Narrative – Maria Victoria Lopez, a Metro bank executive, was arrested on July 18th after she was allegedly accused of counterfeiting signatures and breaking procedures to defraud the bank by trying to shift P2.25 million in interest from unsanctioned loans. Based on the report given by one of the company officials, the changed interest payments were one of two borrowings from a P2.25 billion pool. The suspect had been an employee of the bank for over three decades with a monthly salary of P250,000 as head of corporate services. Basing on the provided evidence, she can be tried for qualified theft, violation of banking laws, and falsification of documents. She is not cooperating or talking to anyone. She tried to direct the issuance of managers check to an individual who was a red flag since such kind of checks are only issued to corporate clients. The documents had many irregularities indicating falsification such as dubious signatures and different fonts. According to internal investigations conducted by the bank, clients can have loans with the bank or make transactions if they draw down. However, to their discovery, such loans were unknown to the clients.
According to viewers and analysts, the management should have been resilient enough to detect the discrepancies. A similar situation happened in February 2016 when unidentified hackers shifted $81 million from Bangladesh Foreign Reserves to a branch of RCBC in Makati city. Basing on the mentioned incidences, NBI representative implied that the most significant loss of the story is the integrity of the banking systems and the exposure of the weakness of the internal control systems of the bank. On the case of hacking, the BSP fined Yuchengco-Owned lender P1 billion by the BSP, and this exposed the vulnerabilities of the money laundering in the financial system.
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Analysis – From the case, it is evident that fraudulent activities took place primarily on the part of Maria Victoria Lopez who was the head of corporate services. While an assessment of her work – that of falsifying documents and diverting interest from unauthorized loans is an individual action or not. And despite the investigations on whether she was working alone or with other is still being conducted, the primary consideration regards to the consequences of her actions and the vantage points from which many have condemned her actions thus raising the question of morality. The present discussion focus bears both these in mind but does it imply that by maintaining her silence of individuality of what truly happened, is any circumstantial evidence valid, or the fear and speculation of falsification and committing fraud to customers may serve the present discussion of morality.
Considering this case, Immanuel Kant’s work on morality reminds us that the basis of morality is not within the empirical evidence, but regards the rationality of rational agents and human agents such that the expected consequences are to be later suspended. Lopez, the intelligent agent, in this case, frauds the bank and falsifies documents without thinking of the results of which seems to have proceeded from goodwill. Lopez actions are not justified, and it is hard to determine whether it was for the company and financial system benefits or personal gain. The basis of morality as regarded by Kant is good will, which defines the acts of the rational agents. It may be the duty of Lopez to continuously identifying corporate weakness. Lopez may act to fulfill part of her commitment accordingly, but she fails to act with respect for it. Kant provides the law of categorical imperative for the criteria for one’s morality assessment. The operations of individuals must only be operated under maxims that are universal to all rational agents, that which does not treat them as the means to an end but as the terms themselves. The maxims may represent the sensible agent’s will. Objectively analyzing the case, Lopez’s actions do not represent any maxim that is not universally possible.
Aquinas had a different approach to humanity, and according to his work, three factors can determine the morality of an act: the immediate purpose of the bill, or the objectum; the facts affecting the law, or the circumstantial, and the finish of the actor’s intention behind the act, or the immediate purpose of the act. In this case, Lopez’s object is to divert interest from unauthorized loans, and at this point, her actions are still justifiable as morally neutral. At the Finish the intention of Lopez becomes clear as she falsifies documents and diverts managers check to individuals; the actions start to change morals and becomes evil. The evil of the work is further supported by detailed that the available alternatives to Lopez’s actions could produce more corporate-like results and that, which could not harm the reputation of the bank and fraud customers. Financial systems do not show the intentions of employees, but there are financial guidelines and codes of conducts outlined to help employees define the ethics and morals of their actions in an organization. Basing on the three factors described by Aquinas it is straightforward to say that Lopez’s activity was immoral and does not uphold to human standards.
Aristotle argues that the concept of morals is a desire that regulates the characters of an individual that is at an average between high character traits. In this case, Lopez develops the immoral nature of fraud for the sake of a corrupt financial system. If she develops an excessive character trait by stealing from the customers, then charge her with qualified theft, which is a vice. When she does not exploit the opportunity, we say she is a coward, which is a vice. Therefore, Aristotle emphasizes that the moral lies between the extreme and non-extreme margins of individual traits. The good of humanity according to him is by attaining our distinctive self or end, which for us is the use of reason. Being a leader and in charge of a higher division as Lopez was, provides a significant influence in the development of reason, especially knowledge. The idea of engaging the right and engaging in the reflective decision-making process of the bank may pose a challenge to Lopez, and she may see opportunity in the documenting system of the firm. Morals, in this case, become challenging to define based on Aristotle’s arguments on character definition. Still though taking an opportunity to fraud the system is not morally right as it regards an extreme action. Besides, not reporting the flows of the order by a senior employee such as Lopez is also wrong and exploiting the advantage makes the character trait average is regarded as immoral.
