Global ethics prize builds on success

After a very successful launch in 2006-7, the Robin Cosgrove Prize for Ethics in Finance is now open for the 2008-9 edition.

The global prize aims to promote greater awareness among young people with an interest in the banking and related financial industries of the benefits of ethics in finance.

The Robin Cosgrove Prize for Innovative Ideas for Ethics in Finance is open to young people, aged 35 years or younger, from throughout the world. The goal is to promote the vision of Robin, an investment banker who died tragically young at aged 31. The competition invites creative papers setting out analyses, projects or proposals for innovative ways to promote ethics in finance and banking, especially in emerging markets.

The winners of the 2006-7 Robin Cosgrove Prize were jointly Ms Clare Payne of Macquarie Bank in Australia who wrote on the theme “Ethics or Bust : Beyond Compliance” and Mr Jonathan Wisebrod of Villari in Singapore who wrote about “Social Impact Ratings”. The seven best papers submitted for the 2006-7 Prize were published in FINANCE & THE COMMUN GOOD/BIEN COMMUN [Geneva,2007] and may be found online on the website.

The management of the Prize is under the supervision of the Observatoire de la Finance/International Finance Observatory, which is a Swiss not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva.

The Observatoire, working in cooperation with Dr Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Robin’s mother and a former director in the United Nations in Geneva, has set up a distinguished international Jury to evaluate the papers submitted for the Prize. The Jury will allocate the prize money of USD20,000.

Entries for the competition for the Prize are invited to address the subject of Innovative Ideas for Ethics in Finance. The papers must be submitted electronically to the Observatoire before the deadline of midnight, 31st March 2009 (CET). The entries may be written in English or in French, or in another language with a translation into English or French.

Applicants for the Robin Cosgrove Prize should complete an Expression of Interest which can be found on the website. www.robincosgroveprize.org

The organisers of the prize would be pleased to link the website to other sites that could be helpful in promoting awareness of ethics in finance and knowledge about the Prize as part of our global outreach programme – please contact us info@robincosgroveprize.org

Further details regarding the Prize, Robin’s vision, the international Jury, and the terms and conditions for submitting papers for the 2008-9 Prize will be found at the website.