ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the financial crisis and financial crime from a finance industry perspective. It explores the structure of the industry, the instruments traded and the role of the key players in an attempt to understand the basis for their interactions and the motivations for individual actions. The chapter also explores the central importance of financial markets and institutions to a successful economy and society, and seeks to understand the inherent institutional challenges around scale, complexity and information asymmetry. It considers the incentives of key players and the possible causes of things 'going wrong', such as systemic problems, poorly designed incentive structures, negligence, lack of training, unforeseen circumstances and, of course, criminal activity. The chapter also examines how key actors in the finance industry, regulators, financial institutions and professional bodies, have set in place systems and approaches around not just compliance but also integrity and ethics, in an attempt to reduce the possibility of a crisis in the next decade.
