An Interview with Sarah Dahlgren

A: The events of the 2008 Financial Crisis, together with several scandals that followed, made it clear that more work was needed to address some of the underlying issues that led to these events. We wanted to understand better what the drivers were — and wanted to work with the industry, academics, and others to take a closer look at culture as a potential driver of conduct within financial services. This led to the first of a series of conferences hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, starting in 2014.

This effort has now grown into the “Governance and Culture Reform” initiative — a multi-pronged approach that incorporates educational and training efforts, direct dialogue with the industry, and sharing of best practices across regulatory agencies, combined with the more public events like conferences, podcasts, etc. It’s been great to see the evolution in this effort and the continued contributions to the dialogue on conduct and culture in financial services. [See also In Focus Article Education and Ethics]