Trust in the financial services sector starts at the workplace

Trust in the financial services isn’t a nice to have – it’s essential

Founder Simon Lamb believes “Trust in the financial sector isn’t a nice to have. It’s a strategic advantage. In a world of increasing regulation, complexity, and scrutiny, trust is the currency that underpins performance, not just reputation.

But let’s be clear. Trust isn’t about being liked. It’s about creating the conditions where truth can be told, decisions can be challenged, and people feel safe to do their best thinking. In finance, where the stakes are high and the consequences real, that kind of culture separates firms that endure from those that erode under pressure.

The role of regulation in building trust

You can’t regulate your way to psychological safety. It has to be built choice by choice, conversation by conversation.

And it’s not just about culture. It’s about process. In many financial institutions, good people have made poor or ethically compromised decisions not out of malice, but because the system rewarded silence, punished dissent, and prioritised staying safe. That’s what happens when compliance is valued over conscience.

At the same time, trust doesn’t mean freedom to act without scrutiny. In fact, high trust cultures are also high accountability cultures. It’s because we trust one another that we can challenge decisions, examine assumptions, and hold each other to a higher standard without blame.”

Simon’s Five Principles for Building Trust in Financial Services

1. Make the invisible visible

“Every organisation says it values integrity. But what’s really rewarded? What gets overlooked?”

Trust begins when we surface the gap between stated values and lived experience. In financial services, legacy hierarchies and compliance-heavy environments often reward confidence over competence or silence over challenge. Simon works with leaders to name these hidden norms and shift them.

2. Create systems for truth telling

“If people don’t feel safe to say what they see, trust dies in silence.”

Simon helps organisations embed structural psychological safety through leadership routines, peer challenge processes, and feedback mechanisms. Trust isn’t a feeling. It’s a design choice. Truth must be expected, not just permitted.

3. Close the loop

“The fastest way to destroy trust? Ask for feedback and do nothing.”

Trust is built in the follow through. In financial firms, leaders are often stretched and time poor, but even small visible responses to feedback show people their voice matters.

4. Reward vulnerability

“In a high performance culture, admitting you don’t know isn’t weakness. It’s leadership.”

In today’s volatile and AI disrupted landscape, people don’t trust false certainty. They trust clarity and openness. Simon promotes leadership cultures where it’s safe to say, I don’t know, but here’s what I’m thinking.

5. Integrate trust into performance

“Don’t bolt it on. Build it in.”

Trust must be embedded in performance systems, not just tacked on as an HR initiative. One investment firm Simon worked with reweighted their evaluation model to equally measure how results were achieved, not just what was delivered. That single shift created immediate changes in behaviour.

For more great insights, connect with Purposeful Change.