Culture in banking is one of the principal themes of this year's Banking and Payments Federation national conference.
A recent report by the Central Bank on culture in the banking sector found that Ireland's financial institutions have a "distance to travel" to become more customer focused.
Among the speakers at today's conference is Floris Mreijin, Deputy CEO of the Dutch Banking Association, who talked about efforts in the Netherlands to bring about a shift in the culture in banks.
He told Morning Ireland about a bankers' oath that was introduced there in recent years.
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"I got married a few years ago and exchanging vows in front of friends and family means a lot and many people recognise this. We have a bankers' oath ceremony where you make a solemn pledge in front of colleagues promising to always draw a careful balance between shareholders, customers, employees and society as a whole.
"We derived seven rules of conduct from the oath. There's an independent foundation for banking ethics enforcement. It's a disciplinary system."
The penalty for failure to adhere to the oath can be a fine or a year's professional disqualification.
It has been imposed in the past in cases where bankers copied signatures of clients or failed to disclose a big loss in trading.
Asked who the responsibility lay with for shifting the culture in bank, Floris Mreijin said it rested primarily with the banks themselves.
However, he said customers had a role to play in driving change too.
"Consumers will be more empowered in the future because of the rise of technology. Tech firms have come up with great solutions for customers so banks really need to compete to prevent losing customers. In that way, consumers will demand better levels of service and that will force banks to change," he concluded.
