Joe Withers is the chief financial officer for Withco plc responsible for negotiating bank loans. It has been the practice to obtain loans from a number of merchant banks. He has recently met Ben Billings who had been on the same undergraduate course some years earlier. They agree to meet for a game of squash and during the course of the evening Joe learns that Ben is the chief loans officer at The Swift Merchant Bank.
During the next five years Joe negotiates all of the company's loan requirements through Swift, and Ben arranges for Joe to receive substantial allocations in initial public offerings. Over that period Joe has done quite well out of taking up allocations and selling them within a few days on the market.
Required:
Discuss the ethical issues.