Wall Street could use remedial lectures on culture

WASHINGTON: Wall Street could use more remedial lectures on culture. The New York Federal Reserve, now led by John Williams, has been pushing to improve industry behavior for the last several years, and the problem still deserves top billing. Goldman Sachs's 1MDB mess is only one reminder the message hasn't totally sunk in despite the lessons of the financial crisis a decade ago. Slower economic growth in 2019 could expose more lapses.

Goldman faces criminal charges for the first time in the probe of Malaysia's sovereign fund. The bank reaped a healthy $600 million for arranging bonds for 1MDB. The Malaysian attorney general's office on Monday said it will seek jail terms for two ex-employees, along with more than $3.3 billion in fines. In the United States, Tim Leissner, former Goldman chairman of Southeast Asia, pleaded guilty in November to money laundering and corruption charges.

Williams' predecessor, Bill Dudley, made reforming bank behavior a theme. Starting in 2014, the New York Fed has held annual events featuring bank executives, board members and regulators. Since then, Wall Street firms have settled charges of manipulating Libor and foreign-exchange markets, while Wells Fargo grappled with a fake-accounts debacle.

It's up to Williams to carry the torch. At the New York Fed's last culture event in June, he said he's committed to the effort and a healthy economy shouldn't make banks complacent. Earlier this month, he said oversight should include how to improve industry behavior. Still, most of his public remarks this year have been on monetary policy.

An ethics reminder could also be handy as economic growth is projected to slow next year to 2.5 percent from 3.1 percent in 2018, according to the Fed. That could put pressure on Wall Street performance - and weakening markets have a habit of revealing shady behavior.

Dudley, like Williams, is an economist and had long focused on monetary policy. But as post-financial crisis scandals piled up, Dudley suggested various options for a cultural revolution, including setting up a database of bad actors. Whether that's still on the table or not, Goldman's 1MDB woes give Williams a good opportunity to badger his charges.