Jefferies CEO Warns of ‘Bad Behaviors’ Returning

Bankers and investors need to ensure they don’t repeat “bad behaviors” that contributed to the credit crisis as the financial-services industry embraces greater risk, said Richard Handler, chief executive officer of Jefferies Group LLC.

“People who take short cuts, are political, prioritize themselves above others, take excessive risks for personal gain, don’t value capital, or are unethical are outright cancers,” Handler, 53, also CEO of Jefferies’s parent company, Leucadia National Corp., said in his quarterly letter to clients. “These types of people will not only flourish in the next crisis, but most probably they will cause it.”