On Wall Street, the pressure to perform and the ethical dilemmas that accompany it did not fade away with the insider trading scandals of the 1980s. As headlines in recent years attest, criminal proceedings, regulatory complaints, and customer litigation continue to mar the reputation of the banking and securities industries. This book is a forceful call to action for Wall Street leaders to strengthen and protect their shareholders' value by instituting and maintaining much higher professional standards. The authors-with their dozens of years as insiders on Wall Street-cast a revealing eye on corporate and individual conduct in financial institutions and markets. They identify the major issues of professional conduct confronting the banking and securities industries today- including misrepresentation, market rigging, insider trading, money laundering, whistleblowing, and conflicts of interests-as they recount the lessons of scandals and rogue behavior that have rocked even the most venerable firms on the Street. Smith and Walter argue that it is not enough for firms to rely on surveillance and compliance efforts to prevent their people from stepping over the line of legal and appropriate conduct; reputations in the finance world are too important. Connecting professional conduct to shareholder value, the authors call for immediate action. The industry, they contend, needs to create an environment in which each firm develops its leaders and individual managers to take responsibility for shaping and upholding the standards through creative and supportive employee development and retention programs. Nothing less than the future of the industry is at stake. Street Smarts will help bankers, securities analysts, traders, and investors understand what needs to be done now to foster an open, responsible corporate culture that creates long-term value and higher returns.

Roy C. Smith, a professor of entrepreneurship, finance and international business at New York University, has been on the faculty of Stern School of Business since 1987. Prior to 1987 he was a General Partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co., specializing in international investment banking and corporate finance. He received a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1960 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1966. The author of several books on international banking including The Global Bankers, published in 1989, which has been widely acclaimed, Mr. Smith is a frequent guest lecturer at business schools in the U.S. and in Europe. He and his wife Marianna live in Montclair, New Jersey.