FINANCIAL WRITERS SOCIETY CODE OF ETHICS
Financial writers provide information that could affect financial decision making and therefore people’s financial well-being. As a result, FWS has developed a Code of Ethics to ensure its members supply information that is accurate, unbiased and well-informed.
This code is not intended to supersede any ethics policies established by corporate members, the organizations that employ individual members or entities that otherwise govern the actions of members. Instead, it is designed to ensure that members act with the utmost integrity and fairness.
It is the obligation of all financial writers to write and report the truth. Any activity that would take away from this obligation is unethical. In addition, members must put substantial due diligence toward avoiding not only conflicts of interest, but also any appearance that these conflicts exist.
This code is not intended to supersede any ethics policies established by corporate members, the organizations that employ individual members or entities that otherwise govern the actions of members. Instead, it is designed to ensure that members act with the utmost integrity and fairness.
It is the obligation of all financial writers to write and report the truth. Any activity that would take away from this obligation is unethical. In addition, members must put substantial due diligence toward avoiding not only conflicts of interest, but also any appearance that these conflicts exist.
To ensure the aforementioned standards are met, the code contains several provisions:
- A member shall only represent a matter as fact if it is indeed factual to the member's best knowledge at the time.
- No individual member shall write about a subject without having the requisite knowledge. When taking on an assignment, they will conduct the necessary research.
- No individual member will buy or sell assets (defined as securities and/or digital assets), or take any other action to profit from information privately available through his or her job, until after that information has been made publicly available.
- Individual members working as writers or editors will not provide information to anyone outside their employer or client either to profit or obtain an unfair market advantage.
- Individual members must disclose asset transactions to their employers as specified by their employers' policies.
- Individual members shall not accept assets as a form of compensation for financial writing work. Employer-sponsored investment plans are exempt from this rule.
- Individual members must refuse any preferential treatment, favors and gifts that could either influence their judgement or create the appearance of such.
- Individual members should not write or make editorial judgements about companies or industries in which they knowingly have any financial interest without following proper disclosure procedures as mandated by their employer or client, including those set forth by any relevant regulatory agencies.
- Individual members must not accept honorariums or other compensation for public appearances, speeches or articles from any group or organization they would not ordinarily cover.
- No individual member shall endorse any product, program or service for any remuneration unless the endorsement is disclosed and upholds the ideals of FWS.
- Confidential sources should be kept as secret as possible within the bounds of the relevant publishing organization's policies and procedures, as well as the reliability of the source. While disclosing a source’s identity to a supervisory editor may be a common practice for determining that source’s reliability, individuals should never reveal a confidential source’s identity to evaluate how his or her statements could affect the publishing organization’s financial revenue or business operations.