Financial Trustworthiness and Transparency

Financial companies rely on the their trustworthiness and transparency – if their ratings can’t be trusted, whose can? In fact, McGraw Hill Financial is very proud of its values- here is their statement of core values:

“… our core values have remained constant. We help to create more knowledge that leads to smarter decisions by meeting critical needs for the intelligence, insights and analysis essential to helping individuals, markets and countries grow and prosper. We do this by promoting fairness, integrity and transparency. Those principles have guided us from the beginning and are carrying us into the future.”

This past week, McGraw Hill agreed to a $1.3 Billion fine to the SEC for committing acts that led to “false impressions of complex securities that were a key element of the recent US mortgage crisis.” Values/reality?

I can understand that at times companies cannot live up to their values, but presently McGraw continues to sponsor concerts on NPR and stills uses the tagline, “fairness, integrity and transparency.” Please!

James Abruzzo, Consultant, Consulting, Executive Search, Nonprofit Compensation, Expert Witness, Financial Trustworthiness