To further sustain the gains achieved in the nation's banking sector reform, experts have canvassed the need for a review of the financial reporting formats of banks and other financial institutions, adding that it would as well incorporate all activities undertaken by banks.

Delivering a paper at the 2009 investiture of honorary senior members of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), President / chairman of council, Institute of Directors of Nigeria Mr. Chike Nwanze said the Judicial, Federal Inland revenue Service (FIRS), the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Corporate Affairs Commission as well as the Nigeria Stock Exchange have their respective roles to play in the ethical challenge being faced in the financial services sector.

With the topic "ethical challenges in the financial services industry: the role of professional bodies", Nwanze noted that ethics is a body of knowledge in Philosophy which is concerned with the right conduct and the good life. He said, in a developing economy such as the Nigerian economy, there are obviously various challenges confronting the financial services sector.

He said effective monitoring and supervision is the sine qua non for checking ethical challenge in the financial system. "The more ethically conscious we are, the better our business environment becomes. This requires closer collaboration and cooperation amongst the various regulatory authorities. In this regard, the collaboration between the Financial Services Regulation Coordinating Committee (FSRCC) and the professional bodies would be of immense advantage and is hereby canvassed.

"Given the efforts of the government to check ethical challenges through the existing regulatory, supervisory bodies, laws and measures; it has become imperative that professional bodies, as custodians of code of professional conduct for its practitioners, should rise up to partner with government towards enforcing good ethics and corporate governance in all facets of the economy. The need to resort to fundamentals of ethics of the various professions has become necessary. Ethics takes precedence over law and sets standards for it.

"For the professional bodies in Nigeria to remain relevant, maintain the dignity of their profession as well as attract recognition from their local and foreign counterparts; the question of ethics has to be re-addressed through capacity building and imposition of appropriate sanctions for professional misconduct of members.

"Good corporate governance is critical to their proper functioning of the financial system and the economy. The main antidote for director contamination through ethical lapses is a strong, independent-thinking board of directors. It is also necessary that directors should avoid compromising conflicts of interests in the discharge of their duties, "he said.

According to him, ethical challenges in the financial services sector are multidimensional in nature adding that there is need to adopt a multi disciplinary approach to solving its problem.

Nwanze noted that, there is need for the various supervisory bodies to adopt a more robust, proactive and sophisticated supervisory process based on risk profiling of the financial institutions under their purview.

To him capacity building in information and communication technology (ICT) is imperative for both the regulators/supervisors and players in the financial system. Examiners of Regulatory Institutions must acquire the skill to audit through computer systems using up-graded Audit Command Language (ACL) and computer Assisted Auditing Technique (CAAT).

He also identified ethical issues as a universal factor and has been with man from creation, adding that it is not peculiar to the financial services or Nigeria only, adding that it cuts across other sectors of the economy and needs to be addressed appropriately.

Nwanze noted that there are ethical issues in all professions, such as medicine, politics, law, engineering, public administration and of course financial services amongst others, both in developed and developing economies.

He said, just as the Nation is maturing politically, the financial services and other sectors are also maturing with the passage of time, even as he said the crisis facing the financial services industry and the business community is a challenge of ethics and lack of good corporate governance.

The ethical challenges that need urgent attention he said includes procedural lapses that result in fraudulent practices in the financial services industry.

"In the same vein, each professional body has its own ethics outlined in its Code of professional conduct and Bye-Laws, sworn to and held sacrosanct by its practitioners. While the professions differ in terms of the services they render and mode of operation of skill acquisition, one thing they have in common is good ethics.

"Ethics hopes to turn every one of us into intelligent, morally excellent, good and happy people by providing us with grand rules that guarantee success in life and in the profession we have chosen. Consequently, it is the breach of the grand rules of ethics that gives rise to ethical challenges. These ethical challenges are procedural lapses that result in fraudulent practices in the financial services industry," he said.

According to him, ethical challenges or fraudulent practices are found to exit in form of theft - the taking of another's possession forgery - the falsification of documentation manipulation of accounting records or entries and lending without collaterals.