Financial morality increased slightly during the pandemic

Over 90 percent of Poles are severely judged by the use of someone else's ID to take out a loan. In turn, 63 percent of them are able to justify undeclared work in order to avoid collecting debts from the salary, according to a new study by the Union of Financial Companies (ZPF). It also shows that half of Poles accept behaviors such as withholding information that prevents them from taking a loan or transferring property to the family to avoid paying debts.

"The level of acceptance for unethical behavior in finance has decreased over the last year, i.e. to the most fundamental question in the study whether paying back debts is always a moral obligation, last year 90 percent of respondents answered: yes, it is always a moral obligation. This percentage increased to 92 percent currently. These results were influenced by the pandemic. The society understood that in times of perturbations in the economy, ensuring the proper circulation of money is very important and any deviations from the norm may ultimately cause harm to both businesses and citizens, even in the field of social transfers," Marcin Czugan, president of the ZPF, indicated.

The Index for the Acceptance of Unethical Financial Behavior, i.e. a study of the financial morality of Poles, has been carried out cyclically for six years at the request of the ZPF. Its new edition shows that the acceptance of unethical behavior in finance has slightly decreased over the last year. On the other hand, the Covid-19 pandemic also made Poles more prone to justify immoral behavior, e.g. with a difficult financial situation or looking for the cause in the activities of offices, legal regulations, or high taxes.

(Newseria)