ETHICS AND THE CREDIT INSURANCE INDUSTRY

The purpose of this report is to investigate whether ethics is important to the creditinsurance industry and to consider the role a code of ethics can play in helping to makebetter decisions.The conclusions that I reach are that ethics plays a vital role in building and sustaining ahealthy credit insurance business and that a well designed and managed ethics policy isan invaluable tool in running an ethical business and in protecting the reputation and longterm viability of a credit insurer.The report begins by providing - in part I - a brief outline of the major ethical theoriesincluding short reviews of the two closely related subjects of corporate governance andsustainable development. It continues by discussing the impact of ethics on business ingeneral. I commence the heart of the report by examining in part II ethics in the creditinsurance industry, by defining credit insurance and describing the special roles it playsin national and international economies. I then focus on the pertinent operational aspectsof a credit insurance business, i.e. marketing and sales, underwriting, claims and reinsurance with particular reference to the role ethics can and should play in each ofthem.By drawing together the outcomes of these various deliberations the basic guidelines forthe drafting of codes of ethics in the credit insurance industry will be developed(obviously each company has to design its own code in line with its own corporateculture, values and circumstances). Finally I attempt to show the benefits a well draftedand properly managed code can have for a credit insurer (part III).