Revue internationale des sciences économiques et de gestion

An Essay on the Ethical and Corporate Governance Issues in the 2003/4 Zimbabwean Banking Crisis

Abstract

Davis Nyangara, Melody R Nyangara and Batsirai W Mazviona

This paper reviews the ethical and corporate governance issues that characterized the 2003/4 Zimbabwean banking crisis. There are contrasting views on the legal and moral roots of the crisis, and consequently, different analysts have come up with different assessments of the morality and professional propriety of measures adopted by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), as bank regulator, in response to the developments in the banking industry. While there is an almost universal acknowledgement among analysts that corporate governance and ethical shortcomings contributed to the crisis, there appears to be no universal theory justifying the response of the regulator. A critical review of the events surrounding the crisis, with some benefit of hindsight, points to a form of collective responsibility among bankers, regulators, and politicians. This analysis draws on deontological and teleological ethical theories to assess the resolution of the myriad of ethical dilemmas that characterized the period before and during the crisis. The analysis also relies on legal and prudential guidelines on good governance in banking institutions, in particular the Banking Act (Chapter 24:20).