Article December 1, 2003 Issue

Integrity in financial markets

By Dave Hohle

PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD trust their savings to mutual funds. An increasingly popular investment option, these funds provide efficiency and diversification for millions of individual investors. More than 50,000 mutual funds are available today in more than 20 countries, and in the United States alone, one out of every three individuals owns mutual-fund shares. So recent news stories of fund managers enriching themselves at shareholders' expense have hit pretty close to home for many.

Isolated abuses or reason for concern?

According to the 2000 Organization Integrity Survey conducted by KPMG LLP, 48 percent of financial services employees in the US observed misconduct of a serious nature in their organizations. While actually slightly better than the same statistic across all industries, it's nonetheless a sobering piece of data.

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