The internal autonomy of the firm

Banks and financial institutions have been excoriated in recent years for having bad firm cultures. However, when faced with the prospect of regulation of the culture of their organisation, banks and financial institutions frequently claim that their internal organisation should be free from outside interference – that they should be autonomous. Government reports echo this claim. This article interrogates it. The article suggests that such claims rest on political liberalism, economic theory or legal impossibility. On examination, none of these bases survives as unassailable although they are conceded to have seized the debate. From this point, the essay moves to consider how the policy debate might be reconceived to make a more sophisticated discussion possible.