The Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks has endorsed a new initiative by the Jewish Association of Business Ethics (JABE) to encourage companies to become members of a network of businesses which recognise ethical business as good business.

Appropriately named Good Business Practice, the initiative will provide business leaders and their organisations with a set of “Guiding Principles for Ethical Business Behaviour”, plus other business-related material.

The Chief Rabbi said: “The current financial crisis is the time to reaffirm that markets needs morals; transactions require trust. In future, people will want to be assured that businesses are ethical, not just profitable, for if they are not, in the long run they will fail.”

Good Business Practice is being directed by Investec executive director Alan Tapnack, with Sir Trevor Chinn chairing the advisory panel.