Abstract

As we move forward into the Third Millennium AD the perennial problem of unmanageable debt is still with us. As if to prove the point, in late November 1997, the Tokuyo City Bank in Japan closed down its business, reminding the world that default still stalks families, institutions and governments. It seems that little has been achieved in handling debt since 1216 when the Magna Carta limited the actions of bailiffs against debtors willing and able to make payment. Current literature about consumer credit, business finance and mortgages reveals the urgent need to tackle the ethics of borrowing and lending on some commonly understood and acceptable basis. In this book, the stewardship concept familiar in accounting, corporate governance, environmental strategy and Christian social ethics is analyzed to provide a framework. The book demonstrates that analysis of the concept of stewardship provides a set of resource-related social values which shed light upon ethical issues in debt management and enable the construction of a decision support model to secure improvements in debt management practice.