Behavioural influence by regulators: stimulating compliance and ethical behaviour of financial organisations

Non-compliance and unethical behaviour in the financial sector can have large impacts on the financial markets and thereby people’s lives. To create a healthy financial sector, regulators aim to stimulate organisations to act according to laws and regulations. However, how to reach this aim is not always clear. Therefore, this PhD project aims to find out how regulators can stimulate compliance and ethical behaviour of financial organisations. In particular, gaining knowledge on which psychological mechanisms make organisations comply according to the letter of the law. In addition, we want to find out which psychological mechanisms take it a step further: how to get organisations to behave ethically; in the spirit of the law. This is investigated from the perspective of a regulator, due to their pivotal role in the financial sector and the scarcity of scientific evidence on the effectiveness of regulators. As a result of the insights gained during this PhD project, we hope that regulators will be more effective in stimulating the right behaviour, which in turn benefits the financial condition of society.