An online survey conducted by New York law firm Labaton Sucharow of 250 financial professionals revealed the following:

• 52 percent felt it likely their competitors had engaged in unethical or illegal activity to gain a market edge.
• 29 percent believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal activity in order to be successful.
• 24 percent said they would likely engage in illegal insider trading to make $10 million if they could get away with it.

The survey concluded: "A particularly troubling and consistent finding throughout the survey is that Wall Street's future leaders—the young professionals who will one day assume control of the trillions of dollars that the industry manages—have lost their moral compass, accept corporate wrongdoing as a necessary evil and fear reporting this misconduct."