A speech given by Sir David Walker at the Tomorrow's Company lecture on 'Stewardship in practice: Renewing behaviours and changing cultures in the City' - this was given on 19th May at Gresham College, London.

Nature and Ethics by F. David Peat.Paper given  to Centromarca; Italy association of leading brand names."When, in the late 17th Century, bankers, merchants and shippers met in Edward Lloyd's Coffee House they carried out their transactions based on the principle of "my word is my bond". Indeed in English law a verbal agreement, sealed by a handshake, was legally binding, the written contract being only a memorandum of what had been agreed upon by both parties. This was the world analyzed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo in their theory of the market place. It was a market, as Ernesto Illy has often pointed out, based on three invisible pillars of Trust, Honesty and Respect, ethical principles that were taken for granted in that period".

Our two main recommendations are to reword and extend the Combined Code so that it truly encompasses the responsibilities of investors alongside those of boards and better reflects cultures, values and behaviours in the assessment of risk and allocation of rewards 

The London G-20 Summit, April 2nd, marked a useful new beginning for multi-lateralism.  The eclipsing of the G-8 was as necessary for the world as the new informal proposals by China, India, Russia and Brazil for a new global reserve currency to complement the US dollar and the euro.