ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book sets out to smooth the way for the two-way update needed to solve problems and allow a return of a refined ethical thinking in the financial sector. Many actors and observers see an unbridgeable gap between ethics and responsibility and financial practice - even a contradiction in terms, or 'oxymoron', between ethics and finance. The book reviews the basic notions of 'finance', 'ethics' and 'responsibility' and identifies the interfaces between them. It outlines the main features of finance during the Thirty Euphoric Years, and recalls the historical dimension of the major ethical debates on the subject. The book focuses on the ethical dilemmas encountered by the main groups of actors in the financial sector. It explores a number of avenues for future action that will enable finance to regain its social legitimacy - but these will involve adaptations, some of them fundamental.
