The End of "The Wall Street Underdog" and a Happy New Year

There are great stories in the business world of people who overcame adversity and worked their way into great positions of power. Bill Gates and his college record, the Google founders starting in a garage, and many other stories fill people's hopes and dreams as they yearn to do great things in the business world. Nowhere was this more true than in the financial world where, despite the appearance of needing a certain pedigree, people have always emerged from various socioeconomic levels and circumstances to become titans of the industry.

That seems like it will soon be changing according to Business Insider (H/T Wendy). A string of incidents in which hard-working back-office employees were promoted to traders, and alter committed fraud have had some financial institutions second-guessing decisions to promote just anyone to positions of power. But Business Insider cautions what I would caution all financial institutions:

This is not to say that all back-office employees have intentions to defraud their employers.  However, employers need to do whatever it takes to reduce this risk.  Many include criminal background checks.  Some employers even require credit checks, as poor credit is sometimes associated with those likely to commit white collar crime.

This certainly will stop certain people in the population from getting positions of power at certain organizations and it may seem intrusive to some, but the truth of the matter is that in lieu of just rejecting anyone who doesn't come from Harvard or Yale, these types of measures will allow banks to feel more secure with handing over the keys to those they may have worried about otherwise.
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I wanted to take this opportunity to wish a very Happy New Year (a Shana Tova) to all our Jewish readers who will be celebrating this weekend. To our readers of all religions, we hope you have a very prosperous and happy new year.