Financial Crisis: What Will The Collapse of Investment Banking Mean For CSR?

In view of the current financial crisis, it is hard to grasp the fact that overnight investment banks once regarded the kings of Wall Street, are teetering on the edge of stability. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers has threatened the survival of Morgan Stanley in spite of the fact that it has just declared great earnings. All eyes are on Morgan and Goldman Sachs, the two big I-banks left standing. Will they go next? What will this mean for corporate social responsibility in the investment banking sector?

Investment Banks have long been the entrepreneurs of Wall Street. Sure they take risk but then look at the return that they bring. In a capitalistic society, who doesn’t respect the work of an entrepreneur? Time and again they have been instrumental for fueling the economy. A high return on investment has enabled many of the investment banks to show a solid to commitment to corporate social responsibility in the last few years:

Lehman Brothers partnered with Spelman College a year ago to create a center for Global Finance and Economic Development at the college to prepare women of African descent for successful careers and leadership in the corporate world.
Morgan Stanley announced last year the creation of the Morgan Stanley Carbon Bank to assist clients seeking to become carbon neutral.
Goldman Sachs has just announced 10,000 women, a series of non-profit and academic partnerships that provide business an d management education to women in Brazil, India, China and the Philippines.

There has been much question about the Fed refusing to bail Lehman out for a paltry amount in comparison to what it was willing to pay to bail out AIG. Although their claim is that it is not socially responsible to bail out an investment bank with taxpayer dollars, the larger questions lies in that is it socially responsible for the Fed to allow the entrepreneurs of Wall Street to fail when they are actually working to serve society by demonstrating commitment to CSR?

Much as ‘I-Banking’ might be a bad word right now, I will personally be sorry to see the collapse of an industry that has supported Wall Street for the better part of a century. I hope that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs can weather the storm of the financial crisis.

Photo credit: Google

This post was previously published on Ecopreneurist.com