LONDON (Bloomberg) — HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Stephen Green urged bankers to consider the "common good" in business decisions, saying former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 1987 remark that society didn't exist was wrong.

Green, speaking at an event in London organised by the Council of Christians and Jews, dismissed the "market fundamentalist creed" that dominated economics after the fall of the Berlin Wall two decades ago.

"The famous phrase for this is actually attributable to Margaret Thatcher, who said, notoriously, 'There is no such thing as society, there are only individuals'," Green said. "Wrong with a capital 'W', I would suggest."

The HSBC chairman is engaged in a public debate on banking and ethics that was spurred by Financial Services Authority chairman Adair Turner, who in August said the financial crisis had exposed some banking activities as "socially useless".

The worst financial crisis since World War II and the UK government's bailout of lenders, including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc, is one of the main political issues in a national election that must be called by June. London-based HSBC didn't tap government bailout funds.

"A sense of how the business we do contributes to the common good is something we have probably lost sight of in the last decade or two, but you cannot lose sight of," said Green, 61. "I don't think either businesses or individuals can duck what you might call their social responsibilities."

Barclays Plc chief executive officer John Varley said earlier this month that "profit isn't satanic" as he defended his bank's social role in a lecture at London's St. Martin-in- the-Fields church.

Brian Griffiths, Margaret Thatcher's former adviser and now an adviser to Goldman Sachs International, said in October that "inequality" is "a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all".

Green said that well-regulated capitalist markets are the best system for boosting global prosperity and fighting poverty.

"Markets cannot be self-policing," he said. "You need regulation from the public domain."

Peter Levene, chairman of insurance market Lloyd's of London, said at the debate that executives should look at how 19th century capitalists used philanthropy as a way of making a wider contribution.

"They made huge profits, but they considered a lot more than their bottom line," Levene said.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and billionaire Warren Buffett last week created a $500 million programme to help US small businesses as the New York-based bank sought to counter criticism for setting aside billions of dollars to pay bonuses a year after it received a taxpayer-funded bailout.

Financial companies need to rebuild public trust in the City of London, the British capital's financial district, UK Treasury Minister Paul Myners said at the debate.

"We need to renew faith in the City," Myners said. "The values we embrace need to be articulated and applied." HSBC adopted a recommended London minimum wage of £7.60 ($12.70) an hour for workers at its headquarters, said Neil Jameson, executive director of London Citizens, a non-profit that promotes the minimum salary. The group tonight will hold a meeting where 2,000 people will debate poverty and banking, Jameson said. Green was invited, though he isn't expected to attend.

"It's unfortunate that he isn't coming and isn't sending a representative," Jameson said.