Legal Research Of The Financial Institutions Social Responsibility

In 2008 economic crisis erupted, but financial institutions ignored social responsibility, based on this background this thesis summarized the basic theory of corporate social responsibility and expounded connotation and extension of social responsibility of financial institutions; analyzed the particularity of financial institutions, demonstrated the present legislation situation of the social responsibility of China's financial institutions. We compared the undertaking of social responsibility of foreign financial institutions and legislation rules to know the significance and influence of the undertaking of social responsibility on financial institutions, and put forward the legislation suggestions for the social responsibility of China's financial institutions. Modern financial institutions shall be in the pursuit of the maximum of their benefits (shareholders benefits), at the same time must give attention to social benefits, actively undertake their social responsibility. The financial institutions may undertake the social responsibility in different ways due to their particularity, should carry through social responsibility ideas to enterprise management ideas, so as to undertake social responsibility effectively.This thesis includes 5 parts. The first part outlined the theoretical basis of corporate social responsibility theory. Based on the origin and development of corporate social responsibility, it defined the basic concept of corporate social responsibility, cited the basic theory of corporate society responsibility, and discussed the theory of modern corporate society responsibility and the development of the company law. Theoretically, it provided the general of corporate social responsibility theory.The second part, from the perspective, provided the connotation and extension of the social responsibility of financial institutions, and the relationship with the legal responsibility. First of all, the connotation of financial institutions included 4 parts of banking, insurance, securities and other financial institutions; it expounded their industrial characteristics and the social responsibility to be undertaken, and gave the definition of the social responsibility of financial institutions. Secondly, it analyzed the extension of the social responsibility of financial institutions from responsibility level, industrial characteristics and stakeholders. The responsibility level included the economic responsibility, legal responsibility, moral responsibility and charity responsibility. They existed in financial institutions activities to constitute an integrated social responsibility system. The industrial characteristics mean that the financial institutions of banking, insurance and securities shall undertake different responsibility. Stakeholders included shareholders, employees, financial consumer, society and government. The financial institutions had to deal with the relationship with stakeholders, in order to achieve sustainable and stable development. Finally, legal responsibility was closely related with social responsibility, it was an important part of the social responsibility, the system guarantee to realize social responsibility and the development trend of social responsibility.The third part provided the background of the financial crisis, and analyzed the social responsibility of financial institutions. First of all, it compared the legislation of the social responsibility of foreign financial institutions, such as that of USA, UK. From the cause and influence of American financial crisis eruption indicated the lack of social responsibility consciousness. The United States is the earliest country of social responsibility legislation, after the financial crisis, the social responsibility was attracted more attention. American social responsibility legislation also influenced Britain, France and other countries;they had established social responsibility legislation. The establishment of international standard promoted the development of social responsibility, as SA8000 and AA1000 standard etc. Secondly, we discussed the present legislative situation of the social responsibility of our financial institutions and the related regulations. Although the legislation is just some guide articles, has not any coercive power, it still promoted the social responsibility undertaking of Chinese financial institutions. Finally, the American financial crisis gave us a lot of enlightenment, under financial crisis, the financial institutions undertaking social responsibility should be reflected in the internal cautious operation and sustainable development, control risk, grasp the credit risk, and have highly social responsibility consciousness in the establishment and development of financial derivatives.The fourth part mainly analyzed the significance and influence of the social responsibility on the financial institutions. It firstly provided the financial institutions' understanding to social responsibility; the financial institutions had weak consciousness of social responsibility, in order to pursue benefit maximization, only paid attention to the company management behavior but ignored the social responsibility undertaking, and only provided the social responsibility as a commercial behavior, rather than the legal behavior. Financial institutions should take social responsibility as their inherent responsibility. Secondly, the function, business scope and legal status of financial institutions determined the particularity of their social responsibility. Financial institutions undertaking their social responsibility has a lot of beneficial effects, which can effectively improve the development of enterprises, helpfully improve the social credibility of financial institutions, help enterprises to establish good brand image, build positive and healthy enterprise cultural development, and add productivity and cohesion for financial institutions.The last part provided the legislation suggestions of social responsibility for our financial institutions, discussed the necessity of social responsibility legislation in China and the present shortage in the relevant social responsibility, and gave some ideas for the shortage. The social responsibility legislation of our financial institutions at present is in exploration stage although supervision departments and companies study and try to promulgate the guide documents and bulletin of company's social responsibility.